The Saint Paul globe., 1899-04-28
SMOOTH COL. DU VAIL
SUCCEEDS IN INJECTING THE REC
ORDs OF THE FIELD COURT
MARTIAL
INTO THE PRESENT INQUIRY
Al Part of the Argument I'm the
Leonhauser Case He Began Read
Ing the Testimony Which Had
Took Him Six Hours, but VIII Re-
ceive No Confederation.

Col. Du Vail had his innings yesterday,
and, having gotten the Leonhauser court
OF inquiry in a corner, he talked every
member including Col. Pennington, into
the shadow of standstill. The colonel
was clever and finally accomplished that
which he SO eagerly tried to do many
times before but has failed. He has sue
ceeded In injecting into the records Of the
present inquiry the record Of the field
court-martial at Augusta. The court
suffered him to read it, on the plea that
time was no particular object to them,
and told him they would not consider 1t
IN their findings, but as the colonel read
the stenographer took it down, and 1t
thus becomes part and parcel of the rec
ords OF Col. Penningtons high court Of
secrecy, and as such will probably be
considered by the war department when
1t reviews the proceedings of this court,
and that has been the end and aim of
Col. Du Wallis persistence. When he Of
Tered 1t before it was turned down, so
he used 1t as a part of his argument and
thus got 1t in. The colonel wins but it
was almost as rough on the court of
inquiry as was Gen. Young's wholesale
criticism.
On the opening Of court yesterday Mr.
Catlin opened the argument on behalf Of
Col. Leonhauser. He spoke for an hour
ana paid his respects to Col Du Vail In a
manner most emphatic. He opened with
q statement Of the case and referring to
the report that Col Du Vail had made to
Gen. Young he said that Col Du Vail. as
judge advocate of the Second army corps,
mad forgotten the characteristics Of g.
man and soldier and had taken occasion
10 abuse better men than himself Re-
rerrlng to the telegram from the war de-
partment, saying an inquiry ought to be
had, he said he did not believe that Gen.
Young would play the baby act and try
to shift the responsibility Of issuing the
order criticising the officers to the war
department. That he did not believe the
order originated with Gen. Young, but
emanated from Col. Du VAIL The tele-
gram from the war department did not
instruct Gen. Young to do as he had
done, but instructed him to censure those
omcers who had themselves participated
IN the meeting, and instead Of doing so
ne mad slurred the whole forty-six officers
OF the regiment indiscriminately. and Col
Du Valls trying to get the court-martiaI 8
proceedings before this court was an ef-
Tort TO show that, while he probably had
Gen. Young had some excuse for issuing
his order. Col Du Vail had gotten Gen.
Young into bad scrape and must now
get him out. Mr.. Catlin then briefly re-
viewed the evidence and in conclusion
said there was no mutiny in the camp at
Augusta on the night of Feb a. and there
was no ground to suppose that after the
trouole quieted down there would be any
mutiny and certainly not In the day
time.
MI. Catlin finished his argument at
II 80 and Col. Du Vail began, and with
out any opening remarks commenced
read1ng the report of the court-martial
held at Augusta. He was stopped by
the court, who would not stand for it and
Went into secret conference with the, at
torneys excluded from the room. But
the court gave in and said while they
would not consider the report in their
findings Col. Du Vail might read it If he
wished to, and he did wish to- There
were only nine reports of the nine diff
rerent trials, and as fast as he read one
he began another. 1t was a splendid
argument in favor of Gen. Young (?) He
also wanted to read the arguments of
the counsel In the court-martial, but that
did not go. Nothing daunted the col
onel kept on reading. He read from
n:9O to 1890 The court stopped for
lunch, but Col Du Vail fortified himself
as we'll and he began reading again at
1:S0; hour after hour passed and still he
read court-martial reports. Six o'clock ar
rived at last and Col. Du Vail had to be
informed 1t was time for him to stop.
or he would probably be reading vet. re-
gardless of whether any one was lis
tening to him or not. Reports of eight
trials were read; the ninth was ruled
out, being objected to by Col Leonhau-
ser's counsel on the ground that the find
ings had not been found when Gen.
Young's order had been published. Col.
Du Vail will resume his unique argument
this morning, and If he ever finishes
Capt. Crossheld will begin the closing ad-
dress. The end of the trial will depend
somewhat on Col. Du Wallis staying DOW
ers, which are, good at present.