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 OF THE CASE OF 
 
 U. S. VOLUNTEERS, 
 
 TRIED BY CO*JET-IARTIAL AND DISMISSED FR03I 
 
 THE SEPtYICE Of THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 AUGUST 10, 1863. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 18G4. 
 
 J. ir. E AST BU UN'S PRESS. 
 
■1^45 
 
u 
 
 A STATEMENT 
 
 Case of Brigadier-General JOSEPH W. REVERE, 
 
 U. S. Volunteers, tried by Court-Martial and dismissed 
 from the Service of the U. S., August 10th, 1863, with 
 a Map, a copy of the Record of the Tried, and an 
 Appendix^ 
 
 This is the title of a pamphlet issued by the above named officer, 
 and addressed to his friends and the public, who, he believes, upon 
 its perusal, " will acquit him of the censure cast upon him by the 
 Court." 
 
 Having carefully perused his statement, offered in lieu of a defence, 
 which he did not make before the Court — himself and counsel not 
 deeming a defence necessary, as the charges were not proved — we 
 must say that his expectations are well founded. 
 
 An examination of the evidence adduced, which accompanies the 
 statement, must convince the most skeptical that it not only does not 
 support the charges, and clears the accused from any dishonor or 
 crime, but also supports the claim of General Revere that his action 
 on the occasion was that of an experienced, skilful, and sagacious 
 soldier, and fully justifies the result of his movement. 
 
 It was a wise measure to have published the record in full of the 
 Court Martial, thus enabling all who felt interested to examine and 
 judge for themselves of the testimony adduced, which produced the 
 remarkable finding and sentence, but which, we venture to say, in any 
 civil court would have resulted in his triumphant acquittal. 
 
 This view of the case was evidently also the opinion of a majority 
 of the Court, for they acquitted the accused of the charges, and, 
 having carefully eliminated all that was incriminating in the specifi- 
 cations, proceeded to make a charge of their own, fitted the first 
 specification to it, and then went on to make their finding and sen- 
 tence, after the case had been closed, in secret session ; the accused 
 having, of course, no opportunity to meet this particular accusation, 
 or oflfer evidence in his defence. 
 
 The charges do not appear to have been made in the spirit of zeal 
 for the public service, but to eflfect a different end, and certainly were 
 not justified by the facts of the case, or the results of the action com- 
 plained of. 
 
 They must be characterized as vindictive, harsh, and unnecessary, 
 save as regarded as a pretext to effect other ends than those of public 
 justice, and were not even sanctioned by the Court, which was obliged 
 to resort to extra-official action in order to inflict punishment, or 
 rather vengeance, on the accused. 
 
The battle of Chancellorsville, like all those fought in tlie ill- 
 omened valley of the Rappahannock and its aifluents, resulted in the 
 inglorious retreat of the Army of the Potomac, over one hundred 
 thousand strong, with an immense artillery, from before about sixty 
 thousand rebels, inferior in artillery, equipments and supplies, and 
 the country had to mourn the loss of the thousands of brave men, 
 sacrificed without result to glaring incompetency. 
 
 Of course some general officei's had to bear the responsibility of 
 proving that there was blame somewhere, and we remember that 
 Sedgwick and Stoneman were first attacked, in turn, by the discom- 
 fited Hooker, and after all the only victim secured in that rank was 
 this officer holding a very subordinate command. 
 
 The official report of Gen. Revere accompanies his " statement," 
 and, with the map annexed, throws much light on the battle and its 
 accompaniments. 
 
 It is not a pleasant task to review the manoeuvres of that badly 
 fought field, but is sufficient for our purpose to state that the 2d 
 Division, od Corps, in Avhich was the Brigade of Gen. Revere, was 
 ordered to the front on the Saturday evening, May 2d, 1863, to check 
 the enemy, then pursuing the routed debris of the 11th Corps. 
 
 These gallant veterans did what was required of them in that and 
 the succeeding great battle of Sunday, May 3d ; and had they been 
 properly supported, no doubt, instead of a defeat, victory must have 
 crowned our arms. 
 
 They were not, however ; and, after their repulse by vastly supe- 
 rior numbers, the battle was not again resumed, while Lee, by a rapid 
 march, having accomplished the capture of the cross-roads at Chan- 
 cellorsville, drove Sedgwick across the river, and returned to confront 
 Hooker with our main body. 
 
 General Berry, commanding the 2d Division, 3d Corps, was killed 
 on Sunday morning about 8 o'clock, and the next in seniority. Gen. 
 Mott, was severely Avounded, when Gen. Revere assumed command 
 of the division, and collected a few hundred men a short distance 
 from the scene of action, in rear of our second line which had not 
 been engaged. 
 
 These troops being woi'n with the marching, watching and fighting 
 of four days, and without food for the last twenty-four hours, he con- 
 cluded to march them about two or three miles to the rear, to reor- 
 ganize and bring fresh into the fight, on his own responsibility, and 
 not knowing where to find his corps commander, he did so without 
 any special orders, and returned to the front and reported to General 
 Sickles, commanding the 3d Corps, at about 2, P.M., when that officer 
 removed him from his command, and the next day he was arrested 
 by Gen. Hooker, and tried at Falmouth on the 13th May following. 
 
 The charges preferred against him were two in number, with a 
 specification under each, the first charge being " Misbehavior before 
 the enemy ; " the specification — " In this, that Brig. Gen. J. W. 
 Revere,' commanding Excelsior (2d) Brigade, 2d Division, 3d Corps, 
 while said division was engaged with the enemy at Chancellorsville, 
 Va., did march his command an unnecessary distance to the rear to 
 reform it, and did then march with his brigade and such fragments of 
 
otlier regiments of the same division as lie could assemble, to United 
 States Ford, about iive miles from the scene of action." * '' All 
 this without orders from his superior officers, about 8 o'clock on the 
 morning of May 3d, 1860." 
 
