Publisher's Synopsis
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. 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. 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 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."