Excerpt from Commodore Charles Wilkes's Court-Martial: Letter From the Secretary of the Navy, Transmitting, in Answer to a Resolution of the House of Representatives of May 16, Proceedings of the Court-Martial Which Tried Commodore Charles Wilkes Friday, Marcia 11, 1864. The court met pursuant to adjournment. Present rear-admiral F. H. Gregory, president; rear-admiral S. H. Stringham, rear-admiral H. Paulding, rear-admiral L. M. Goldsborough, Commodore John Marston, Commodore Henry K. Hoff, Commodore Henry H. Bell, Commodore H. K. Thatcher, Captain John L. Worden, and Charles Eames, esq., judge advocate. The accused and his counsel were also present. The record of yesterday's proceedings of the court was read by the judge advocate, and approved by the court. The judge advocate then Offered in evidence a duly certified copy Of the or der addressed by the Secretary Of the Navy, under date of January 27, 1863, to Acting Lieutenant Charles H. Baldwin, which order is set forth in the first specification to the first charge, and proceeded to read it in evidence. The defence thereupon objected to the reading in evidence of the papers thus offered by the' judge advocate, and submitted to the court a paper of the follow ing tenor: The said defendant, Charles Wilkes, Objects to the introduction of evidence under and in support of the first Specification of the first charge, be cause he has not, previous to the ordering Of the court, been called upon for any explanation of the act in said charge and Specification alleged, as required by the rules and regulations for the government of the navy. Whereupon the court, at the suggestion of the judge advocate, was cleared for deliberation; and after some time so spent, the doors were reopened, and the judge advocate then stated that it is ordered by the court that the judge advo cate announce that the court overrules the Objection Offered by the defence to the reading Of the paper in evidence as Offered by the judge advocate. And the judge advocate is ordered further to announce that any reasons Offered by the defence to sustain any motion or Objection in regard to the proceedings of the court in this trial be submitted, as briefly as possible, in writing, for their consideration, and that oral argument upon questions arising in the proceedings of the court by the defence is considered by the court to be in departure from the sound practice of courts-martial, and therefore to be avoided. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.