Marines vindicated

[Steve]

I came across this story which I think illustrates the necessity of getting the history of an event right despite first reports in the media:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/these-...spartanntp

Now these events only happened 12 years ago, so I guess this stops just short timewise as being "history", but still illustrates the need for getting the story right in history.

[David Lockmiller]

(02-01-2019 07:33 PM)Steve Wrote:  I came across this story which I think illustrates the necessity of getting the history of an event right despite first reports in the media:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/these-...spartanntp

Now these events only happened 12 years ago, so I guess this stops just short timewise as being "history", but still illustrates the need for getting the story right in history.

It was Jim Mattis, a revered Marine general and recently departed defense secretary, who convened the tribunal that ultimately determined that none of the Marines should be charged. The hearings spanned three weeks in January 2008.

“Sometimes now, when I reflect on it, I think that if this didn’t happen, I’d be four years from retirement. I could have stayed in and made that my career,” said one of the Marines who was falsely accused and left the military voluntarily in 2008, when his contract expired. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing lingering concerns about retaliation.

“This devastated my life — my family, my legal expenses, being separated from the Marine Corps, not knowing if one day someone was going to knock on my door and take me to Fort Leavenworth,” he added, referring to the Army post in northeast Kansas that is home to the military’s only supermax prison.

[David Lockmiller]

The Washington Post, February 1, 2019

The headline reads: "These Marines were falsely accused of war crimes. Twelve years later, they have vindication."

By Andrew deGrandpre

The story begins: “A Marine veteran who fought the Pentagon for 12 years over a war-crimes case brought against him and six others will have his permanent record wiped clean, an extraordinary affirmation of his claim that their reputations were destroyed by the military’s effort to imprison the men.”

This story reminded me of President Lincoln’s Navy story of similar nature.

The following is a post from our own RJNorton on 12-10-2013 in answer to a trivia question that I asked on a thread: Trivia Questions - all things Lincoln / Franklin W. Smith and the U. S. Navy.

RE: Franklin W. Smith and the U. S. Navy

David, I cheated. It looks to me like the Smith Brothers were contactors who did business with the military and were charged with fraud. They were put on trial, found guilty, and the verdict was approved by Gideon Welles. But Lincoln felt differently about the verdict, and overruled it. He issued the following order:

************************************


Order Annulling Sentence of Benjamin G. and Franklin W. Smith


March 18, 1865

I am unwilling for the sentence to stand and be executed, to any extent in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than the evidence discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the existence of criminal or fraudulent intent on the part of one of such well established good character as is the accused. If the evidence went as far toward establishing a guilty profit of one or two hundred thousand dollars, as it does of one or two hundred dollars, the case would, on the question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. That on this contract, involving from one million to twelve hundred thousand dollars, the contractors should attempt a fraud which at the most could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand dollars, is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That they did not, in such a case, strike for greater gains proves that they did not, with guilty, or fraudulent intent, strike at all. The judgment and sentence are disapproved, and declared null, and the accused ordered to be discharged.

March 18. 1865 A. LINCOLN

[David Lockmiller]

I was reading last night in Doris Kearns Goodwin's wonderfully-researched and well-written book "Team of Rivals" that two days after President Lincoln wrote the following order, General Grant issued to him an invitation which he immediately accepted.

Order Annulling Sentence of Benjamin G. and Franklin W. Smith


March 18, 1865

I am unwilling for the sentence to stand and be executed, to any extent in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than the evidence discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the existence of criminal or fraudulent intent on the part of one of such well established good character as is the accused. If the evidence went as far toward establishing a guilty profit of one or two hundred thousand dollars, as it does of one or two hundred dollars, the case would, on the question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. That on this contract, involving from one million to twelve hundred thousand dollars, the contractors should attempt a fraud which at the most could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand dollars, is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That they did not, in such a case, strike for greater gains proves that they did not, with guilty, or fraudulent intent, strike at all. The judgment and sentence are disapproved, and declared null, and the accused ordered to be discharged.