 Tlie second charge "was " Neglect of Duty," and its specification 
 alleged that Gen. Revere abandoned on the field of battle certain 
 military property, consisting of muskets, accoutrements, &c., and a 
 certain number of rounds of ammunition, including that which had 
 been fired against the enemy in the battle, while among the property 
 was included the arms, &c., of the killed and -wounded of his brigade. 
 See the testimony of Captain Le Fort, Brigade Inspector, called by 
 the prosecution to prove this charge, which the Court threw out of 
 the case as it deserved, and acquitted the accused of this charge and 
 specification. 
 
 The finding on the specification of tlie first charge "was, '• guilty," 
 except the words, " while said division was engaged with the enemy 
 at Chancellorsville, Va., did march his command an unnecessary dis- 
 tance to the rear to reform it," and then, " and to U. S. Ford, about 
 five miles of the scene of action," substituting for the latter clause, 
 " to about three miles of the scene of action, towards U. S. Ford," 
 and " not guilty " of the first charge, but guilty of " conduct to the 
 prejudice of good order and militaiy discipline," and sentenced the 
 accused to be dismissed from the military service of the United 
 States. 
 
 The careless nature of the proceeding may be inferred from the 
 fact that no place was specified in the charge on which this sentence 
 was founded, time and place being always specified in military 
 charges, as will be seen by the chai'ges as found, which reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 CHARGE. 
 
 " Conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline." 
 
 Specification — "In this, that Brigadier General Joseph W. 
 Revere, U. S. Vols., commanding Excelsior (2d) Brigade, 2d Divi- 
 sion, 3d Corps, did march with his brigade, and such fragments of 
 other regiments of the said division as he could assemble, to about 
 three miles from the scene of action towards U. S. P^'ord. All this 
 Avithout orders from his superior officers, about 8 o'clock on the morn- 
 ing of May 3d, 1863." 
 
 And for this a gallant and veteran officer was sentenced to an 
 ignominious punishment, and the sentence was approved by the 
 President ! I ! 
 
 Now, if there is any one point of the military code and Articles of 
 War, which is perfectly plain and clear, it is that a Court Martial 
 cannot legally '' alter or amend the original charges, or entertain 
 additional ones," after the prisoner is arraigned, vide Benet and De 
 Hart. 
 
 By the practice of Court Martial, the prosecution nmst be had 
 under an Article of War, when the facts and circumstances point to 
 a particular one of those articles, and the charge of "• misbehavior 
 before the enemy " was accordingly brought under Article 52, which 
 
6 
 
 provides for that offence ; but this Court having acquitted the accused 
 of that charge, found him guilty of a charge under Article 99, of 
 which he had received no notice, and consequently no chance of 
 defending himself, and gave judgment against him. 
 
 This was unlawful, cruel, and oppressive towards the accused, for 
 similar cases, the highest authority, the War Department, have held 
 that where a charge is laid under a specific Article, the accused must 
 be found guilty of a violation of that Article, or be acquitted, and in 
 this case the offence against the 99th Article should have been duly 
 and regularly charged, in order that the accused should have notice of 
 that which he was to answer. The precedents on this pai-ticular are 
 numerous and well settled, and in the eye of the law the accused was 
 entitled to a verdict of honorable acquittal, nothing having been 
 proved against him criminal in the charges or specifications ; for the 
 mere fact of marching a certain distance with his command is not a 
 crime. 
 
 We acknowledge that, in certain cases, a Court Martial has author- 
 ship to lessen the degree of crime alleged against an accused person, 
 but here the charge originally preferred was cowardice, that being 
 really the crime of " misbehavior before the enemy," and no one will 
 pretend to say there are degrees of so heinous a crime, the greatest, 
 indeed, known to the military law. 
 
 If we had any doubts of the illegality of the proceedings of this 
 Court, they would be dispelled by the following opinion from the best 
 authority on military law in the country : — 
 
 Washington, Nov. 19, 1863. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Thank you for the statement, &;c., of the case of 
 General Revere, just received. I had been presented with one 
 before, as I suppose by the General, and read it Avith interest and 
 mortification, interest because of its subject, and mortification that 
 such injustice should have been done a gallant ofRcer at the expense 
 of the best established principles of military law ; but the times are 
 sadly out of joint in these matters, not to remain so long, I hope. 
 With respect, &c., 
 (Signed,) REVERDY JOHNSON. 
 
 A. R. Macdonougii, Esq., New York. 
 
 The leading principles of military law are the same as those of the 
 common law, and how a court composed of nine general officers could 
 have held, a majority of its members voting for the finding and sen- 
 tence, as they did, upon the evidence adduced, is more than we can 
 understand, aad certainly would lead any person to believe that there 
 were some things in military law radically opposed to the rules of evi- 
 dence demanded in the common law, or that the former was a sealed 
 book. A slight examination, howevei*, shows us that military law 
 demands the same immutable idea of justice, as the oath of a member 
 of a Court Martial will show : — 
 
 " You do swear that you will well and truly try and de- 
 termine, according to evidence, the matter now before you, between 
 
the U. S. of America and the prisoner to be tried, and that you will 
 duly administer justice, according to the Acts, &c., without partiality, 
 favor or affection, and if any doubt sliould arise, not exphiined by the 
 Articles of War, according to your conscience, the best of your under- 
 standing, and the custom of war in like cases," &c., Sec. 
 
 The first Article of War also requires that " Every officer of the 
 U. S. shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, subscribe 
 these Articles." McArthur, in his work on Courts Martial, says, " It 
 is incumbent on all officers of his Majesty's Army and Navy to be 
 informed upon the leading principles of military law, in order that 
 they may do justice to his service, at the same time remembering 
 that they may have the honor and the lives of his Majesty's subjects 
 in their hands ; " and appropos to the present case, we quote the fol- 
 lowing from the same high and ancient authority : — 
 
 " To make a complete crime against human laws, there must be a 
 will and an act, so that to constitute such a crime there must be first 
 a vicious will, and secondly an unlawful act consequent upon such 
 vicious will." 
 
