<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
<br />Unfortunately, in all the three cases known to me where this happened and was proven, no punitive action was taken.
Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
General Walter,
Just to set the record straight, punitive action WAS taken against a Confederate last year who attempted to join the Union as a 'spy'. A very lengthy court martial was held, led by a CSA Theater commander with several corps commanders on the judging panel. A prosecuting attorney was appointed, and a defense attorney to assist the defendent.
Since the defendent himself was the one who brought his action to light, and since the court martial could find no explicit club rule against the action, the court decided to require the defendent to publicly acknowledge his action here at the Mason-Dixon Tavern and to apologize to the club. This was actually in the middle of the spectrum of penalties considered, ranging from 'no penalty' to 'reduction of rank to private and dishonorable discharge (dismissal from the club)'.
Unfortunately, although the defendent seemed willing enough to submit to the court martial proceedings initially, he dropped out of sight and has not been heard from since. The court did not want to publish the findings against the defendent 'in absentia', so nothing was ever announced to the general public about the matter.
This may have been the wrong decision, in retrospect. One of the outcomes, the court had hoped, was to suggest to the Cabinet that the club rules be modified to more explicitly state that a person could only join one side or the other at any one time. I believe all the judges felt they were being 'lenient' because of this, but it was also generally felt that this case would be a showcase warning others against such conduct, even if no Cabinet action was taken. It was the consensus of opinion among the jurors that a repeat of this action, by anyone on the Confederate side, would thenceforth be dealt with much more harshly.
(Names of all involved have been withheld, since the official court transcript was never authorized for publication.)
Your humble servant,
LGen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory
David W. Mallory
ACW - Lieutenant General, Chief of the Armies, Confederate States of America
CCC - Corporal, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Deaprtment, Colonial American Army
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