Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-21
CARTER COURT MARTIAL
Defense Will Begin to Put in Testimony
This Week.
There Are a Number of Witnesses ON
Hand and More Are
Expected.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
SAVANNAH, Ga. March 10, 1885,
Ihe carter court-martial enters its t=nth
week of existence today, when the accused
commences his inning" The defense has
an enormous amount OF testimony to SUBJ
NIT and already has ever a dozen wit
nesses on the ground and probably three
times as many yet to arrive.
fhe record in the case has reached near
ly 1900 pages, and has, in this respect.
surpassed, even three weeks since, any
other court-martial ever held in this coun-
try 1t is expected that the defense will
consume at least three weeks in presenting
Capt. Carriers side of the case.
1T will be bowling alley kind Of a de-
fense,' said one of the legal friends of the
accused, land It is intended to bowl down
each pm set up by the prosecution in about
the order they were set up. The conspiracy
charge Will be first gone into. and after
that is demolished, the embezzlement, the
transportation of public money and the
other charges will be met.
Capt. Carter is We'll supplied in the mat
Ter or counsel. Besides the five lawyers
who appear for him in court he has three
or four others in his employ, besides two
expert engineering counselors.
Testimony Of Capt. Black.
The testimony Of Capt. Black. thu En-
gineer Commissioner of the District. given
on Friday, will probably be the first the de-
Tense will attempt to answer. 1t is regard
ed as the most important, from an en-
gfnsering standpoint, Of any in the case.
Capt. Black was on a board Of engineers in
1875 which examined and reported on the
Improvement Of Cumberland Sound, Ga.
The board was organized by the War De-
rartment to look into the WORK there. and
went into the subject very thoroughly Al
though 1t reported directly against the way
Capt. Carter was carrying 1t on. according
to the testimony of Capts. Black and ABB
bot Of the board, he persisted in the lavish
expenditure and in the employment of his
favorite contracting firm. thu Atlantic Con-
tracing Company, Of which. according to
the theory Of the prosecution, he, Carter,
was interested financially.
Captain Black testified as an expert that
10 cents per cubic yard was an extremely
Captain Carter paid Is cents on his own
motion and without seeking competition
Captain Black also testified that Captain
Carter paid nearly double the price for
jetty work.
The defense makes no concealment of the
fact that unless this is contradicted Cap
tain Blacks testimony cannot help but
have an important bearing in The making
time in endeavoring to eradicate the i'm
pressions left by it.
Capt. Carriers Forage Account.
When the defense concludes It's testi-
mony-in-chief the prosecution will go into
more detail in the matter of Captain Car
ter's forage account. in the way Of re-
buttal. and with that view has already on
hand the chief of the military division of
the auditor of the War Department. Mr.
Baxter, who n armed with several bum
Giles OF vouchers. which are supposed to be
eliminating. One Of the counsel for the
defense, Mr.. Blair. asserted In open court
en- Friday that they would show that Cap
tain Carter had two horses, which ate up
Carter drew in thirteen years, In spite Of
the fact that the witnesses for the prose-
cution testified that he never had any
horses.