 No crime having been proved then against the accused, we must 
 seek elsewhere for the reason of the verdict of the court, and accord- 
 ingly we find that the command of the division assumed by General 
 Revere, after General Berry had been killed and Mott wounded, had 
 been given to General Carr, as he savs in his testimony, by " the 
 chief of staff." 
 
 Sickles also says in his evidence that General Carr was the senior 
 of General Revere, and here we have the animus of these charges, 
 and the true cause of the terrible blow aimed at the latter, Avhile the 
 cunning and artful insinuation is conveyed by the principal witnesses 
 for the prosecution, that General Revere acted insubordinately in 
 assuming that command. 
 
 Nothing, however, can be clearer than that Gen. Revere was the 
 ranking officer, being a regular commissioned Brigadier General, 
 confirmed by the Senate, while Carr was acting under an appoint- 
 ment only. 
 
 As the law stands, all appointments unconfirmed by the Senate 
 during its session fall and are void, and this was the case in the 
 present instance with regard to Carr, who, however, was reappointed 
 by the President after the adjournment of that body in March, 1863. 
 
 But in no case has it been customary for military appointments to 
 take precedence of commissions, among officers ; and, if it were so, 
 of what use are commissions at all ? 
 
 This principle has been decided over and over again, and latterly 
 in the case of Gen. Schofield by the Department, but whether it was 
 so or not, this Court had no right to travel beyond its record in order 
 to inflict punishment on an ofiicer for an offence that might have been 
 committed. 
 
 It may be said that the Court was actuated by an honest desire to 
 vindicate the discipline of the service, but if so, then they committed 
 a grave error again, for it is not the province of a Court Martial to 
 take cognizance of faults not actually before them, and it is a species 
 of errantry to assume ])o\vers devolving elsewhere. 
 
8 
 
 Tlie milit-ary uniform should no more be stained wilh injustice than 
 the judicial ermine, and it is a perversion of the law to transform it 
 into an instrument of oppression and individual persecution, to obtain 
 an end, however meritorious, out of the legitimate sphere of their 
 duty as Judges and Jurors. 
 
 The public service is not benefitted by any such display of mistaken 
 zeal, but injured thereby. 
 
 As to his movement to the rear having been made in the absence 
 of orders from his superior officei", General Sickles, be it remembered 
 that the great majority of the stragglers had already gone to the rear, 
 and that it was his duty to collect them to their colors again, that the 
 liew men with him were broken and exhausted from the marches and 
 battles of four days, and that Sickles could not be found. 
 
 In such circumstances, surely a general officer is bound to assume 
 the responsibility of acting according to his best judgment; and if 
 punished for what may appear to be an error of judgment, is it not a 
 grave mistake, considering that an officer might be deterred from 
 acting on his judgment in the fact that the result may not justify his 
 expectations ? Again, the regulations of the service provide that 
 " before the action the Generals indicate the places where they will 
 be : and if they change position, they give notice of it, or leave a 
 staflf officer to show where they have gone," and it is the " custom of 
 war " on like cases, for a commanding general to keep himself in- 
 formed of the positions of the troops under his command, and to send 
 them orders, and not for the inferior to ask orders from his superior. 
 
 Of this custom General Sickles, from his very small experience of 
 military matters, was ignorant, as is shown by the stress he lays on 
 this particular part of his accusation. The intelligence received from 
 the prisoners captured by the scouts of Gen. Revere in front of his 
 line of battle in the night before the action, the state of his command 
 and the general aspect of the field, fully warranted him in pursuing 
 the course he did, and it is now a certainty and matter of history that 
 Stonewall Jackson would have attempted to have carried our lines in 
 the direction of the U. S. Ford ; and probably would have succeeded 
 had he not been mortally wounded on the evening before the battle 
 of Sunday, May 3d. 
 
 Had he done so, his manoeuvre would have culminated in cutting 
 oft" the retreat of our army, and it would have fallen into the hands 
 of the rebels, with all its stores, artillery, and munitions of war of all 
 kinds, a prize which would have set up the " Confederacy " for an 
 indefinite period, and changed the whole face of things on this con- 
 tinent. 
 
 At all events. Gen, Revere was right in supposing that the next 
 })oint of our lines where an attack would probably be made, would 
 be in the direction he moved, although he was never so far from his 
 original position that he could not have reached it in a reasonable 
 time, and the '" scene of action " Avould have been transferred far to 
 the right, in the direction in which he marched. 
 
 We are entirely at a loss to understand what the Court meant by 
 the " scene of action " in their finding ; for if it meant the place 
 wliere the action uf the day had reallv been fouirht — which a<irees 
 
with the distance fixed by them as the limit of the march — that was 
 in the full and undisputed possession of the enemy, and if it meant 
 the open space near the White House, then that never had been in 
 any sense a '• scene of action," for there was no fighting there at any 
 time. 
 
 In fact the whole front of our lines may have been meant as the 
 *' scene of action," and the troops of General Rev(;re were as near 
 that scene from the place marched to as he was in his original posi- 
 tion. 
 
 But before he left the open space, it was filled with the fresh troops 
 of the I'eserves, Avho had not been in action, and he was requested to 
 i-emove his troops to make room for them by an aide-de-camp of Gen. 
 Hooker's own staff. 
 
 We think it was a serious error in not making a defence before the 
 Court, which at least could not then but have mitigated their severe 
 sentence, or recommended the accused to the mei'cy of the revising 
 power. The reason this was not done by the distinguished General 
 (D. B. Birney) who conducted the defence, appears to have been 
 that the charges on which the accused was tried were disproved by 
 the evidence for the prosecution, in which opinion the court, by their 
 verdict, show they fully concurred. 
 
 Of course General Birney, nor any one else, never imagined that 
 the court would have resorted to an illegal mode of inflicting punish- 
 ment by finding the accused guilty of a charge of their own making, 
 and the defence pursued certainly the most generous part in leaving 
 the case to their impartial judgment. 
 
