Are there any history fanatics out there?

I'm surprised you haven't had any success in public libraries. Normally their reference rooms or geneaology rooms have these materials, at least in part. Many local historical societies do as well. I work in non-fic history, so I know how arduous the research can be.

The best all-around source for this is the National Archives, which is a treasure trove of historic military information. If you can't find it there, you need to get glasses, LOL.

Below is the link to their website, but you can also call and talk with real human beings. They're incredibly helpful.

http://www.archives.gov/

dkglenning said:

I'm trying to find information about court marshalls of that time.

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I don't usually point out misspellings, but if you're using it as a search term, you need to know the word is court-martial.

ETA: And the plural is courts-martial.

I love this question, but I'm moving it to Story Research.

The Navy had the "Articles Of war" which spelled out all the various offences. Check if the Army had something similar.

Treason could get you hung, so could cowardice in battle or sodomy.

An officer would most likely be shoot unless it was for what was considered an especially heinous crime ie: sodomy.

Naturally, it depended on who you were. An officer would never be flogged but an enlisted man certainly could.

For the civilian poor, things were far worse and it didn't matter how young you were in the seventeen hundreds. For example, back then a seven old boy and his 11 year old sister were hung in England quite literally for stealing a loaf of bread.

There was no public outcry.

Misappropriation of funds?
Public drunkeness or insubordination to a senior officer?
Sexual impropriety with a senior officer's wife/daughter?

Rather depends on who the officer is and what his connections are. If he upset someone with major government/royal connections then he could be toast

dkglenning said:

I am currently working on a historical romance novel set in the American Revelutionary War. ...

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Have you looked through this, this, this, and this, (find someone who can get into JSTOR for you,) this, ?

If you have access to a University Library, you might look for, more generally, books on British Military History and British Military Law.

JoB

The nearest thing I could find, date-wise, was a book called An essay on military law, and the practice of courts martial by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee in 1800.

The powers of a general Court-Martial are therefore various and extensive, both as to the nature of the crimes of which they make take cognizance, [sic] and of the punishments which it is in their power to decree. The several crimes are, as above observed, specially enumerated in the Mutiny-act and Articles of War, as also in his Majesty’s printed regulations, which from time to time are issued from the war-office and published and promulgated in general orders. But there are offences which admit of no precise definition, and yet which in the military profession are of the most serious consequences, as weakening and subverting that principle of honour, on which the proper discipline of the army must materially depend…

It is declared in the Articles of War, “that whatsoever commissioned officer shall be convicted before a general Court-Martial, of behaving in a scandalous, infamous manner, such as is unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman, shall be discharged from our service;”…

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He doesn't really specify any types of crime but does give a few suggestions as to where you might look.

The other one I found was The institutions of military law, ancient and modern by Alexander Bruce, written in 1707.

And here I shall first observe, That Crimes in general, are either common, viz. Such as may be acted by any Man; as Murder, Adultery, etc. or they are purely Military, to wit, that can be committed only by a Soldier; such as Mutiny, Desertion, etc: Some add a third Kind, which indeed are so far of a mixed Nature, that any other, as well as a Soldier, may be guilty of them; but if they be perpetrated by such as are listed under Command, they are not punished after the common Form, but in an extraordinary Manner, and generally with much greater Severity.

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He lists a lot of crimes but the majority of them seem to be punishable by death (in the case of desertion, mutiny, treason, concealing treason etc) so that might be something to keep an eye on - if you don't want your Colonel shot he can't do something too bad

One thing Bruce mentions is drunkeness, and he does cover the old laws regarding duelling as well, though he doesn't say what the legal position was in his day, so that might be worth looking into.

If you can't access the links job posted above, let me know, as I have a password for jstor and Oxford Online journals.

In many instances historically throughout cultures courts martial were politically motivated and trumped up or inflated charges. Perhaps he had dinner at a tavern that had "known conspirators", or defended the honor of a serving wench.

Sorry, but I have to differ, GeorgeK.

A Court Martial is the military equivelant to a civil court. Any breach of the military code could result in a CM. That includes murder, rape, robbery, etc.

A relative of mine back in the 1800s got thrown out of the army for marrying a Catholic. It caused a major stir and, so I was told, a change in the law.

tallus83 said:

Sorry, but I have to differ, GeorgeK.

A Court Martial is the military equivelant to a civil court. Any breach of the military code could result in a CM. That includes murder, rape, robbery, etc.

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Feel free to differ. I grant that I may be working from a small sample and I truly hope that your view is more standard, and that what I've witnessed is not the norm, but I've worked with a lot of military personell and have seen a court martial first hand. What I saw, matched what I later asked friends who had served on different courts. Several of my relatives have served on courts martial. It all depends on who is bringing a charge, not necessarily what the charge is. In a worst case scenario it can be a witch hunt. In a best case it is a lofty idealistic proper procedure of justice. (hopefully more the latter but to assume there is none of the former is simply being too altruistic, which is nice but impractical) In the military court the defendant is guilty until proven innocent. That has been the norm for all of history, not just America. Our civil court concept of innocent first is an historical abberration (and hopefully a trend). Also the original post had to do with late 1700's British Military Justice. I'm not an expert on that, but what I have read sounds very little different from Roman Military Law (except the Brits took a little longer to execute people).

Example:Centurian doesn't like his sergeant and sees the lieutenant sleeping with the captain's wife. Centurian uses blackmail to get the lieutenant to get the sergeant kicked out or busted. It goes to a court martial but the verdict is a foregone conclusion.