Ungentlemanly Acts: The Army's Notorious Incest Trial: the army's notorious incest trial

The Story

In April 1879, Captain Andrew Geddes, a decorated army officer of dubious moral reputation, faced a court-martial. The trial involved scandalous issues of seduction, incest, and abduction, and the highest figures in the United States Army were involved. Geddes had accused Lieutenant Louis Orleman of committing incest with his teenaged daughter, Lillie, but the army then charged Geddes, not Orleman, with 'conduct unbecoming a gentleman' -- for daring to speak of such a taboo subject. The result was court-martial and persecution.Louise Barnett's examination of this little-known but significant case is both a suspenseful narrative and a nuanced study of attitudes toward sexuality, parental discipline, the army, and the appropriate division between public and private life during the tumultuous post-Civil War period.