 Other influences must, in our opinion, have been brought to bear 
 upon the court, while they, perhaps, were not fully informed of the 
 character of tlie accused, or his motives of action on the field, always 
 the most important part of a defence of this nature ; but if this sen- 
 tence was the punishment of an error of judgment, then where, — in 
 the present war, ■ — - are we to begin, and where stop ? 
 
 A review of this " statement " would be incomplete, unless we had 
 satisfied ourselves in some measure of the history and professional 
 career of the officer who has been so summarily dealt with by a Court 
 Martial composed of West Point graduates in part, and a sprinkling 
 of lawyers and politicians thrown in, all bearing the grade of general 
 officers, and mostly superior in rank to the accused. As military law 
 is one of the bi-anches of study taught at that institution, it would 
 have been natural to suppose that ignorance on the part of the latter 
 mentioned members should have received some enlightenment at their 
 hands, even if they had no sympathy with an old and tried soldier 
 like the accused, though not a graduate of their Alma Mater. It is 
 significant of the country, of tlie new service and the new officers, 
 improvised by the sudden war wiiich has come upon us, that we never 
 or seldom hear of the old soldiers of the army, except in common- 
 place terms, or in connection with reprehension, while with some 
 names the newspapers are placarded, ad nauseam, and to this judi- 
 cious system of advertising are the new generals principally indebted 
 for their fame. 
 2 
 
10 
 
 Charlatanism in tliis respect is not confifietl to the Barnum's, the 
 Van Amburg's. and the pill venders, while the same political chica- 
 nery, humbua; and trickery, first learned at the Pewter Mus and Tam- 
 many Hall, iias been successfully iaii-oduced into the camps, and also 
 the court, if that term will apply. 
 
 In the case before us, we see plainly the fruits of that system of 
 intrigue, practiced upon an old soldier, who proved, as might be ex- 
 pected, powerless, to maintain the imequal combat with this species 
 of weapons, and forced to succumb accordingly. 
 
 In length of service under the Government of the United States, 
 General Revere not only was the senior of every officer in the court 
 which tried- him, but also of every other in the Ai'my of the Potomac 
 in which he served, while the sphere of his service comprises the 
 world. He received his first warrant as a Midshipman in the Navy 
 from General Jackson, having been appointed in 1828, and since that 
 time has been in the service of his country in the profession of arms 
 continuously, except a short period passed in foreign service, having 
 participated in all the wars in which the country has been engaged 
 during that period with credit. The pirates of the Gulf and of the 
 Indian seas, have been familiar to him, and he has pursued the 
 stormy paths of his profession in the frozen Antartic ocean, and the 
 deleterious coast of Africa, in the everglades of Florida, in pursuit of 
 Seminoles, and in pleasant California during the Mexican war, he 
 having hoisted the first American flag ever given to the breeze on the 
 north side of the Bay of San Francisco. 
 
 Having resigned his commission as Lieutenant in the Navy in 
 1850, while in California, after a service of twenty yeai's, he entered 
 the Mexican service, after some stay in that country, as a ranchero 
 on a large estate, which he purchased during the war. 
 
 Of his career in that country we merely append the opinion of 
 others, from original papers in his possession, to which we have had 
 access while engaged on this review. 
 
 While commanding a small Spanish armed vessel in the Pacific 
 Ocean, the subject of this paper, by his skill and courage, rescued 
 from death and captivity sixteen persons, Spanish citizens, whose 
 vessel had been stranded on the coast of the Gulf of California, near 
 the Hiagui River, and received the honor of knighthood from the 
 Queen of Spain, and a gold medal from the city of Cadiz, bearing 
 the arms of the city and tlie inscription, " Honor, Devocion, Corage 
 — Premio Publicado." 
 
 The following is a translation of the diploma received : — " Ysabel 
 the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Spain and the Indies, to 
 Don Jose W. Revere," &c. 
 
 " The ministers of our royal ' hacienda ' having testified to your 
 eminent services, we have been pleased to nominate you a knight of 
 our Royal Order of Ysabel the Catholic, 4th Class, and to that end 
 we have ordered tlie grand master and the Chancellor of that most 
 illustrious order to forward you the insignia of the same. 
 
 " Done in Aranjuez on the 3d day of March, in the year of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 
 
 (Signed,) "I THE QUEEN." 
 
 The Count Luchand Juan Bermddez. (Signed.) 
 
 i 
 
11 
 
 While Instructor of Artillery, with the rank of Lieutenat-Colonel, 
 in Mexico, he accompanied the President into Morelia in the capacity 
 of Chief of Artillery, which he had reorganized, and received many 
 encomiums for his coolness and skill in action, especially where a 
 column was attacked while entangled in a dangerous defile, and where 
 he extricated two of his lightest pieces, making use of the well 
 known skill of the Mexicans with the lasso, and dragging guns and 
 cai-riages piecemeal up the rocky and precipitous sides of the defile, 
 in an inconceivably short space of time, had them in battery and 
 firing on the enemy's fiank, turning a defeat into a victoiy, though 
 not escaping himself without a severe wound, as witness the following 
 translation of an order of the day : — 
 
 " God and Liberty." 
 
 " Mariano Arista, President of the Republick, &c.," orders and 
 decrees as follows : — 
 
 " Don Jose W. Revere, Knight of the most illustrious Royal Order 
 of Isabella the Catholic, decorated wntli the Cross of Mexican valor 
 and several medals of military merit, a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
 Mexican army, Instructor of Artillery, and Chief of that arm in the 
 late campaign, has deserved well of the country for his skill and con- 
 duct at the battle of Los Trojez de Angangues, and it is hereby made 
 known to the army." 
 
 (Signed,) MIGUEL AZCARATE. 
 
 Retired Colonel, Governor of the City of Mexico, May 12, 1852. 
 
