Utterly Worthless One Thousand Delinquent Union Officers Unworthy of a Court-Martial
The Civil War still has surprises! This book reveals the events of Direct Dismissal, used for Union officers who were so awful that they did not deserve a court-martial. Many were described, officially, as "utterly worthless." Even chaplains got the boot, sixteen of them, not to mention eighty surgeons.
The book begins with an essay on military justice, then presents over a thousand cases, followed by a comparison with Confederate military justice. In 140 years, no other book has explored dismissal in the Civil War. Drunkards, traitors, deserters, opium addicts, brawlers, seducers, and men with "loathsome diseases," they're all here, in a story never told before. 2010, CreateSpace, 152p.
Richard Hudgens: Some psychiatrists, when they retire from practice, become amateur philosophers. Not so Thomas Lowry. He has instead morphed into a professional historian of the first rank. From his meticulous studies, Lowry has published around a dozen books on a wide range of fascinating Civil War subjects. He has retained the psychiatrist's love of individual biographical detail and an appreciation of the peculiarities, heroisms, villainies, and comedic behaviors that human nature provides in endless supply. This book catalogs the misadventures of some 1000 failed soldiers, kicked unceremoniously out of the Army, without even the bother of a court martial. It is informative, entertaining for all readers, and very useful as a source for Civil War historians.
