Order Of Execution
Subtitle: The Trial and Execution of Private John Carroll, Company D, 20th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
Publisher: Bivouac Publications
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 200
Description: On June 20, 1862, John Carroll, an illiterate Irish Catholic, enlisted as a private in Company D, 20th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  The regiment left Camp Randall, Madison, Wisconsin on August 30th and headed south.  The men of the 20th saw their first action December 7th, at Prairie Grove, Arkansas.  Here, John Carroll fought hand in hand with his comrades in arms.  The achieved victory, but at a terrible cost.  As the 20th left the battlefield, 82 of their comrades' lay buried in hurriedly constructed graves.  Leaving Arkansas, the 20th Wisconsin traveled to Mississippi where they took part in the siege of vicksburg.  In October 1863, the 20th was transferred to the Thirteenth Army Corps under Major General Napoleon Dana and took part in an expedition that took them up to the Rio Grande to Brownsville, Texas.  John Carroll became part of the provost-guard that occupied the City of Brownsville.  On November 20th, Carroll was placed under arrest for crimes committed within the City of Brownsville.  Ten days latter, John Carroll stood before a Court-Martial Tribunal.  Without a defense attorney at his side, the illiterate Irishman could muster no defense.  He was quickly convicted by a mostly Protestant officers tribunal and sentenced to death.  For the next year Carroll lingered in a military prison until he finally stood before a firing squad, becoming the only soldier executed from the state of Wisconsin.*
Table of contents: title: Part 1; title: Finding a New Life
label: Chapter 1; title: Call to Arms
label: Chapter 2; title: Off to War
label: Chapter 3; title: The Crime
label: Chapter 4; title: The Tribunal
label: Chapter 5; title: The Trial
label: Chapter 6; title: Verdict and Review
label: Chapter 7; title: The Long Wait
label: Chapter 8; title: The Wait Continues
label: Chapter 9; title: ON the Move
label: Chapter 10; title: Lincoln Signs the Order
label: Chapter 11; title: Execution
label: Chapter 12; title: Notes and Other Trials
label: Part 2