 At the breaking out of the present war, General Revere had lately 
 returned from Europe, and immediately offered his service to the 
 general Government as a Naval Ofiicer ; but as the Secretary decided 
 he could not give him his oi'iginal rank, he then offered them to the 
 Government of New Jersey, — he being a resident of that State, — 
 to command a regiment, and marched in the summer of 1861 with 
 the Seventh Regiment, as its Colonel, to Washington, where the regi- 
 ment received an instruction and discipline from him second to none 
 of the newly-raised volunteers. 
 
 He took part in the battles of the peninsula, being especially com- 
 mended in General Orders for his conduct on the 25th June, before 
 Richmond, and then in the disasti-ous campaign of Pope, receiving 
 honorable mention for his gallant conduct at the battle of Manassas, 
 where he was wounded, and shortly after was promoted, and com- 
 manded the ''3d Brigade of the 2d Division, 3d Corps, at the battle 
 of Fredericksburg. Being shortly after transferred to the command 
 of the Excelsior (2d) Brigade of the same gallant and veteran Divi- 
 sion, he led them at Chancellorsville, without reproach while the 
 fighting was going on ; but after it was over, made the movement for 
 which he fell under the censure of his superior officers. 
 
 As an instructor and disciplinarian, General Revere has been well 
 known in the Army of the Potomac, and his old regiment, the 
 Seventh New Jersey, has had a reputation inferior to none in the 
 service, the fruits of his care and pains having been conspicuously 
 displayed at the battle of Chancellorsville, where this regiment, 
 
12 
 
 reduced to about two hundred and sixty men, captured more 
 than their number of prisoners, and five regimental standards from 
 tlie enemy. He was also the first military man who gave his testi- 
 mony in favor of employing colored troops in this war, founded on 
 thti fact that every negro w^ould stand in the place of a white man, 
 and testifying to their courage and endurance in war, an opinion 
 founded on his experience in the navy, where colored seamen are 
 much employed. These views were given in an eloquent letter to 
 Governor Olden in the summer of 1852. 
 
 Surely a record like this should have outweighed with the court 
 all but the most direct and certain proof that this officer (a gentleman 
 of a patriotic family, being a grandson of Colonel Paul Revere, of 
 revolutionary memory, two of whose members have lost their lives in 
 the present struggle, one at Antietam and the other at Gettysburg,) 
 had committed a crime against discipline especially. 
 
 But one conclusion must be come to, even by the most prejudiced 
 person who may read this " statement," and which cannot be denied, 
 that the officer who suffers under this sentence, has hitherto borne his 
 part usefully, energetically, and earnestly in the contest in which we 
 are engaged, into which he entered from the most patriotic of motives, 
 and that the evidence against him does not warrant so terrible a pun- 
 ishment to one who has passed nearly his whole life in the public 
 service. 
 
 " He who excuses himself accuses himself," says an old French 
 proverb, but fortunately the present case affords an example of a 
 complete exoneration from blame, by the mere setting forth of the 
 facts, so powerful and irresistible is the power of truth, and these facts 
 we shall lay before the reader. 
 
 In pursuance of this resolve, we now set forth the continuing chap- 
 ter of this remarkable " cause celehre" consisting chiefly of official 
 documents connected with the case ; and, in the regular course of 
 events, commence with the following order sent to Gen. Revere just 
 after the return of the army from its disastrous campaign of the first 
 days of May, 1863: — 
 
 Head Quarters, Third Army Corps, ) 
 May 10th, 1863. j 
 
 General, — The Major General commanding directs that you 
 establish your quarters at or near Stoneman's SAvitch, until further 
 orders. 
 
 The Brigade Quarter Master will furnish you the facilities to move. 
 
 Let it be without delay. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obt. serv't., • 
 
 O. H. HART, Ass't. Adj't. Gen. 
 To Brig. Gen. Revere. 
 
 This Vermillion edict, of course, was to show the recipient that no 
 quarter was to be given or asked, for just before it was issued, 
 orders had been given to the "war correspondents" to open fire 
 upon General Revere's rear through the columns of the Mew York 
 
 k 
 
13 
 
 pi*ess, as will be seen by the following official correspondence, which 
 took place after the trial had been held : 
 
 Camp near Falmouth, Va., "^ 
 June 1st, 1863. j 
 
 General. — The following paragraph appeared in the New York 
 Times of the 10th of May, 1863 : — 
 
 " ARREST OF GENERAL REVERE," 
 
 " On Monday morning, after we had successfully repelled the 
 attack of the rebels in our front, General Revere, commanding the 
 Excelsior Brigade, marched his men out of their position back to the 
 U. S. Ford." " This proceeding on his part seemed entirely incom- 
 prehensible to his ofHcers and men," 
 
 " They had never before received orders to retreat before an 
 enemy, and they looked upon this as a mistake of some one," " Who 
 th;it some one was they could not tell, but like ti'ue soldiers, who obey 
 the mandates of their superiors, they wended their way to the ford 
 with hearts sinking within them." " The disgrace of a retrograde 
 movement had never yet fallen on their noble escutcheon," " ' Ex- 
 celsior' was not a motto for a rear guard (!) to have engrossed upon 
 their banners." " Their battle-torn and tattered Hags, remnants of 
 what had once been as bright and beautiful as the colors of the rain- 
 bow, appeared to them steeped in disgrace ; but their absence from 
 the front was one of short duration," 
 
 "As soon as General Sickles heard of the ignoble course of their 
 commander, he dispatched all his available aids with the most per- 
 emptory orders for their immediate return to the front ; and, in a little 
 time, back came the old veterans with hearts full of pride at the 
 thought of again sharing with their comrades the fortunes of the field," 
 " On hearing of their return. General Sickles sent immediately for 
 General Revere, and enquired of him his reasons for this strange 
 procedure." " Gen.*Revere had no particular excuse to make, save 
 that his men were out of ammunition," " (when there was plenty 
 within a stone's throw of his former position J." 
 
 " His frivolous apologies for his conduct General Sickles would not 
 accept, and he ordered him under arrest, to report at Falmouth." 
 " The expression of indignation on the face of Sickles, as he ad- 
 dressed General Revere when placing him in arrest, was a study for 
 a painter." 
 
