St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-21
SCORED BY HIS SUPERIOR.
Disobedience in the Army Involves Dis
aster and Disgrace.
THE CASE OF LIEUT.. SHARP
Gen. Merritt in Reviewing II Gives the
Young Officer Some Good
Advice.

kAuvlOCs
Under date of Feb. % last, an order
from the war department directed that
First Lieut. Frederick d. Sharp, Twen-
tieth infantry, be relieved from duty at
the training school at Fort LeavenwOrth,
and ordered him to Immediately join his
company. To the friends of the young
officer the order was much of surprise,
which gave place to CONSERVATION,
when in day or two second order
assembled a general court-martial for
Lieut.. Sharp's trial. The usual precau-
lions were adopted to keep the particu-
lars of the case from becoming public,
and it is only now, on the PRONUNCIATION
of the proceedings of the court-martial,
that the facts are made known. The
charges against Lieut.. Sharp involved
violation of the twentieth and twenty
first articles of war-diobedience OF Or
ders, and willful disrespect to his com
handing officer. The specifications
alleged that the lieutenant, while under
instructions in engineering, willfuty
disobeyed the orders of Capt.
John G. d. Knight, corps OF engineers,
to rule a sheet of paper required for
certain work, and that when ordered to
return to his work he positively refused
to obey. That Lieut.. Sharp openly de-
clares his intention to disObey the order
of his commanding officer, Capt. Knight,
whom he accused of being Over-bearlng
toward him, and that Lieut.. Sharp,
without authority or permission. left
the Section-room in evident defiance OF
authority, and failed to return.
On the trial Lieut.. Sharp pleaded
guilty to leaving the section room and
failing to return, but to all the rest OF
the matter alleged he pleaded not guilty;
Subsequently, however, he requested
permission to withdraw his plea
to the first and second Speclflca-
tons to the second charge, and to
the charge itself. His counsel then
moved to quaSh the same on the
ground of the absence of material
teehnicalitieS necessary to support
the charge and it's specifications. This
claim was based on the ground that
Capt. Knight. against whom the offense
is claimed to have been committed, be-
ing an engineer officer and on duty at
the school without having been so as
signed by the president, as required by
statute, is not legally the commanding
officer" of the accused, or his superior
officer, empowered to give him claw
full commando within the meaning OF
the law. The
COURT OyERRULED THE MOTION
to quash, when the accused returned
and presented the plea first made. The
finding was guilty upon all the
charges and specifications, except the
second charge as alleged, but on this
charge equity of conduct to the preju-
dice of good order and military diSci-
pline;" and the sentence OF the court
is that Lieut.. Frederick d. Sharp be
reprimanded in general orders and con
fined to the limits of the post where his
company may be serving for the period
of one year.
The reviewing authority, Brig. Gen.
Wesley Merritt. SAYS: 1.-The reviewing
authority feels that it would be neglect
of an important duty not to advert to
the conduct of the defense before the
court. From soldiers standpoint it is
bad law TO impede the administration
of Justice by the introduction OF pleas
which in no way could have entered at
the time of its occurrence into the
minds of any of the parties to a breach
Of military law. The articles Of war,
the army regulations and the orders of
our superior officers are made to be
obeyed and the officer who spends his
time, whether before or after he is in
trouble, in deviSing means to escape
the just penalty of disobedience will
SOONER OR LATER COME TO GRIEF.
1t would have been a poor consolation
to Lieut.. Sharp and his friends to have
escaped conviction Oh quibble. and
worse to have been acquitted on the
monstrous proposition that the secre-
tary of war, acting for the president,
could not assign an engineer officer to
duty at the United States Infantry and
Cavalry school at Fort Leavenworth,
clothed with all the powers of an in
structor of student officers. Now it is
thought that this acquittal on the ground
that the school, established and sup
ported by the government for the i'm
prOvement of the young officers of the
army, had legal existance in the stat
ute books, but was the creation of an
order from army headquarters, as
urged by the defense, would have
cleared him either in conscience or in
fact. Making due allowance for the zeal
for his client of an officer learned in the
law, the department commander must
express in distinct terms of condemna-
ton his opinion of defense, conducted
with never so much legal acumen,
which has for its object the defeat of
military justice and is not based on the
merits of the case.
The other position of the defense,
that there was prOvocation on the part
of the Instructor in mitigation Of the
conduct of Lieut.. Sharp, is not, in the
opinion of the reviewing authority, sus-
tanned by the evidence. With these re-
marks the proceedings, findings and
sentence in the case of Lieut.. Frederick
D. Sharp, Twentieth infantry, are APP
proved and the sentence will be duly
executed. Lieut.. Sharp need scarcely
be advised that marked
AMENDMENT IN HIS HABITS
and conduct is necessary to re-establiSh
his record in the army. Those, if any,
who encourage him to think that there
was the slightest justification in his late
acts are not the kind of friends young
man in this country should cultivate. 1t
is hoped that Lieut.. Sharp will profit by
his recent experience, change his course
and become an honor to the service. He
can do these. Let him try; for the
alternative course involves disaster and
disgrace" Lieut.. Sharp has been
ordered to join his company at Fort As
sinaboine, Mont.