"Court martial group, Army of the Cumberland"

chubachus

First Sergeant
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Location
Virginia
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I have wondered about these for a while. All of them from NARA are only titled as "Court martial group, Army of the Cumberland."

NARA says here that the third (which would also mean fourth) group is awaiting court martial.
 

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Interesting. The second photo is the only one showing commissioned officers. Only commissioned officers would preside over a general court, so I would assume that the pics all show groups of men awaiting court martial. The pic of the officers, makes you wonder if they are presiding over the court, or if they are all officers ALSO awaiting court martial. Would like to know the story behind it...
 
Most of the fellas in the third photo are wearing caps rather than hats and one appears to have a star shaped badge on his chest. I see what might be paper collars too. I wonder if these are 12th Corps guys before their westernization.
 
Yep too many weapons in that group to be under arrest. In a Military Tribunal, the enlisted me were used as bailiffs to bring prisoners back and forth and keep order in the hearing etc just like they do today. The summary court officers were the jury, one would have been prosecutor and one of the officers would be council to the defendant. and the highest ranking officer was the judge.
 
It almost looks as if the third and fourth photographs are part of a set. The corporsl at the left of the third photo seems to be in the left of the fourth photo, although it is hard to make out due to the damage of the photograph.

And the man in the first one is wearing a star badge of the 12th Corps, at least I think.

The officers all seem to be Captains and Lieutenants. Could it be company officers and regimental staff? If it was taken in 1863/1864, regiments may have been commanded by Captains and companies by Lieutenants due to attrition.

I find it hard that they are men waiting for court martial. There are no guards around them, one man has a bayonet which would be very odd to have if guarding prisoners or awaiting court martial. Photos are sometimes mislabeled by the photograph due to error or someone else.

For example, this photograph
Union_soldiers_entrenched_along_the_west_bank_of_the_Rappahannock_River_at_Fredericksburg,_Vir...jpg

Is often attributed to Matthew Brady and originally captioned as Union Soldiers in the trenches of Petersburg in the spring of 1865, though it actually is taken in May 1863 and depicts Brooks' Division before Fredericksburg.
 
Interesting! You know the Coal Field Wars, at Ludlow? Colorado. Great grandfather was on the tribunal for men under court martial there- photos seem similar. Workers living in ridiculously barbaric conditions finally called a strike- things got bloody when the National Guard was called in. There were horrendous incidents- long story. Men involved were called to account. Anyway, must have been traditional to photograph these groups.
 
It looks like the top 2 pictures were taken in front of the commissary. The first pic with the moveable chairs has a bread box on end with a fruit or bread roll, and the second pic with the long bench emplacement has 3 mess kits on the serving shelf. None of the men look ragged enough for being detained.
Lubliner.
 
The men in pictures 3 and 4 are exactly the same guys. In #4 they had them remove their hats for some reason, but same guys in the same positions.

The guys standing on the ends look like they might be provost marshalls in charge of the group. Or they may ALL be provost guards since it appears that the first man seated on the left has a bayonet, as does the man standing on the right and, possibly, the man next to him as well.

It seems possible that in fact this is a squad assigned to the court marshall as guards. The thing that strikes me is that most of them look at the camera quite boldly and with confidence, not at all as you would expect from prisoners.
 
Perhaps the "dot" is actually a period after Cumberland and just makes it look like an "i" ?
Still misspelled but this is my best guess without context handwriting to compare.
View attachment 295655
Murfreesborough is the scrawl of a quick hand. At least it wasn't one of the surgeons signing the picture; or was it? (accepted spelling at that time.)
 
I stumbled on these pics and this forum while trying to understand information on my 5x great grandfather, Christopher McCannon. He applied for his pension after injuries at the battle of Guilford Courthouse, but was denied. Application was made on behalf of his family after he died but appears to have been denied on the basis that there was no proof that he was there; however, I found his name on pp 111 of a document Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris. Revised 5 April 2021. Titled: A SIZE ROLL OF NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND PRIVATES OF VIRGINIA. The top page of the pages says the men on that page were at C O C House. Elsewhere in the document it explains, that is Cumberland Old Courthouse.

The following paragraph is a direct quote explaining the purpose of the roll, places the counts were done and who was counted:

"Size rolls are lists of soldiers recording their heights and appearances, and often occupations and
places of birth and residence. The original purpose of aiding in the capture of deserters has long since expired,
but size rolls are of enduring value to genealogists and students of military and social history. The size rolls
transcribed here are of noncommissioned officers and privates who were processed into the Continental Line
of Virginia at Chesterfield Court House, Powhatan Court House, Carter's Ferry, Albemarle Old Court House,
Cumberland Old Court House, and Winchester Barracks. Most of these soldiers entered service in September
or October 1780 following the capture of virtually the entire Virginia Continental Line at Charleston SC on
12 May 1780, and in March and April of 1781 after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse NC on 15 Mar 1781.
Some were already Continental soldiers who had served in the North, but most were draftees or substitutes
for draftees under a Virginia law enacted in May 1780, which required each county whose militia was not
already engaged to recruit or draft one militiaman out of each 15 over age 18 to serve in the Continental army
Those enlisted under the May 1780 act were commonly referred to as "18-months men," and they can be
identified in this size roll by their term of enlistment being shown as "18" or "1..6." A few denoted by "M
delinq't" or similarly were apparently sentenced to six or eight months service in the Continental line for
being delinquent in their militia duties. Others were serving as the result of a court martial.
In the spring of 1781 the Virginia Continental Line underwent extensive reorganization, so it is
difficult to determine which regiments many of these soldiers belonged to. Pension applications show that
some were recruited into Col. Anthony Walton White's 1st Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons. Most,
however, appear to have been attached to the regiment commanded by Col. Thomas Gaskins and then by Col.
Christian Febiger. After a period at Point of Fork at the junction of James and Rivanna Rivers, Gen. Baron von
Steuben on 6 June 1781 marched them southwestward with the intention of joining the southern army
commanded by Gen. Nathanael Greene. After getting as far as Staunton River, however, they were ordered
back to help defend Virginia against the invasion by the army of Cornwallis."

Within the transcribed document, six men are identified as having been court-martialed. My 5x great-grandfather was not one of them.

We don't know anything about our distant relative other than he was a new immigrant, from Ireland, and that his wife supposedly came to the battleground to tend to his wounds.

From the newly transcribed size roll, I learned he [Christopher McCannon] was 29 years old 5' 7 ¾" gray eyes, fair complexion, had been draughted and his original occupation was as a Joiner (type of carpenter).

I am new to this research; thread mentions of Cumberland and Court-martial and new immigrants make me curious if the men in the pictures you posted and discussed are some of those documented in the newly transcribed size roll.

I hope this is enough new information to bump the post and reopen the discussion about the pictures, I look forward to input from those who know much more than I do on this subject!

Links to the pension applications I mentioned and the transcription were found at:
b81 (revwarapps.org)

Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Applications & Rosters (revwarapps.org)
 

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