 " General Sickles had always been a friend of Revere'?." He 
 (Revere) had been placed in command of Sickles' old brigade. 
 " General Sickles thought a great deal of him, but Sickles has no 
 friends on the battle-field who fail to discharge their duties," " In 
 the flashing eyes of Sickles, when he relieved Revere, you could have 
 
 read : 
 
 " Cassio I love thee — 
 But never more be officer of mine." 
 
 The following paragraph appeared in the New York Herald of the 
 same date : — 
 
 "VALOR OF THE EXCELSIOR BRIGADE," 
 
 " The Excelsior Brigade was among the most efficient corps of the 
 army." "They fought like tigers wherever placed, and never 
 
 / 
 
14 
 
 wavered." " They Vv'ere deserted by their commanding officer (who, I 
 understand, has been placed in arrest,) bat remained steadfast at the 
 post of duty and danger." "Among the trophies taken by them are 
 nearly a dozen standards of colors, the regiments to which they be- 
 longed having been annihilated by the steadiness of this little band." 
 
 " Prominent among them is a rebel battle-flag carried by the Eigh- 
 teenth North Carolina Regiment, a sketch of which I annex." 
 
 (Here follows the sketch of a flag which was really taken by the 
 Fifth New Jersey Regiment). 
 
 The Excelsior Brigade, which I had the honor to command at the 
 battle of Chancellorsville, nobly performed their duty, but captured 
 no colors from the enemy, and desire not, I am sure, to be credited 
 with the achievements of their comrades in arms of the 2d Division, 
 3d Corps, the 3d or New Jersey Brigade. 
 
 I have. General, no means of knowing who are the correspondents 
 of these newspapers who wrote the above paragraphs ; but knowing 
 that the commanding general has issued an order making such cor- 
 respondents responsible for their statements, I beg leave to state that 
 both of the above paragraphs are false, more especially those portions 
 which charge me with having deserted my command, and for the sake 
 of military discipline, in the name of military justice, and as some 
 reparation for the injury done me personally by the publication of 
 these calumnies, most respectfully ask of the commanding general that 
 measures may be taken at once for the coiTection of so gross an out- 
 rage. 
 
 I am, general, most respectfully, your obt. servt., 
 
 J. W. REVERE, Brig. Gen. 
 
 Gen. S. Williams, Ass't. Adj't. Gen. Army of the Potomac. 
 
 This letter was approved through the gene^'als commanding the 
 division and corps, Gen. Sickles being absent, and was returned with 
 the following endorsements: Hd. Qrs., A. of the P., June 4th, 1863. 
 "Respectfully returned through the com'g. otf'r. 3d corps. Gen. Re- 
 vere will please forward the names of the correspondents to whom he 
 refers." " All communications from the army are published over the 
 names of the writers." By command of Major Gen. Hooker. 
 
 S. F. BARSTOW, A. A. G. 
 
 It was re-forwarded with the following endorsement : " Respectfully 
 re-forward with statement of Major J. P. Finkelmeier, A. A. Gen., 
 as to the authorship of the article in the New Yoi'k Times, which 
 was not signed by any person as the author as required. Liutenant 
 Mac Duff, aide-de-camp of Gen. Sickles, is believed to be the author 
 of the article, however, in violation of the Articles of War and exist- 
 ing general orders. The Herald article was taken from a Sunday 
 paper, none others being received, and it is believed that its author 
 was either Mr. G. W. Hasraer, J. H. Vasburg, or A. B. Talcot, but 
 which of them cannot be ascertained. 
 
 (Signed,) J. W. REVERE, Brig. Gen. 
 
 k 
 
The following is a copy of" the letter of Major Finkelraeicr re- 
 ferred to in the foregoing endorsements, and re-forwarded with it : — • 
 
 Camp near Falmouth, ') 
 June 9th, 18G3. j 
 
 General, — In reply to your inquiry about the publication of cer- 
 tain articles in the New York papers, referring to your relief from 
 command, I will state that about the middle of May, Lieutenant Mac 
 Duff came to my tent and stated that rumors were afloat assigning to 
 him the authorship of said articles. He would simply say, that, " if 
 General Sickles, on inquiry, would not state the name of the author, 
 thai he would take the responsibility for it" 
 
 The next day I was present when Captain Le Fort said to Captain 
 Chester that Lieutenant Mac Dufi' had made a similar statement to 
 him on the same evening. 
 
 Very respectfully, &c., 
 
 (Signed,) JOHN P. FINKELMEIER. 
 
 To General Revere. 
 
 This application apparently was smothered somewhere, for no more 
 •was heard of its fate by General Revere, although the origin of the 
 letter was clearly traced to the head quarters of the 3d Corps ; while 
 to show with what implements the dirty work of calumny was done, 
 we append the following statement : — 
 
 " Lieut. Mac Dufl', in company with Crosby, arrived at my camp at 
 11, P.M., May 2d, bare headed ; one or two orderlies were with him. 
 
 Upon alighting, said, " we are all that is left of the head quarters, 
 3d Corps." " Gen. Sickles and staff are all killed or taken prisoners, 
 and I got out by cutting my way through." He also said the rebels 
 fired several volleys at him. The above was said in the presence of 
 Captain Young, ordnance officer of Sickles' staff, and Mr. Morrison, 
 clerk to Captain Fry. 
 
 (Signed,) WM. E. MORFORD, 
 
 Lieut.-Col. and Quartermaster. 
 Defences of Aquia Creek, June 10, 1863. 
 
 Captain Lovell Purdy, Fifth Excelsior, was present when Lieut. 
 O. Kelly, Quartermaster Fifth Excelsior, received this paper from 
 Colonel Morford. 
 
