Court-Martial: How Military Justice Has Shaped America from the Revolution to 9/11 and Beyond

by Chris Bray

Historian and former soldier Chris Bray tells the sweeping story of military justice from the earliest days of the republic to contemporary arguments over using military courts to try foreign terrorists or soldiers accused of sexual assault. Stretching from the American Revolution to 9/11, Court-Martial recounts the stories of famous American court-martials, including those involving President Andrew Jackson, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Lieutenant Jackie Robinson, and Private Eddie Slovik. Bray explores how encounters of freed slaves with the military justice system during the Civil War anticipated the civil rights movement, and he explains how the Uniform Code of Military Justice came about after World War II.


With a great eye for narrative, Bray hones in on the human elements of these stories, from Revolutionary-era militiamen demanding the right to participate in political speech as citizens, to black soldiers risking their lives during the Civil War to demand fair pay, to the struggles over the court-martial of Lieutenant William Calley and the events of My Lai during the Vietnam War. Throughout, Bray presents readers with these unvarnished voices and his own perceptive commentary.


Military justice may be separate from civilian justice, but it is thoroughly entwined with American society. As Bray reminds us, the history of American military justice is inextricably the history of America, and Court-Martial powerfully documents the many ways that the separate justice system of the armed forces has served as a proxy for America’s ongoing arguments over equality, privacy, discrimination, security, and liberty.

Genres: Military Fiction, History, Nonfiction, Law, Military History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published May 16, 2016

Reviews

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this one with high hopes but my initial feelings about the author is that he could have benefited from more research during the American Revolutionary War period. His continuing references to "white people" during this section of the book showed a grievously simple view of life in the Colonies during this time. There were thousands of white slaves during this time in the colonies along with black slaves. Both white and black free men fought during the war. The author appears to allow later developments in race relations to color his perception of the colonial period in America. This along with the fact that "white people" is usually as poor a descriptor of what is normal as it would be to say "Asian people". There are significant differences between different ethnic groups in the United States from different parts of Europe and often lumping them all together as one group isn't particularly meaningful.

Many people didn't want to participate in fighting the war which is not reflected by the comments the author made about this time. Many states had to resort to drafting people to force them to fight for the colonies against England especially towards the end of the war.

After the author passes the Revolutionary War and starts to get into the Civil War I found myself enjoying the book a lot more and found fewer issues. Overall a good idea for a book and well put together. Valuable for JAG readers for the longer historical context this places their service in.

There were a few statements the author made I really liked. One example: "Today's footnote was yesterday's long and urgent debate."

[Bob H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good introduction, and history, of U.S. military courts from the Revolution to the post-9/11 period. As someone who has written at length on military justice matters, I can tell you that this is a concise and readable summary of how military courts evolved from crude, informal affairs to a court system with its own judges, case law and Federal statutes. The book also talks about key incidents in this process: the miscarriages of justice against captured native Americans, LGBT suspects and African-American servicemen, the military trials of civilians ranging from Confederate sympathizer Lambdin Milligan to Nazi spies, notorious defendants like Lt. William Calley -- and well-describes their importance. It tells of the 1951 creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a pivotal event, and its subsequent progress.

This is not just about "courts-martial" as such but the various military tribunals that also took place, notably military commissions, often-Kafkaesque proceedings that could make up rules of evidence and procedure as they went. The book does mention the post-9/11 commissions at Guantanamo and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, but doesn't go into much detail on this process; fair enough, since this muddled process is still playing out and incomplete.

In all, this book is a good, concise and well-researched summary of a subject that can be obscure, complicated and at times confusing. Highly recommend.

[Jeremy Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Bray nails the. enigma of military justice: it's a microcosm of us as a society, yet it's also set apart, different in fundamental ways from civilian legal systems​. Court-Martial is not a reference book; many significant courts-martial are glossed over or didn't make the cut. However, he hits most of the highlights, and ads a good bit of original scholarship of his own. The writing is tight, entertaining, and insightful.

[Dana Maughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using story after story, this book illustrates the struggle to create (and maintain) a consistent, fair military justice system with due process and equal rights, notwithstanding the command influence and politics of the military. The book provides interesting examples of how military courts have dealt with many of the same important issues as civilians courts throughout US history, and gives a helpful overview of how the military justice system has gotten to where it is today.

[Holden Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book analyzes how military justice has impacted society while remaining a reflection of the hot topics of the era.

Most people out there don't think about court martials. We don't consider where the soldier ends and the human begins. This book explores how the law and military commanders decided these topics.

This book explores it historically highlighting the main cases that had the greatest impact. It is well reasearched and unbiased. I like the way the information is presented.

[Barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really gets into its stride midbook but slightly uneven at other points. Very valuable perspective on the history of military justice.

[Shixiao Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting and made good points about the development of America's military justice system. I enjoyed learning about the basis and complexities of its creation.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misleading title. The book is about how civil society shaped military justice, not the other way around. Also only brings up 9/11 and beyond in the conclusion …?

[Andrew Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a judge advocate, I was very interested in what this book purported to be which was a journey through various courts-martial throughout American history. In that sense, I thought it delivered very well but a great selection of courts-martial beginning in the colonial period and the initial state militias. What was another interesting thesis was that Mr. Bray argued that courts-martial of each period were representative or even led the way of current societal issues of the time. It's a fascinating thesis but the evidence didn't always match up. Perhaps there were not enough records but the courts-martial presented were all very fascinating and well researched to the best of his ability. Records of many of these courts-martial vary much in quality; so the end product was very impressive.

Mr. Bray also tracks an uplifting trend of increased procedural due process and rights being afforded defendants as time moved on; culminating in today's Uniform Code of Military Justice. I did think it stopped a bit short at modern post 9/11 cases but perhaps that's another volume in the works but kind of misleading based on the title. All in all the main thesis is executed well enough with the research available (minus the lack of post 9/11 cases.)

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a good topic: The changing parameters of the military justice system and how those parameters change as society changes. All of the book was interesting, but my favorite was the Civil War part. The author talks a lot about the attitude of military justice regarding troops who don't agree with the political positions of the leaders, both from the position of the northern and southern troops. There's lots to think about here.