A Principled Stand

Captain Henry Warren was a serious looking young man with short hair and long, scraggly chin whiskers. Born in Bangor, he had been in his junior year at Bowdoin College when the war began and he enlisted in the 7^th Maine Volunteer Infantry. By 1864 he was the captain of the regiment’s Co. G. On February 7, 1864, he felt compelled to write to John Hodsdon, Maine’s adjutant general, about a perceived injustice. “Sir,” he wrote, “I am under arrest for the first time since entering the service of the United States.” Warren was being court martialed for refusing to obey an order and he wanted Hodsdon to understand why. “Believing that you and the Executive have nearest your heart, the welfare, character and integrity of the Maine state troops and its officers, I wish above all to appear right in your eyes,” Warren said.

Like many volunteer soldiers, unused to the strict discipline that the army relied on to function, Warren was particular about what he perceived as his rights and responsibilities. The order to which Warren objected, he explained, originated with the regiment’s colonel, Edwin Mason, who had reassigned several of his officers to different companies. He transferred Warren from Co G to D, but Warren believed that only the governor could appoint officers and that transferring a captain to a different regiment was the same as appointing him. He wrote Mason a note in response to the transfer. “If the commanding officer can show me any law empowering him to transfer a commissioned officer against his will I shall deem it sufficient authority,” Warren said. This did not go over well with Mason, who summoned the recalcitrant soldier to his tent. “I am authority,” he told the captain. “Go to your quarters in arrest and prepare for trial.”

 “I have taken this course, not because I love particularly the letter G associated with a skeleton company, but from principle,” Warren told Hodsdon about his actions. “There is no better lover of discipline than myself. I cannot however agree with the man who defines discipline by the definition of despotism. I have long held the opinion that many of the orders of Col. Mason have been impolitic and illegal. I do not make it as a charge, but I believe he has almost ruined the best regiment that ever left Maine. On my belief that I am right, I am willing to stake my reputation as an officer and a gentleman. I fear the burden of proof that the order is illegal, will rest upon me.”

The court found Warren guilty but struck out the part of his charge that said his action had been “willful,” and consequently gave him an acquittal. This angered James P. Jones, then in command of the regiment in place of Mason. “The officer was charged with wilfull disobedience of orders,” he told Hodsdon. “The testimony on record both written and oral goes to prove most exclusively the face with which he is charged.” The acquittal also outraged Maj. Gen. James Getty, who commanded the 7^th Maine’s division in the VI Corps. Getty had Warren rung up on virtually the same charge. Once again, the young captain picked up his pen and wrote to Hodsdon. “A new scene has commenced in the farce in which I have borne an unwitting part,” he wrote on February 24. “The unconstitutionality of such a proceeding is got over by the issue of a new order differently worded but in effect the same, which I must if consistent decline to obey.”

In his letter to Hodsdon, Warren outlined an interview he had with Major Jones. “I have called you here to talk with you because I regret the course you are pursuing,” said Jones. “Can you not see where your willfulness and obstinacy will lead you?”

“I am right, and no fear of consequences shall deter me from doing right,” Warren replied.

“You are not right. You must obey every order from a superior officer.”

“Every legal order, Major,” said Warren.

“Good God, you are not to judge of the legality of an order,” Jones responded. “If the General should command me to stand on my head I should have to obey.”

“Have you looked up the law on the matter?”

“I don’t propose to argue with you,” Jones said. “Will you obey this order?”

Warren’s answer, in short, was no, but Jones said he would do nothing until Warren committed an overt act of disobedience. Which he immediately did, by refusing to sign Co. D’s  morning report on February 24.

In his letter from that day, Warren tried to drag Hodsdon into the affair. He informed the adjutant general that Jones had said that if both Hodsdon and the governor backed Warren on this issue, “then both have entered into a conspiracy to break up the organization of the army, and should be court martialed.” Warren added, “From this and other indications I judge that in the new trial they intend to take issue not with me along, but with the State of Maine also.”

Warren’s warnings notwithstanding, it appears that the second court martial found him guilty. He was still under arrest in May 1864 when the 7^th Maine embarked on the Overland Campaign. He asked to be relieved from arrest so he could lead his company in battle and died during the fighting around Spotsylvania Court House. As a consequence, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had Warren’s sentence revoked. Major Jones died later that year defending Washington, D.C. from the forces of rebel general Jubal Early.