 To show still further tlie animus of the principal prosecutors and 
 chief witnesses in this most discreditable transaction, whose antece- 
 dents are but too well known to the public, we quote from the testi- 
 mony of Sickles before the Court Martial, as follows : " I commanded 
 the Third Army Corps on May 3d. Gen. Revere commanded the 
 2d Brigade, 2d Division, of that Corps. The orders that the 2d Di- 
 vision had communicated in person to General Berry, were to occupy 
 the rifle pits and entrenchments to the right and left of the plank 
 road between Chancellorsville and General Slocum's head quarters, 
 on Friday. 
 
 i 
 
16 
 
 " General Birney's division was to the left of General Berry, and 
 in front of the house Avhich I mentioned as General Slocum's head 
 quarters." 
 
 " When we retired from that position, I took a second position in 
 rear of Chancellorsvilie, where I established my head quarters, 
 formed on the road leading to U. S. Ford, and where, through staff 
 officers, I directed commanding officers of Brigades and Divisions to 
 report to me, with their commands." Gen. Berry was killed before 
 this last movement. " The command of the 2d Division devolved 
 upon Brigadier-General Carr, to whom I communicated my orders." 
 
 " Gen. Carr informed me, through a staff officer, that Gen. Revere 
 claimed the command of the division as senior." " I did not recog- 
 nize the claim of General Revere." " Observing tliat the 2d Brigade 
 of that Division (Revere's,) and a portion of the od Brigade (Mott's,) 
 did not report, I sent to Gen. Carr for an explanation, and he report- 
 ed that Gen. Revere had taken his Brigade, and a portion of the 3d 
 Brigade, to the rear," &c. 
 
 Question by the Court. — Who is the senior, General Carr or Gen- 
 eral Revere ? 
 
 Answei". — General Carr. " In justice to General Revere, I ought 
 to state that he might have been under the impression that he was 
 senior, because, although General Carr was originally the senior, 
 General Revere's appointment was confirmed by the Senate, and 
 General Carr's appointment was not acted on." " General Carr was 
 subsequently reappointed from his original date, Avhicli reestablished 
 the relative rank, making Carr the senior." '' It was, perhaps, known 
 to General Revere that General Carr's reappointment bore date in 
 March, and not, perhaps, known to him that Gen. Carr's original date 
 had been given to him," &c. 
 
 Now, in so important a matter as the relative rank of two generals 
 commanding brigades in the same division, upon which the prece- 
 dence of their commanders in all movements of the division, such as 
 field manosuvres, marches, reviews, &c., is based, how could there 
 have been any mistake up to this particular time, when a vacancy 
 occasioned in the command of the division ? And if General Carr 
 had such an appointment as stated by General Sickles, why had it 
 not been officially promulgated to the Third Army Corps ? But it is 
 well known that not only General Carr had not, at that time, received 
 a letter of appointment from the President giving him his original 
 rank, but that, if he had, he could not take rank over an officer hold- 
 ing a commission ratified by the Senate. 
 
 Carr himself, apparently, knew nothing of the new rank which he 
 held, according to Sickles, as he states in his testimony : " I belonged 
 to the 1st Brigade, 2d Division, od Corps, on the 3d May, 1863. The 
 division was under command of General Berry, who was wounded, 
 and died about 7.2 G, A.M., of that day. I was then notified by the 
 chief of staff that I was in command of the division," &c. 
 
 Now, put together these portions of the evidence of Sickles and 
 Carr, and we have the springs of action which influenced them to rid 
 themselves of Revere, in order to get rid of the question of rank alto- 
 gether, which they knew must be decided against them if raised. 
 
 i 
 
17 
 
 Can- Imtl iirevlously been placed with his command at all reviews, 
 &c., junioi' lo botii Mott and Revere, and did not assume command of 
 the division after Berry was killed, until he was informed of his right 
 to do so by " the chief of stafi'" of General Sickles ! 
 
 Could we ask a plainer proof that he did not think himself entitled 
 to it ? 
 
 But we have, elsewhere, in this review, shown that this question of 
 rank was entirely on the side of Gen. Revere, and that he was by the 
 law and customs of war, fully entitled to the command of the division 
 after the death of Gen. Berry and the wounding of Gen. Mott. 
 
 To proceed in the analysis of testimony such as this is not a plea- 
 sant task ; but we must give one more item of the evidence of Gen. 
 Carr, who, be it remembered, was on his oath before a court martial 
 engaged in the trial of a brother officer on the most serious charges, 
 involving his life and honor, yet states, as a fact, that " Gen. Revere 
 sent an aide or an orderly to me about 11, A.M., and ordered me to 
 report to him near the U. S. Ford, so the aide said ; " but being ques- 
 tioned, said, '' I do not remember the name of the aide." Singular, 
 indeed, that it should have been forgotten ; for in his " statement," 
 Gen. Revere says, "■ I positively deny having ever sent an aide or 
 orderly, or any other messenger, to Gen. Carr, with orders to him to 
 report to me at or near the U. S. Ford, as that officer has stated in 
 his testimony on the trial," and the members of his staff all deny 
 emphatically ever having conveyed such orders. 
 
 Paragraph 220, of the Revised Army Regulations, is as follows : 
 " Deliberations or discussions among any class of military men, hav- 
 ing the object of conveying praise, or censure, or any mark of appro- 
 bation toward their superiors, or others, in the military service ; and 
 all publications relative to transactions between officers of a private 
 or personal nature, whether newspaper, pamphlet, or hand bill, are 
 strictly prohibited." 
 
 All correspondence for publication on army subjects, in accordance 
 with the foregoing, has been stringently prohibited also, in the " Gen- 
 eral Order " of tlie Army of the Potomac repeatedly ; yet when an 
 officer of high rank, in a case like the present, is defamed, and even 
 history falsitied, by lying and slanderous correspondence, the author- 
 ship of which is distinctly traced to an aide-de-camp of the general 
 commanding the corps in which he has the misfortune to serve ; and 
 representation made thereof to the general commanding the army, the 
 inquir}' is stifled, and the slanders are allowed to go unanswered ! * 
 
 No matter that the aggrieved officer is under arrest, and therefore 
 powerless, that he has been tried by a Court Martial, and therefore in 
 the hands of the law ; no matter that the publications in question are 
 calculated to injure him in the public estimation, and to carry grief 
 and anguish into the bosom of his family, which he has left to tight 
 the battles of his country, still tlie malice of his persecutors must be 
 gratitied, even at the expense of every right, and of every manly and 
 lumorahle principle. 
 