March 18. 1865 A. LINCOLN

Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote:

In late March, Lincoln, Mary, and Tad, journeyed to City Point to visit General Grant. For Lincoln, the eighteen-day sojourn was his longest break from Washington in four years. Grant had issued the invitation at the suggestion of his wife, Julia, who had been struck by constant newspaper report of "the exhausted appearance of the President." Grant worried at first about the propriety of issuing an invitation when the president could visit without waiting "to be asked," but on March 20, he wrote a note to Lincoln: "Can you not visit City Point for a day or two? I would like very much to see you and I think the rest would do you good." Delighted with the idea, Lincoln asked the Navy Department to make arrangements for a ship to carry him south.

("Team of Rivals" - pages 707 -711 make for good reading)

I say: "Thank you, Julia Grant!"

[RJNorton]

(02-04-2019 01:35 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Grant had issued the invitation at the suggestion of his wife, Julia, who had been struck by constant newspaper report of "the exhausted appearance of the President." Grant worried at first about the propriety of issuing an invitation when the president could visit without waiting "to be asked," but on March 20, he wrote a note to Lincoln: "Can you not visit City Point for a day or two? I would like very much to see you and I think the rest would do you good."

I wonder if Julia meant for the invitation to include Mary, too (as she did come).

[L Verge]

(02-04-2019 04:51 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 01:35 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Grant had issued the invitation at the suggestion of his wife, Julia, who had been struck by constant newspaper report of "the exhausted appearance of the President." Grant worried at first about the propriety of issuing an invitation when the president could visit without waiting "to be asked," but on March 20, he wrote a note to Lincoln: "Can you not visit City Point for a day or two? I would like very much to see you and I think the rest would do you good."

I wonder if Julia meant for the invitation to include Mary, too (as she did come).

Interesting question because the General's invitation certainly seems to be in the singular form.

[David Lockmiller]

(02-04-2019 05:30 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 04:51 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 01:35 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Grant had issued the invitation at the suggestion of his wife, Julia, who had been struck by constant newspaper report of "the exhausted appearance of the President." Grant worried at first about the propriety of issuing an invitation when the president could visit without waiting "to be asked," but on March 20, he wrote a note to Lincoln: "Can you not visit City Point for a day or two? I would like very much to see you and I think the rest would do you good."

I wonder if Julia meant for the invitation to include Mary, too (as she did come).

Interesting question because the General's invitation certainly seems to be in the singular form.

The invitation did not include Mary. Mary included Mary.

Delighted with the idea, Lincoln asked the Navy Department to make arrangements for a ship to carry him south. Assistant Secretary Fox was not happy to be assigned the task, for he believed "the President was incurring great risk in making the journey." To minimize danger, he ordered John Barnes, commander of the Bat, a fast-moving gunboat, to report to the Washington Navy Yard at once. Work immediately commenced on the interior of the armed ship to make alterations necessary "to insure the personal comfort of the President as long as he desired to make the Bat his home." To discuss the meals and amenities Lincoln might require, Fox brought Barnes to the White House. Lincoln told Barnes "he wanted no luxuries but only plain, simple food and ordinary comfort -- that what was good for me would be good enough for him." Barnes returned to the Navy Yard to supervise the changes.

The next morning, Lincoln summoned Barnes back to the White House. Embarrassed at the thought that workers had stayed up all night to make alterations that might now require additional work, Lincoln explained apologetically that "Mrs. Lincoln had decided that she would accompany him to City Point, and could the Bat accommodate her and her maid servant." Barnes was, in sailor's phrase, taken 'all aback,'" knowing that the austere gunboat "was in no respect adapted to the private life of womankind, nor could she be made so." He returned to the Navy Yard, where "the alterations to the Bat were stopped and the steamer River Queen was chartered." The change of plans was particularly upsetting to Fox, who "expressed great regret that the determination of Mrs. Lincoln to accompany the President" had forced the shift to "an unarmed, fragile, river-boat, so easily assailed and so vulnerable." He directed Barnes to follow Lincoln's steamer in the Bat, but could not shake his anxiety. Though aware of the danger, Lincoln remained relaxed and cheerful, talking about the problems of accommodating womenfolk at sea "in very funny terms."

("Team of Rivals," pages 707 - 708.)