The 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Court-Martial Case Files, 2nd edition

by David Williamson

Overview

The nine court-martial cases included here were compiled and transcribed verbatim by the author/editor from copies of the original, hand-written, case files as a supplement to his book, "The 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry: A Civil War History," McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 2012. The case files of the four officers and seven soldiers presented here comprise all of the court-martial records for the 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry found by the Index Project at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. These court-martial cases provide an unabridged example of the application of Civil War military law in one infantry regiment active in the field throughout the war.

The cases include: 1."One Bully Down" -- A soldier/civilian encounter in Memphis, TN. 2. "An Officer's Privilege" -- The rights of enlisted men in the field. 3. "A Pretty Wild Boy" -- How the court dealt with rambunctious soldiers. 4. "Back Home Again in Indiana" -- An early case of absence without leave. 5. "The Misbehaving Soldiers" -- The regiment's only case on record of soldier misconduct in battle. 6. "The Knight-Errant" -- Differences of opinion among the lawyer-officers of the 47th Indiana. 7. "The Cantankerous Cook" -- Violent disputes among enlisted men. 8. "The 'Pugelistick' Champion of the State of Indiana" -- Defining "enlistment" and "desertion" in a volunteer regiment. 9. "The Misplaced" -- Trouble with paperwork during wartime.

The second edition includes additional information on the death of Pvt. Jonathan Benefiel and for added clarity the addition of a semicolon to the last sentence of the first full paragraph on page 56: "On the 1st day of May and during the fight at Port Gibson the proof is that the Defendant was in Hospital day and night assisting the surgeon and nurses in alleviating the suffering of the wounded soldiers; at the Battle of Champion Hills we find the Defendant again in the Hospital day and night attending the wounded soldiers."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940161257203
Publisher:	Kirkbride, Keagy, Johnston, Perrott, and Rose
Publication date:	01/28/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	162 KB

About the Author

Other books by David Williamson: The Third Battalion Mississippi Infantry and the 45th Mississippi Regiment: a Civil War History (McFarland, 2003, 2009) and The 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry: A Civil War History (McFarland, 2012). Two other books, while they stand alone, also supplement the author's history of the 47th Indiana: Slack's War-Selected Civil War Letters of General James R. Slack, 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, to His Wife, Ann, 1862-1865 (CreateSpace, 2012); the first and second editions of The 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry-Court-Martial Case Files (CreateSpace, 2012, 2015), and a Spanish translation of the second edition entitled "Consejos de Guerra" (CreateSpace, 2015). On a lighter note, Williamson has also authored a book of stories about a cat that he and his wife rescued years ago called, Dear Lucky: Letters to Our Cat (CreateSpace, 2013) with color action photos by Brenda. Most recently, he has published a family history and genealogy series: The Ancestors and Descendants of David Williamson and Mary Wiseman of Lanarkshire, Scotland; The Descendants of William Gettemy of Donegal, Ireland, and Sarah Williams of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania; The Descendants of Eli Rose and Hannah Jenkins of Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey; The Descendants of John Rudolph "Hance" Keagy of Zurich, Switzerland, and Rebecca Patterson of Conestoga Township, Pennsylvania; and The American Descendants of Matthew and Magdalen Kirkbride of Cumberland, England (CreateSpace, 2017).

Author David Williamson (BA, University of Akron; PhD, Tulane University) lives in Mississippi with his wife, writer/photographer Brenda Perrott Williamson, and their cats, Wilde Oscar and Samantha. David is a great-grandson of Pvt. Eli Rose of the 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.