Resources for court martials?

Keiri

Sergeant
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Does anyone know where I should look for records on court-martials? I found reference to them of course in NARA but without spending a fortune and ordering every file, is there any manner in which I can find out more?
 
Does anyone know where I should look for records on court-martials? I found reference to them of course in NARA but without spending a fortune and ordering every file, is there any manner in which I can find out more?

Union or Confederate? Have a look at this for Union Court Martials. Since a ton of Confederate Records were destroyed, the answer there is bit more complicated...
 
Union - that article seemed to tell me I had to go down to the archives or order each one. I also read this: The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War (1994), which they referred to. He went down to the archive as well. I can't really justify the expense for 6-7 court martial papers. Blargh. Also, it annoys me that it seems as if the Archives just don't get information about how to *get* said documents.
 
I sympathize to a degree, Keiri. It would be nice if NARA staff were willing to wade through boxes and photocopy the thousands of documents there and mail them to you for just $30 - but they can't.

Mostly what's orderable are individual soldier military records from their regiment. Those are a discrete file with anything from 1 to maybe 50 (for some states) pieces of paper. It's easy to find one file and copy it.

What you are after is in two entire Record Groups. A record group consists of box after box of files organized in some fashion.

The only solution (as you spotted) is to go yourself to NARA and order up the box you want. I don't think that you can ask for "all" the boxes in Record Group 94 for example. You have to order up the number of the box containing the particular case you want (which you've found referenced in the microfilm record) and they'll bring the box, which will contain other cases too.

I was just there myself looking in the Army QM record group holding files on ships leased by the army - I got a neat box with perhaps 60 files (most envelopes) covering the ship names from Me - Ly.

Yes, that can be expensive when you live further than a short drive from DC. There's the hotel - recommend cheap ones around Clinton MD. You can easily access the Branch Ave. Metro station (great parking but not at the meters; there's a credit card lot which is much better) only 15 mins direct to Archives/Navy Memorial station.

But it's worth it. There's nothing like handling the actual documents from 150 years ago and who knows? You might find that previously unknown Lincoln document that no one knew was there! I have to go back with approximately 80 military/pension orders to be pulled - at 20 per day, I should be able to get it done in one week. You have to allow more time to view pensions or courts-martial files because there's so much more info in there than in a military jacket.
 
Thanks, that's kind of what I figured. Now, I kinda sense some snark about the first two sentences. Of course I understand that, and have appreciation that these records even exist at all. I never complained about work effort, or services offered. What I *did* complain about was the apparent difficulty in explaining HOW to go about getting the documents. It's very confusing, and while they discuss on the site how to find where the file is based on the index, they give no further information about where you go from there. Does that make sense? I'm complaining about the poor explanation. Even if it just said what you said above in a concise manner, I would have been satisfied.
 
No snark - I'm disappointed also that it's not possible to engage (for free!) the services of those nice people. I realized that I deleted one photo of a document from the General Lyon file and further think either I missed 2 pages that should be in the file or they are "vanished". But the only way to find out is to go back and look through it again myself.

You're right that it could be explained more simply.

Their site contains the information but not all in one place. It's necessary to crack the code when they write this:

Please note that reference staff can only perform limited searches for you. Sometimes the only way to find enough information to be able to order copies is through in-person research in a NARA research room.

"Sometimes"! Huh!

That's government code for "look at the in-person research info page and good luck" - that's all she wrote, I'm afraid.

Research in Person
file-boxes.jpg

and the somewhat confusing (at times) section called:

New to archival research?
Get started using our site to find online records and records kept offline.

Once you get there, (and get the research card; good for a year), it all makes sense and the staff I encountered were uniformly helpful to this tyro wandering around like a fart in a thunderstorm. Good luck!
 
I apologize for finding snark when there was none. I live in Wisconsin, so.. well.. I guess I might, one day, get there :frown:
 
Does anyone know where I should look for records on court-martials? I found reference to them of course in NARA but without spending a fortune and ordering every file, is there any manner in which I can find out more?
On a related note,I have these 2 documents from one of my kin's service records:

CC Dover Page 4.jpg C.C. Dover Page 3.jpg

No idea how or where to try to order or find for myself,copies of the court martial documents.
 
I don't know about that, but I see on the second page it says "GCM 28" which I believe stands for General Court Martial 28, which in this book seems to indicate desertion to an enemy- at least back in 1852: http://tinyurl.com/obhxsbe
 
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/301659?q=courts martial civil war

Court Martial Case Files, 12/1800 - 10/1894

Court Martial Case Files
Additional Information About this Series
National Archives Identifier: 301659
Creator(s): War Department. Office of the Judge Advocate General. 1884-9/18/1947 (Most Recent)
War Department. The Adjutant General's Office. 1821-4/28/1904 (Predecessor)
War Department. Bureau of Military Justice. 1864-1884 (Predecessor)

From: Record Group 153: Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), 1792 - 2010 Details

