More Gleanings from the US Archives, part 2

I guess one of the hazards of doing research is that you are eventually bound to find out that some of the heroes being researched  had... shall we say...issues... during their military careers, before or after. Guess they all were human!

Today I want to briefly touch on two files that produced some unexpected results.

First I will start whith Toronto born Lieutenant Edward Paul Doherty. who by age 20 or 21 went off to the US and served in several different regiments during the Civil War. He was relatively unknown as an officer until he was selected by the War Department to head off with some troops to capture John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. He went off and accomplished his task and became famous for doing so. You can read my blog about him at...  http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/1/post/2013/03/9-years-and-5-regiments-served-a-pow-international-hero-but-no-medal-of-honor.html  

But it is service before and after that stunned me. Let's begin with this entry in an official document of the US Adjutant  General's office  in December of 1888. It comes from the Doherty widow's application files for a pension. 

Here you can see that Lt. Doherty, years before his capture of Booth, had some tough times in the service. He was caught absent without leave and later it was discovered that he was apparently under the influence of liquor for over a month. His commanding officer, in giving an honourable discharge... was being more than kind to him. Possibly in the hopes that he would learn his lesson.

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Soon he would rejoin the military but not long after he would again resign on the grounds of some unexplained "family  affair."

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Upon re-enlisting yet again, he would again go missing from duties. Turns out he was under arrest and held in a camp jail but no information had been found yet what he was accused of.

In Dec 1870 some sort of a special Board was held and ordered, that due to a "lack of good morale character,"  he be  dismissed from further service in the military and so came the end to his military career.

What ever his crimes, they however cannot take away from his efforts to capture the very man who assassinated the President of the United States.

And now onto something a little more positive...

I have mentioned Lt Samuel W. Preston several times in past blogs claiming that he was most deserving of a Medal of Honor in past blogs. Sam was about 24 years old and like Doherty was an Ontario man. But instead of Toronto he came from London, a few hours drive west of Toronto. He was a navy man and was as qualified, if not more so than most to be awarded the medal. But because of the rules of the day, the navy officers could not be so awarded. So they did the next best things. Over the years they named not one war ship BUT SIX after him. Something the history teacher forgot to teach us.
 
I had a chance to peak into some records in DC and discover a  most interesting find... and here it is... 

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The US Navy sent this out to all stations and it seems pretty strong language to suggest that all recipients will do their best to comply with the raising of funds to create a monument for Sam Preston at Annapolis.

I have not found any such structure in my initial research but will be pursuing what was done in this regards and bring news as it becomes available.

Here is a marker at Annapolis that obviously cries for some attention. He took his training there and graduated first of his class in 1862. 

Please have a look at the earlier blogs about this officer at...

http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/1/post/2013/01/1.html
and...   http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/1/post/2013/01/a-canadian-medal-of-honorthat-wasnt-awarded.html
and ...  http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/1/post/2013/01/two-navy-one-marine-and-one-army-medal-of-honor.html

This blog is getting too long so I will leave the best till last.. on Wednesday.

Bart

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