Fort Atkinson, Nebraska

On the night of June 3, 1824, there was a ball at the council house on the grounds of Fort Atkinson, and Sgt. Robert Ferguson, Company H, 6th U.S. Infantry, apparently had a good time.

He was having considerable less fun on the morning of June 5; Regimental Court Martial proceedings were being held, and Sgt. Ferguson was up on charges: "intoxicated to such a degree as to render him incapable of performing his duty as a non coms. Officer..., neglect of duty in not reporting or turning over to Sergt. Major the man of Company H that was detailed for the police guard...," and "being deficient two gallons & Eight gills of whiskey for the men of Company H, which...he had charge of."

Sgt. Ferguson pled not guilty, but the testimony was damning; witnesses told of finding him on the barracks floor at 6 a.m. in the morning of the 4th, and putting him into his bunk; of the Company H guardsman marching by himself to the guard parade; and of the whiskey supply coming up short. There was more, too: testimony showed that Ferguson had been seen to "draw whiskey from the keg containing the rations for the men of the company to drink of & to give others to drink" after normal rations had been distributed.

Sgt. Ferguson offered testimony in his own behalf, but it was unconvincing; his story on the theft of the key to the closet where the whiskey keg was kept carried little weight, since the key was found conspicuously on a table, and his claim to have been "excessively fatigued, not being used to late sittings" the morning after the ball apparently didn't persuade the officers of the court who had heard the testimony of those who had found him asleep on the floor. Private Rush, who had helped put Ferguson to bed, testified, "I do think he was drunk at the time."

We know all this, because of the watchful eye of an Omaha antiquarian book and print dealer, and the generosity of two Omaha businessmen.

The information comes from an inconspicuous and somewhat tattered old book whose yellowed pages, covered in the meticulous copperplate hand of a well trained clerk, are a virtual goldmine of information about old Fort Atkinson, in 1824 the western-most military post in the American territory, the first beyond the Missouri River, and a crucial link in the westward expansion of the nation.

This ragged bit of paper and leather is a story in itself.

The name on the book's leather spine, perhaps imprinted at a later time, on the somewhat more recent-looking patch of red leather says COURT MARTIAL RECORD, 6th U.S. INFANTRY, 1824-1825. Now, thanks to the generosity of Mike Yanney, chairman of America First Companies, and Harold Andersen, President of the Omaha World-Hearld, it belongs to the Game and Parks Commission. Both Andersen and Yanney are members of the Game and Parks Foundation.

The story begins with Richard Flamer, of 1023 Booksellers in Omaha who learned through an out-of-state colleague that the book was coming up for sale. "It was in the estate of the Riley family--an English branch of the family--and it was sent to New Haven, Connecticut, because it was thought Yale University would be interested in it," says Flamer.

No one knows how the volume came to be in the possession of the Rileys, but Bennett Riley, for whom Fort Riley, Kansas, is named, was stationed at Fort Atkinson, and his signature appears several times in this volume as a member of the court. It was thought that Yale would be interested because that University owns another of the few existing contemporary accounts of life at Fort Atkinson, the journals of surgeon John Gale.

Says Yanney of the transaction that brought the book to Nebraska, "A local art dealer [Flamer] let us know that Yale Library was going to buy it, and if we wanted it, we had to make an offer within 24 hours."

Yanney got in touch with Andersen, who reports that his reaction was, "Yale University! What do you mean? Mike and I said, `this is important; Atkinson ought to have it.' So, we agreed that we would buy it, and Mike and I would split the cost."

The book contains detailed records of cases tried before military courts during the nine-month period from June 1824, to March 1825. Each record contains a description of charges, verbatim transcription of witnesses' testimony, and the accompanying legal machinery. The manuscript totals some 100,000 words, and many of the court's findings are signed by Col. Henry Leavenworth, commander of the fort.

This volume is one of the earliest known contemporary records of life in Nebraska, and perhaps no other contains such a wealth of detail. There is no doubt from a historian's point of view that, in Yanney's words, "It is a precious document."

Currently, Fort Atkinson State Historical Park Superintendent Steve Kemper is making a word-for-word transcription of the volume so that future research can be conducted without unnecessary handling of the fragile pages. The record promises to be a rich store of information about life at Fort Atkinson in particular, and on the military frontier in general.

These 130 cases, concerning a broad range of infractions, offer perhaps the best glimpse into the daily life at this remote frontier military post yet discovered. The book itself will eventually be on display at the visitors center.

And what of the wayward sergeant? "The court after mature deliberation on the testimony.find the prisoner Sergt. Robert Ferguson guilty of the charges...and sentence him to be reduced to the rank of a private sentinal & undergo a stoppage of the whiskey part of his rations until he makes good...the quantity, two gallons & Eight gills of which he has been found deficient." Poetic Justice.