Letter of the Secretary of War, Communicating, In Compliance with a...
Martial Law in the Aftermath of the American Civil War [Trials]. [Civil War]. Andrews, Edward W., Primary Defendant. Letter of the Secretary of War, Communicating, In Compliance with a Resolution of the Senate of December 21, 1865, Copies of the Records and Proceedings, With the Review of the Same by the Judge Advocate General, Of the Military Commissions by which were Tried and Convicted E.W. Andrews, Of South Carolina, J.M. Brown and C.C. Reese, Of Georgia, J.L. McMillan and Neill McGill, Of North Carolina. Running Title: Court-Martial of E.W. Andrews and Others. [Washington: U.S. Government Publishing Office?], 1866. 243 pp. Diagrams and folding map. Octavo (9" x 5-1/4"). Later buckram, gilt title to spine, endpapers renewed. Light soiling and negligible rubbing to spine ends and corners, pencil mark to bottom-edge of text block. Light toning to interior, more moderate to a few leaves, light foxing, soiling and very small faint marginal dampstains in a few places, faint creasing to pp. 37-40. $750. * Accounts of three court-martials carried out in Southern states under martial law as the American Civil War drew to a close. Andrews, who shot and killed Cromwell Bright, a Black man whom he accused of stealing his horse, was tried for murder and convicted of manslaughter. Brown and Reese shot and killed a Black woman named Nellie West and were convicted of murder and sentenced to death; McMillan and McGill were tried for the murder of a Union army scout and sentenced to death. In each case, petitions for executive clemency were made. Though it is unclear whether the defendants received such clemency, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt passionately argued against it for all defendants. He found the Andrews verdict particularly egregious, writing that "the murder was undoubtedly committed under the influence of that brutal contempt for the lives and rights of the negro race so commonly prevailing with certain classes of the south" (36). He recommended in the strongest terms that the commission that had found for manslaughter be disciplined. OCLC locates 3 copies of this title in law schools (Faulkner University, Yale, University of Minnesota). We located an additional copy at Harvard Law School.
Price: $750.00
Book number 77446