Major General David Emanuel Twiggs
 

Cincinnati Daily Commerical, Thursday, 25 March 1858, page 6

TThe Following is the army order directing the Court Martial upon Gen. Twiggs: Nov 42. War Department, March 19, 1858.

By direction of the President of the United States, a General Court Martial will assemble at Newport Barracks Ky. at 11 AM, on Wednesday, the 28th of April 1858, or as soon thereafter as practicable for the trial of Brevet Major-General David E Twiggs, US Army.

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Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Friday, 26 March 1858, page 2

The offence of Gen. Twiggs, who is to be tried by Court Martial at Newport Barracks nex 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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Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Friday, 30 April 1858, page 2

In our sketches yesterday of the army officers composing the US Court Martial at the Newport Barracks, the Christian name of General Twiggs was inadvertantly misprinted "John." His name is David Emanuel Twiggs.

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Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, 29 April 1858, page 3

UNITED STATES COURT MARTIAL at NEWPORT BARRACKS

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 E Loe, 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, Assistance Quartermaster General
Colonel Henry K Craig, Ordnance Department
Colonel George B Crittenden, Mounted Riflemen
Colonel P Plymton, 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 Advocated replied that he had not a copy of it in his immediate possession, and that it was not customary to read the order 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 its 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 punctilio 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 this Court, we publish below the Army Order of teh Secretary of War, and the substance of General Twiggs comments thereon, out of which the Court martial had grown:

Headquarters, Department of Texas, San Antonio, February 8, 1858 ORDERS No 4

The following letter from the War Department has been ordered to be published.

Sir: The orders No 33 December 11, 1857, of the Department of Texas, are before due on the appeal of Surgeon Wood and the following is the decision thereon; General Twiggs constituted 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 rel--ate? an officer from a censure that 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 revise and reverse the decision of the President, and that he will not be permitted to publish orders 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 obedient servant. JOHN H FLOYD, Secretary of War
Colonel Samuel Cooper, adjutant General U S Army

In publishing this order, as commanded, General Twiggs deemed it but an act of justice to himself to accomplish 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 severe censure him, in order "that the antidote might go with the poison: that 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 officer 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 Antonio, 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 he has no authority to revise or reverse the decision 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 most 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 marital to try the General for the offense.

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