Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0811715973, Hardcover)

17 b/w photos 6 x 9 An engaging roster of curmudgeons, drunkards, and fools From the author of The Story the Soldiers Wouldnt Tell Thomas P. Lowrys Tarnished Eagles is the first systematic look at Civil War courts-martial, and . . . it offers the surprising finding that officers, in fact, were in trouble more often than the enlisted men. . . . Lowry lets their court-martial records speak for themselves . . . while drawing some far- reaching conclusions from their experiences as a whole. William C. Davis More than 100,000 men in the Union army faced courts-martial during the years of the Civil War. In this new study, the author has chosen 50 Union colonels and lieutenant colonels to highlight the difficulties in placing civilians unfamiliar with the rigors of army life in command. For example, one colonel was so drunk he fell off his horse; another was nicknamed Stumpy because he tended to shout orders from behind a tree stump. The stories of these tragicomic characters, and of many more contained herein, will add significant commentary to the burgeoning study of Civil War misbehavior. Dr. Thomas P. Lowry is a retired professor of psychiatry. He is the author of The Story the Soldiers Wouldnt Tell, The Attack on Taranto, and The Civil War Bawdy Houses of Washington, DC. In February 1863 a third set of charges appeared in the record, illustrating Lords talent for getting himself into trouble in multiple venues. . . . At Cottage Landing, Virginia, he was so drunk that he made an indecent exposure of his person in the presence of a lady, after which he rode his horse into a gully and fell headlong from the saddle.