Court Martials

Lieut. H. A. Webb, of the 27th regiment Ohio Volunteers, was recently tried by Court Martial in St. Louis, on a charge of “absence without leave,” and was sentenced to forfeit his monthly pay proper for three months and to be reprimanded by the commanding officer of the Department.  Private, Geo. H. Holland, Company I, 24th Indiana was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to be shot.  The sentence was afterwards mitigated to hard labor with a ball and chain during the war, with the forfeiture of all pay, which is a good deal worse than to be shot.  Private Jeremiah Raney, of the same company and regiment, was found guilty of the same offence and sentenced “to forfeit all pay and allowances which are or may become due him up to the 31st day of January 1862, excepting the just dues of the sutler and laundress, and to refund the United States the cost of his apprehension, thirty dollars, to have half his head closely shaved, and to stand for three hours daily on three successive days, on the head of a barrel, on the parade ground of his regiment with a placard around his neck on which will be printed the word ‘Deserter.’”  At the expiration of this sentence he will be dishonorably discharged from the service.  Jesse Fussell was also tried for violating the laws of war in robbing and plundering the property of Wm. H. Page, a loyal citizen in Missouri, and taking a gun from another loyal citizen.  He was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment during the war.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2