The Court Martial Of Captain John Armstrong

John Armstrong was destined to be a humble farmer on the Pennsylvania frontier until the American Revolution changed his life. Rising from private soldier to an officer in the Continental Army, he later served in the First American Regiment, foreruner of the U.S. Army, that was tasked to facilitate the settlement of the Northwest Territory. He endured the fledgling army’s growing pains, was selected for a covert operation in Spanish territory to explore the Missouri River, and fought Native Americans in two disastrous military campaigns. The army subsequently evolved into a successful fighting force despite its second-in-command’s quest to destroy the career of its commander, Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne. Armstrong became an unwitting pawn in a treacherous game crafted by Brig. Gen. James Wilkinson, of whom Theodore Roosevelt once wrote, “He had no conscience and no scruples . . . In all our history there is no more despicable character.” Rebuilding his life in Ohio and Indiana, Armstrong became a noted government official, militia officer, land speculator, and pioneer.

This is the story of James, John, and Hamilton Armstrong, three sons of a yeoman farmer living on the Pennsylvania frontier at the outset of the American Revolution. James and John joined the Continental Army in 1776, rose from the ranks to become officers, and served until the army was disbanded in 1783. Hamilton remained home to work the farm, protect the family, and serve in militia and “ranger” units to defend the frontier from repeated attacks from hostile Indian tribes. Their combined wartime experiences encompassed almost the totality of the American Revolution, from Canada in the north to South Carolina in the south and along the western frontier. James and John fought in most of the major battles of the revolution, including Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Guilford Courthouse, Eutaw Springs, and Yorktown, where they distinguished themselves in the eyes of generals like the Marquis de Lafayette, Mad Anthony Wayne, Light- Horse Harry Lee, Nathanael Greene, and George Washington.

Between 1803 and 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark co-captained the most famous expedition in American history. But while Lewis ended his life just three years later, Clark, as the highest-ranking Federal official in the West, spent three decades overseeing its consequences: Indian removal and the destruction of Native America. In a rare combination of storytelling and scholarship, best-selling author Landon Y. Jones presents for the first time Clark's remarkable life and influential career in their full complexity. Like every colonial family living on Virginia's violent frontier, the Clarks killed Indians and acquired land; acting on behalf of the United States, William would prove successful at both. Clark's life was spent fighting in America's fifty-year running war with the Indians (and their European allies) over the Western borderlands. The struggle began with his famed brother George Roger's western campaigns during the American Revolution, continued through the vicious battles of the War of 1812, and ended with the Black Hawk War in the 1830s. In vividly depicting Clark's life, Jones memorably captures not only the dark and bloody ground of America's early West, but also the qualities of character and courage that made him an unequalled leader in America's grander enterprise: the shaping of the West. No one played a larger part in that accomplishment than William Clark. William Clark and the Shaping of the West is an unforgettable human story that encompasses in a single life the sweep of American history from colonial Virginia to the conquest of the West.

Secretary of War. Order designating one storehouse at West Point for the sole use of the military academy. This order goes on to state that "no books, maps, nor mathematical or astronomical instruments belonging to the United States and intended for the use of the Academy, shall ... be removed to any other place."