Quick questions about courtroom and charge

[L Verge]

Stupid question, but how many Assistant Adjutant Generals are there at any given time? I just did some googling and found references to Townsend, Nichols, and several others (names I promptly forgot) all appearing to have served at this time.

[Houmes]

The Assistant Adjutant-General who formally designated the officers was W.A. Nichols (see Pitman at 17), but I doubt it was all his doing.

Assistant Judge Advocate General Brevet Colonel Henry L. Burnett was appointed by Secretary of War Stanton and was assigned to head investigation of evidence. Burnett would play a key role in picking and choosing knowing Stanton.

[RJNorton]

No surprise - Otto Eisenschiml put it bluntly - he wrote,"The actual detailing of the military judges was made by the Secretary of War. The very names of some of the members selected boded ill for the defendants."

[Marty L.]

Well, Eisenschiml is not the most reliable of sources, right? Nor, if I recall correctly, does he cite anything in support of this assertion.

[Gene C]

It's likely that any officer of military background that served during the Civil War and was a judge for this trial, boded ill will for the defendants considering the nature of the crime.

[Marty L.]

P.S. I think you can trust Betty's dimensions of the courtroom. She worked with the military and their contractors on researching and renovating the current one that is open quarterly to the public.

Thanks, Laurie -

I have original Architect's drawings -

Mike Kauffman, in his piece on Fort McNair in the Lincoln Herald, explains how there were huge discrepancies in the contemporaneous reporting w/r/t the size of the courtroom. FWIW, his best guess accords with Betty's -- i.e., about 27 X 40.