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| Dr. Eugene Watkins, director of the Old Fort Complex, is constantly digging in search of information on the old fort. Recently, he took a research trip to West Point, New York, where he found some daily logs, as well as court martial briefs, providing information he feels shows a bit more of what day to day life was like at the fort in 1812-1813. Dr. Watkins is pictured here going through Muster Rolls he photographed in West Point. |
By Brennan Umthun/Staff Writer www.DailyDem.com
It appears that Old Fort Madison was once a hot bed of troublemakers, or on the other hand, maybe it was operated by officers who felt it was their duty to instill discipline in their soldiers – through punishment.
On a recent research trip to West Point, New York, Dr. Eugene Watkins, director of the Old Fort Complex, brought back findings that shed additional light on the personalities of those stationed at Old Fort Madison from 1812-1813, as well as the daily goings on, and the punishments doled out to soldiers failing to fall in line.
“A number of questions were raised and a few have been answered,” said Watkins of his research. “Predominantly, what I found was a collection of court martial findings. It’s a real fascinating look into the personalities of those who were stationed here.”
In 1812, the federal government banned flogging as a form of punishment for two years. Watkins said in the past the question of whether or not Fort Madison followed that law has been up in the air.
“It does appear that flogging stopped at Fort Madison,” he said. “They just punished soldiers in other ways, such as with the punishment horse, public stocks, confinement and hard labor.”
One interesting fact uncovered by Watkins was that not only were soldiers under the hard hand of officers, but civilians could be punished as well.
“There is now proof that civilian employees were subjected to discipline by the Army,” he said. “I had always heard that, but never had seen much in previous research that would prove it.”
Watkins added that he has court martial accounts of soldiers who were forced to sit on the punishment horse for 60 hours (not all at once). He also found documentation showing where soldiers had been placed in stocks for 24 hours.
“One of the soldiers I learned about was Private Jacob Wagner, who seemed to be a troublemaker at the fort,” he said. “We also believed there were wash women at the fort; we now have proof of that. There were instances where soldiers complained about how bad the washing was. One of those soldiers was demoted and punished for commenting on the relationship between a Lieutenant and Miss Pauly Green (a wash woman)…”
