Major General David F Twiggs
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Friday, 26 March 1858, page 2
GENERAL TWIGGS
The offence of Gen. Twiggs, who is to be tried by Court Martial at Newport Barracks, next month, is as follows:
Gen Twiggs found fault with the result of a Court of Inquiry, held on an officer of his division. The War Department disapproved then of Twiggs' course, censured him for it and ordered him to publish the censure in a general order. This he did, but adding critical comments, which are considered disrespectful and insubordinate.
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Louisville Daily Courier, Tuesday, 27 April 1858, page 2
On Wednesday next the Military Court ordered by the Secretary of War, for the trial of Brevet Major General Twiggs, assembles at Newport Barracks. The General arrived on Saturday and took rooms at the Burnet House.
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Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, Thursday, 29 April 1858,
page 3
The court martial ordered by the President to investigate certain
charges against Major General David E Twiggs, assembled at Newport Barracks
yesterday morning.
Present; Major John F Lee, Judge Advocate; Major General John E Wool; Brevet Major General Persifer F Smith; Brevet Brigadier General Sylvester Churchill, Inspector General; Colonel Joseph R F Mansfield, Inspector General; Colonel Thomas L Fauntleroy, First Dragoon; Colonel Charles Thomas, Assistant Quartermaster General; Colonel Henry K Craig, Ordnance Department; Colonel George B Crittenden, Mounted Riflemen; Colonel P Plympton, First Infantry; Brevet Colonel John L Gardiner, Colonel First Infantry; Brevet Colonel Robert E Lee, Lieutenant Colonel Second Cavalry.
Absent; Brevet Major General Thomas S Jessup, Quartermaster General; Brevet Brigadier General William S Harney, Colonel Second Dragoons; Colonel Charles Thomas, Assistant Quartermaster General
The Court was called to order at eleven o'clock by General Wool, who demanded of the Judge Advocate the order calling the Court together. The Judge Advocate replied that he had not a copy of it in his immediate possession and that it was not customary to read the order on the first day.
General Wool said that whatever might have been the custom with the Judge Advocate, it was certainly proper that the order assembling the Court should be read immediately after the organization. major Lee replied rather tartly that if the General insisted on this point, he should appeal to the Court. he had not a copy of the order with him and therefore, could not read it.
The pontiffs was gracefully yielded by the old veteran, when it was announced that General Jessup would be present at the sitting of the Court today, and on motion an adjournment was made till eleven o'clock this morning. As a good deal of interest will be manifested in the proceedings of the Court, we publish below the Army Order of the Secretary of War, and the substance of General Twigg's comments thereon, out of which the Court marital has grown.
Head-quarters Department of Texas, San Antonio, February 8, 18--, ORDERS No 4
The following letter from the War Department has been ordered to be published. War Department, Washington DC, January 16, 1858
Sir, The orders No 33, December 11, 1857, of the Department of Texas, are before t-- on the appeal of Surgeon Wood and the following is the decision of thereon.
General Twiggs reinstated a gross breach of discipline in appointing a Court of Inquiry in a matter in which the President had appointed a Court, and in publishing to his command his opinion and decision to contradict the opinion which the President had pronounced and published in orders. He had no authority to relieve an officer from a censure the President had pronounced on him, or to cast imputations on another officer, from which the President had pronounced his entire acquittal.
Besides the offense against discipline, it is an offense against justice to retry, in the absence of one party, what has been fully heard and tried in the presence of both. General Twiggs is expected, hereafter, to understand that he has no authority to receive and reverse the decision of the President, and that he will no be permitted to publish offers annulling or setting aside the orders of the President. You are instructed to communicate this letter to General Twiggs and to direct him to publish it in orders to the Department of Texas. Very respectfully, your excellent servant, Signed John R Floyd, Secretary of War
In publishing this order, as commanded, General Twiggs deemed it but an act of justice to himself to accompany it with a concise statement of the facts in the case of Surgeon Wood, on whose appeal the Secretary of War had seen fit to so severely censure him, in order "that the antidote might go with the poison; wherever the censure might reach, there, too might the circumstances that called it forth be fairly and justly known.
He denies that any attempt was made, as the Honorable Secretary says, in the third paragraph of his letter, to relieve an office from the censure the President had pronounced on him, or to cast imputations on another officer, from which the President had pronounced his entire acquittal; and furthermore states that the Court of Inquiry, held in San Antonia, by his order, was neither for the trial, nor retrial of Lieutenant Wood, and accordingly, the Court studiously avoided admitting any questions reflecting on the Court of Inquiry held at Fort Mason, or that could be construed into a trial of Lieutenant Wood.
In conclusion, the General says that he well understands that he has no authority to "revise and reverse the decisions of the President" and that in the whole transaction he has acted without favor or partiality, strictly under authority vested in him by the articles of war; and must emphatically denies having been, or having had any intentions whatever to be, in the slightest degree disrespectful to the President of the United States.
The "powers that be" however, could not look on this reply in any other light than as "disrespectful" and forthwith ordered a Court martial to try the General for the offense.
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Louisville Daily Courier, Friday, 30 April 1858, page 2
The Court Martial assembled at Newport Ky. for the trial of General Twiggs met day before yesterday at the Newport Barracks. All members of the Court were present except Generals Gessup and Harney and Col Thomas. General Twiggs was born in 1790 and entered the Army as Captain of the 8th infantry in 1812; was promoted to Major of the 28th Infantry, September 21, 1814, and appointed Major of the 1st Infantry in 1825.
In 1831 he was made Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Infantry and Colonel of the 2d Dragoons in 1836. He was made Brigade Commanded in 1846 and commanded the right wing of the army and greatly distinguished himself in the battles of Palo Alto and the Resaca de la Palma. June 20, 1846 he was made Brigadier General and subsequently brevetted Major General for gallant and meritorious conduct in several conflicts at Monterey. In Mar 1847 Congress ordered the presentation of a sword to General Twiggs "in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of his gallant and good conduct in storming Monterey."
A brother of General Twiggs was killed at the storming of Chepultepec, Sept 13, 1847.
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Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Friday, 14 May 1858, page 2
A telegraphic dispatch from Washington informs us that the Newport Court martial found Gen. Twiggs guilty of the charge preferred against him. But he is not to be reprimanded.