The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-24
Her NAME SECRET
Woman in Capt. Smith Court
Martial Not Known.
Members of Court Martial Pledg-
ed to Secrecy.
FINDINGS ARE SEALED
No One Connected With Affair
Will Talk.
Dismissed Captain Has a Bril-
liant Army Record.

Fort Leavenworth, Kan, Feb. "a.
And the woman shall be name
| less
This is the pledge of all the officers
VINO We're in any way connected with
! the court-martial which tried Capt.
Guy H. 3. Smith of the Fourth In
| tantry The court recommended the
/ dismissal of the captain from the ser
vice and the president approved the
1inding of the court yesterday. Pow
! erful influences are said to have been
brought to bear on the president, not
only by army men, but also from Ohio.
his own state.
| The formal charge and all that the
records in this sealed mystery of the
United States service show is that
Captain Smith is found guilty of con-
| duet unbecoming an officer and a
| gentleman. That is all that will ever
! be known officially, for every man
| connected with the trial was sworn
| to secrecy forever"
Trial Well Guarded.
| The trial was conducted at Fort
LeaVenWorth while his regiment was
stationed at Fort Crook, near Omaha
only the essential witnesses were pres
ent when the court convened. No Of
ncer under rank of major sat in the
deliberations. An officer of equal rank
With Captain Smith acted as judge
| advocate or prosecutor. The trial was
held in room in Pope hall last July.
A guard of soldiers was posted around
| the building and no one except the Of
| ficers who served the court was allow
| ed to pass. Not a scrap of testimony
| reached the outside. The findings of
the court were sealed and sent to
| Washington. No member of the court,
from Col. Robert H. r. Loughbor-
ough, the presiding judge, down, ever
told what the evidence was.
The extraordinary secrecy sur
rounding the trial excited curiosity
far beyond that of any other case of
recent years. 1t was the talk of all
the western army posts. The records
| of the army in the west show no other
| case parallel to it in the manner in
which the trial was hedged about with
secrecy to prevent possible leaks in the
| testimony. 1t was known, however,
| among all army men that Captain
Smiths accounts as commissary and
| adjutant of his regiment were correct
| to penny. He kept them like d
| banks books. His appointment as ad-
jutant Indicated that he was the
crack captain of the Fourth infantry.
His record in the service was far above
the average.
Held High Rank.
Captain Smiths rank dates from
December, 1900. He was a West
Pointer, credited to Michigan at the
time of his appointment in 1887. Be
sides that he was an honor graduate
Oh the infantry ana cavalry SCnOOI at
| Fort Leavenworth in 1897. He was
in the engineer corps and his hobby
| was topography. In the Santiago
| campaign and throughout the Philip
pine insurrection he showed marked
ability in this line and other officers
| declared "he had great knack in
picking out good positions for the de-
/ ployment of troops
The army was a family pride of the
family. His father was a West Point
| Frin SERVED through
war and was retired as a brigadier
| general. The son hoped to follow his
fathers course. He student al
| ways and his present rank among the
| first seventy, and in the ordinary
| course of the army prom otion he
would have received his majors COM
mission in about two and one-half
years. Every query as to Captain
| Smith was invariably answered that
che is a fine officer
On an Army Transport.
Despite the secrecy about the trial,
however, gossip began to filter into
Fort Leavenworth through letters
from Fort Crook. It is generally ac-
lcepted that the trouble involving Cap
tain Smith gathered suddenly and
broke while the Fourth infantry was
returning on a transport from the
| Philippines. Three days before the
Il boat reached San Francisco the cap
ties as commissary and adjutant. He
was removed to Fort Crook and the
charges sent to the headquarters of
the department of the Missouri, which
ordered the "closed court"
officers, when they learned that the
reason for the secrecy was that the
honor of a woman was involved, made
no further effort to find out who. 1t
is part of the ethics of the service to
stop inquiries at that point. The wom-
en- of the garrison, though, learned
that she was the wife of high of
ficer of the regiment. There were five
witnesses at the trial They are Col.
Edwin B. Balton, Capt. Benjamin T.
Simmons, Second Lieut.. G. I. Griffith,
Second Lieut.. George w. Whiting,
Fourth infantry, and Lieut.. Col. John
Is Mallory, Seventh infantry. A num-
Der of dispositions were submitted
also, one being that of 1.-The woman
who shall be nameless, it is said.
1t was learned through the garrison
gossip that the basis of the charges
against the captain was that he en-
tered the wrong stateroom on the
transpacific voyage and found it occu-
pied by the wife of a brother officer.
Captain Smith has a wife and a son. 5
years old.
The verdict of the court strips Cap
tain Smith of his hopes of military
career and the work of the best part
of his life goes for naught-