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Counterfeit Currency Gets One Union Soldier Murder

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A good war-date manuscript Union army court martial document, 5pp. folio, "Head Quarters, 6th Division, 14th Army Corps, Nov. 21, 1862"in which three Union soldiers of the 73rd Indiana are found guilty of passing counterfeit five and ten dollar currency notes, reading, in part: "General Orders No. 89…a military commission…convened…of which Col. L. B. Grigsley is president…tried…Private Chas. E. Stewart, Co. E, 73rd Indiana…[who] did on the 29th day of October…at camp…near Columbia in the state of Kentucky alter and pass to one James B. Merrill a citizen…in exchange for potatoes a…note purporting to be a bank bill of the Crawfordsville, Logansport and Northern Indiana R. R. Bank…of the value of ten dollars…pretending and representing…that the said bank note was genuine…in fact said…bank bill…was utterly worthless…which was well known to said Chas. E. Stewart…and do therefore sentence him…to be at hard labor confined at such military…prison…for 12 months…and at the expiration of him imprisonment to be dishonorably discharged…the commanding general indulges the hope that this summary and disgraceful punishment will effectually check the practice of passing spurious Bank Bills and Confederate notes already…quite prevalent in his command…by command of Brig. Gen. Hascall…". The document continues in the same vain outlining that two of Pvt. Stewart's cohorts, Pvt. George Laman and Sgt. Charles Clemmens, are also guilty of the same crime and will receive equal punishment. Clemmens never finished his prison sentence because he was killed by a fellow inmate on July 15, 1863, Stewart was dishonorably discharged and only Laman returned to his regiment and faithfully served throughout the remainder of the war. VG.

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