Level of Description:
Series
Type(s) of Archival Materials:
Textual Records
The creator compiled or maintained the series between:
12/1800 - 10/1894
Includes:

177,687 file unit(s) described in the catalog
5 item(s) described in the catalog
Search within this series
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by letter designation of register and thereunder by number assigned in the register.
Access Restriction(s): Unrestricted
Use Restriction(s): Unrestricted
Finding Aid Type: Index
Finding Aid Note: This series is indexed by the series "Registers of Court Martial Cases, 1800-1890" (ARC Identifier 591699).
Finding Aid Source: War Department. Office of the Judge Advocate General.
Finding Aid Type: Database
Finding Aid Note: A database version of an index to this series is available in the finding aids room.
Finding Aid Source: National Archives and Records Administration Microform Publication(s): M592

Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry Concerning the Conduct of Maj. Marcus A. Reno at the Battle of the Little Big Horn River on June 25 and 26, 1876.M599

Investigation and Trial Papers Relating to the Assassination of President Lincoln.M858

The Negro in the Military Service of the United States, 1639-1886.M1136

Records Relating to the 1811 and 1815 Courts-Martial of Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson, 1811 and 1815.M1523

Proceedings of U.S. Army Courts-Martial and Military Commissions of Union Soldiers Executed by U.S. Military Authorities, 1861-1866.M2031

Selected Military Service Records Relating to Edgar Allen PoeT1027

Records Relating to the Army Career of Henry Ossian Flipper, 1873-1882.T1103

General Court Martial of Gen. George Armstrong Custer, 1867.
 
One ancestor from Alabama was tried by court-martial at Shelbyville after the Battle of Murfreesboro. His CSRs had a notation to "see ..." followed by an order number. NARA didn't charge me for copying all the extra pages that were mentioned in these notes starting with "see..." because I emailed them about those notes. None of the extra pages gave me much new info, but there was a note to see the records of "Sergeant...." Well, I had to pay for those since it was a different soldier. What I got back was incredible! The sgt's court martial records had been bundled together with dozens of others, including the lieutenant I was researching. These were just abstracts, not full records, but they painted a very interesting picture.
 
The NA can also provide a list of experienced researchers who will find and copy what you want for a fee. It is expensive, but would surely cost less than going yourself, and for just a few items may well be worthwhile. It's not nearly as much fun, though. I have a detailed list of about 300 documents/files, etc in several categories that I want to examine, and am looking forward to spending 3 or 4 weeks there "maybe next spring" (that's what I told myself last fall), when I can scrape up a few thousand "spare" $$. It's been 14 years since my last visit.

If you do go, don't expect to get much done the first day. There's a lot of red tape and orientation to go through before you can really start. By the end of that day, you should be able to search through the hundreds of volumes of "finding aids" and order up the first series of volumes, files, boxes, whatever, and they'll be ready for you when you arrive the next day. You can make it a bit quicker if you get your Research Card at your nearest NARA Regional archives, rather than going through the ordeal in Washington.

jno
 
Yep - good stuff above. I got started by dropping in on NARA on my way from Conn. to Va. and getting the Research Card stuff done. Then from home I got a lot of info via email on what I needed to order for the Lyon file when I next visited.

Phone: 202-357-5385
Fax: 202-357-5936
Email: [email protected]

It takes two weeks maybe to get an answer but it does work
 
One ancestor from Alabama was tried by court-martial at Shelbyville after the Battle of Murfreesboro. His CSRs had a notation to "see ..." followed by an order number. NARA didn't charge me for copying all the extra pages that were mentioned in these notes starting with "see..." because I emailed them about those notes. None of the extra pages gave me much new info, but there was a note to see the records of "Sergeant...." Well, I had to pay for those since it was a different soldier. What I got back was incredible! The sgt's court martial records had been bundled together with dozens of others, including the lieutenant I was researching. These were just abstracts, not full records, but they painted a very interesting picture.

Did you go in person?
 
Yes, that can be expensive when you live further than a short drive from DC. There's the hotel - recommend cheap ones around Clinton MD. You can easily access the Branch Ave. Metro station (great parking but not at the meters; there's a credit card lot which is much better) only 15 mins direct to Archives/Navy Memorial station.
We should have a resource thread here for information like this.
 
Another place to check is the two volumes of General Orders of the War Department, Embracing the Years 1861, 1862 & 1863: (Derby & Miller, 1864). Available online at the Internet Archive, they contain reviews of hundreds of Union Courts Martial: charges, specifications, pleas, verdicts, and sentences, together with notes of sentences reviewed and approved, or (often) reduced by President Lincoln. The volumes are well indexed -- most of the Court Martial records are in volume II.

This is clearly not all of them(though there are a great many), and I don’t quite understand why these particular ones are included in War Department General Orders. They concern both officers and enlisted personnel, from all theaters of the war. Those involving enlisted men appear to be the more serious, often capital offences.

I can't seem to find online the volumes for 1864 or 1865.
 
TerryB, where did you get the forms? Did they email them to you? And John Hartwell, thank you, I will look.
 
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