Part of Civil War @ Charleston Website
This testimony is part of a Living History / Reenactment and Internet Project recreating the Court Martial of William Walker sponsored by the 54th. Massachusetts, Co. I Civil War Reenactment Unit.
The Table of Contents for the full trial record is available online.
Lt. Col. A. G. Bennett 3rd. S.C. Vols, a witness for the prosecution, was duly sworn.
Question by Judge Advocate: Please state your military rank
and position.
Answer: Lt. Col. 3d S.C. Vol. Infy.
Question by Judge Advocate: At what place was the third Regt S.C. Vols encamped, on or about the I9th. Nov. I863?
Answer: At camp called camp Bennett, to the left of Genl Hospital, Hilton Head S.C.
Question by Judge Advocate: On that day did you see the
accused (Sergeant William Walker)?
Answer: I did.
Question by Judge Advocate: State his conduct as far as it came under your observation on that day, and what occurred in relation
thereto?
Answer: On the morning of Nov. I9, 1863, when a portion of the command was in a state of mutiny, I noticed the accused, with others of his company and regiment stack his arms, take off his accouterments and hang them on the stack. (see period photograph of stacked arms) I inquired what all this meant, and received no reply, and again repeated the question, when the accused answered by saying, that they "would nor do duty any longer for seven dollars per month." I then told the men the consequences of a mutiny, and what they might expect. I told them if they did not take their arms and return to duty, I should report the case to the Post Commander and they would be shot down. While saying this, I heard the accused tell the men not to retake their arms, but leave them and go to their street, which command of his they obeyed. Again, later in the day, in the evening, I ordered the accused in arrest, and told him not to leave his tent without my permission, if he did, I should confine him to the Provost Guard. The next morning, Nov. 20 1863, 1 received information he had broken his arrest, by leaving
his tent and going into another tent & company street. I then ordered him to the Provost Guard House.
Question by Judge Advocate: Where was the accused, at the time you told the men to take their arms, and told them the consequences if they did not?
Answer: He stood on the right of the line when I first saw him- he afterwards moved to the rear, moving back and forth.
Question by Judge Advocate: Who gave you the information
that accused had broken his arrest?
Answer: Capt. Abeel Co "D" 3d Regt S.C. Vols.
Question by Judge Advocate: Do you know the object of the accused passing to and fro to the rear of the company or line- if
so, state how and what was the reason?
Answer: He was advising the men "to go back to their quarters without their arms.
Excerpt from testimony of Lt. Col. A. G. Bennett, 11 Jan. 1864, proceedings of general court-martial in the case ot Sergeant William Walker, 3rd. SC Vols., MM-I320, Court-Martial Case Files, ser. 15, RG 153 [H-27]
The following is excerpted from Walker's 7 page Statement. Material addressing the charges other than mutiny has been omitted.
The accused, in presenting to the Honorable the Court his defense to the charges preferred against him admits that there are many points on which he is justly blamable, and for which he cannot hope to escape without punishment. But when the Honorable Court take into consideration the circumstances connected with the gravest charge made against him-that of Mutiny- he trusts that an enlightened understanding of the matter may plead for him in extenuation of a crime which was more an error of judgment, (as evidenced by the fact that nearly the whole of his regiment acted in like manner as himself,) than a willful desire to violate the law.
Before the organization of this Regiment to which I am now attached, I was a Pilot on the U.S.S. gun-boat Wisabican. and received from Admiral Dupont, then commanding the squadron a pass" to come ashore and visit my family. While here the subject of joining the army was proposed to me-and although by my "pass" I was exempted from conscription- I yet, on the promise solemnly made by some who are now officers in my regiment, that I should receive the same pay and allowances as were given to all soldiers in the U. S. Army,- voluntarily entered the ranks. For an account of the treatment that has been given to the men of the 3d Reg't S.C. Vols. by a large majority of their officers, nine-tenths of those now in service there will be my witness that it has been tyrannical in the extreme, and totally beneath that standard of gentlemanly conduct which we were taught to believe as pertaining to officers wearing the uniform of a government that had declared a "freedom to all" as one of the cardinal points of its policy. This treatment, prepared the way for the events that occurred when it was announced to us that we could receive but $7 per month pay.
As to my conduct on the 19th. day of November last, when the Regiment stacked arms and refused farther duty, I believe that 1 have proved conclusively by the testimony of the non-commissioned officers and men of my company that I did not then exercise any command over them - that I gave no word of counsel or advice to them in opposition to the request made by our commanding officer-and that, for one, I carried my arms and equipments back with me to my company street. I respectfully suggest that these men are less apt to be mistaken, than officers who feared that they were facing a general mutiny, and were ignorant of the next movement that might be made by the excited crowd before them - but an assemblage who only contemplated a peaceful demand for the rights and benefits that had been guaranteed them.
My case, in connection with the events of the I9th. of November last, is the case of that of all the other members of Co. "A." On military law, and the rules of the service, we are entirely ignorant. Never, since the organization of the company, have the "Articles of War" been read to us nor any part of the "Regulations" even. We have been allowed to stumble along, taking verbal instructions as to the different parts of our duty, and gaining a knowledge of the services required of us as best we might. In this way many things have occurred that might have been made entirely different had we known the responsiblity of our position.
In conclusion the undersigned asks respectfully that the Honorable Court will give his case as favorable a consideration as the rules of the service and the responsibility devolving upon each member of it will permit.
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