 * All oliic-ial correspomleiice has to pass throitgli thi.' rc^'ular I'liaiiiicls of siti)e- 
 rior oliKLTs. 
 
 ^^k 
 
18 
 
 If this be not cruelty and oppression we do not know where to look 
 for it. Was it not enough to be tried by a Court Martial on charges 
 that, had they been proved, his life, and Avorse, his honor as a soldier, 
 would have been forfeited. Was it not enough that the business of 
 his whole life, and the aspirations of martial distinction and promotion, 
 should be entirely cut off. Was it also necessary for the prosecutor 
 of these charges that the accused should also be blasted in his private 
 relations with his home kindred and acquaintances, in order to fur- 
 nish a " first-rate advertisement " to the hero of two years experience 
 in military life, and of course the representative American soldier, and 
 the CfBsar or Napoleon of this war ! 
 
 It is a grave mistake to treat our soldiers in this way for very 
 apparent reasons, while in all military countries there is no class 
 whose rights and privileges are more jealously guarded by the gov- 
 ernment and their own tribunals, one of which, composed of nine gene- 
 ral officers, has been brought into contempt in the instance before us, 
 by action diametrically opposed to all ideas of justice and law. 
 
 If their collective wisdom could not meet the case before them in a 
 spirit of fair play towards both the prosecution and the defence, we 
 cannot be astonished at seeing in the papers the work of courts, com- 
 posed of their juniors, like the following, nor can we help wishing 
 that General Schenck's Bureau of Military Justice maybe organized 
 without delay. 
 
 Injustice of Courts Martial. — Romance in Real Life. 
 — The Washington Republican, commenting on an article in a New 
 York paper, says : " The author of the article ought to know by this 
 time that Courts Martial do not always arrive at correct conclusions. 
 For instance, not many days since information reached the President 
 that a young man belonging to the Army of the Potomac had been 
 sentenced by Court Martial to be shot for desertion. The boy was 
 doomed to die in a few hours when the despatch was received. No 
 time was to be lost. A telegram was sent to General Meade suspend- 
 ing the execution. An examination of the case was ordered by the 
 President, when it was ascertained that the young miin ought to have 
 been promoted long ago for gallant and meritorious service, instead of 
 being shot ! It appeared that upon the march of the Army of the 
 Potomac towards Maryland, on the occasion of Lee's first raid north- 
 ward, the young man alluded to became exhausted and fell out of the 
 ranks, and, as soon as he recovered, he proceeded on after his regi- 
 ment, but not finding it, and there being no time to lose, he fell into 
 the ranks of another regiment, and fought gallantly at South Moun- 
 tain and Antietam, and was wounded in the last-named battle. He 
 was sent to a hospital, which fact, by the absence of a proper system 
 in such cases, did not reach the officers of his regiment. At last he 
 was arrested as a deserter, tried, condemned, and about to be shot, 
 when, by the interference of the Executive, his life was saved ; and a 
 young man, hastily condemned to an ignominious death, was suddenly 
 restored to honor." 
 
 In addition to the above, a gallant New .Jersey volunteer was re- 
 cently tried by Court Martial and sentenced to be shot : and three 
 
19 
 
 months after he was executed, a reprieve was despatched to him. 
 Another and most deplorable instance of Court Martial injustice ! 
 
 We give a list of the members of the Court Martial, of which a 
 majority must have consented to the finding and sentence : — 
 
 1. IMajor-General W. S. Hancock, volunteer service. 
 
 2. " John Newton, " 
 
 3. Brigadier- General Jas. S. Wadsworth, " 
 
 4. " W. T. H. Brooks, " 
 
 5. " A. A. Humphreys, " 
 
 6. '- John Gibbons, " 
 
 7. " F. C. Barlow, 
 
 8. " R. B. Ayres, " 
 
 9. " S. K. Zook, " 
 Lieut.-Col. E. R. Piatt, volunteer service. Judge Advocate. 
 
 We have endeavored, in this review, to confine ourselves strictly to 
 the case of Gen. Revere, and to the official action which condemned 
 him ; but, in conclusion, we cannot avoid contrasting it with that of 
 other alleged delinquencies of the kind, which we need scarcely to 
 revert to be understood. 
 
 We may fairly ask the question, why such evident derelictions from 
 the paths of soldierly duty as the abandonment of Harper's Ferry 
 and Winchester, with its large stores of all kinds, so precipitate in the 
 latter case, that all the stores, artillery, and baggage, were left be- 
 hind, including the wife of the general, together with other instances, 
 have been allowed to pass almost unquestioned, while the highest 
 punishment was inflicted on this officer for an alleged offence against 
 " good order and military discipline," in the exercise of a manoeuvre on 
 the field, about the propriety of which a difference of opinion at least 
 may honestly be entertained, and which certainly resulted in nothing 
 injurious to the service, but rather the contrary. 
 
 Why should charges be preferred against Revere for " neglect of 
 duty, &c.," in leaving on the field the arms of the killed and wounded, 
 and wasting ammunition fired at the enemy by his command, and 
 why should Hooker get off unscathed, after having, the very next 
 day, ingloriously abandoned that same field, in presence of an inferior 
 force of rebels, in opposition to all his generals in conucil, except the 
 Mephistophiles of these proceedings, leaving not only arms, equip- 
 ments, and ammunition, but immense stores of all kinds for Lee's 
 especial delectation, and his wounded to the care of the rebel sur- 
 geons ? Is the typical sword of military justice two edged and cutting 
 both ways, or does Will Shakspeare say truly — 
 
 " That in the officer's but a choloric word, 
 Which in the soldier is rank heresy." ■? 
 
LJf"^"^ ^^ CONGRESS 
 
 . »3 JHi^