(CIVIL WAR MARYLAND) Broadside for a court martial of an of

Sale 2615 - Lot 88

Price Realized: $ 375

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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(CIVIL WAR--MARYLAND.) Broadside for a court martial of an officer in Smith's Independent Cavalry. Letterpress broadside titled "Charges and Specifications Preferred against Joseph T. Fearing, First Lieutenant of Smith's Independent Cavalry Company of Maryland Volunteers," 20 x 12 1/4 inches, on thin paper, with integral blank leaf; folds, two closed tears, minor foxing. No place, circa July 1864

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Joseph Torksey Fearing (1842-1895) served in an unusual company of Maryland cavalry which was not attached to any regiment. They spent almost all of their three years of service on Maryland and Virginia's Eastern Shore. Fearing was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant in September 1863, and spent much of the next several months as acting commander of the company while Captain G.W.P. Smith was away on other duties. Captain Smith, upon his return, tried Fearing under this court martial, with a sweeping array of 11 charges, some with several specifications, ranging from refusing to acknowledge Captain Smith; holding a vulgar conversation with a woman in Newton, MD; falsely accusing Captain Smith of appropriating captured goods; cutting down a widow's oak tree to extract honey from a hive; stealing geese; and much much much more.

None of the charges stuck. As detailed in Toomey and Earp's "Marylanders in Blue" (pages 158-159), Captain Smith was then himself court-martialed for "preferring frivolous charges against Lieutenant J.T. Fearing . . . by reason of personal animosity." Smith and Fearing remained with this turbulent company until mustered out on 30 June 1865. No other examples of this court martial broadside have been traced.

WITH--5 ordnance and quartermaster documents from Smith's Independent Cavalry, 1864-1866.