The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell

Gerard Shirar
Universe (2008)
ISBN 9780595444915
Reviewed by Nikki Pringle for Reader Views (7/08)


“Let me introduce myself. My name is prejudice. I have been around as long as mankind itself… To further me, wars have been fought, and countless crimes against humanity have been committed…”

Charlie Newell is a man who knows what it is like to face prejudice on a daily basis. Living in the South in the early 1900s, Charlie is drafted to serve in the United States Army during World War I. Based on his religious beliefs, which forbid participation in war, Charlie applies for conscientious objector status; a request that his local draft board denies. The local sheriff comes to find Charlie and brings him to Fort Caswell in North Carolina to serve his tour.

Once there, Charlie is put to work at the base stables, tending to the horses used by the Army. If he can keep this job, he will most likely avoid being sent overseas and fighting in the war, as his religion prohibits, and will be able to serve his time without issue. However, when Charlie refuses orders to work on Saturday because it is considered the Sabbath by his church, he finds himself in trouble once again. The Army observes the Sabbath on Sunday, and Charlie is told that the rules of the Army overrule the wishes of God as he interprets them. If he refuses to work Saturday’s, he will be court-martialed for disobeying a direct order. At first, Charlie’s immediate superior, Sergeant O’Callahan, allows him to take Saturday’s off and work Sunday’s instead. What is the harm, really, when he is basically a farmhand and is not housed with the other soldiers, who might disagree with the arrangement? The horses don’t care which day is his day of rest.

When a bigoted officer ranking higher than Sergeant O’Callahan learns that Charlie is not observing the Army rules, he sets him up in a situation that guarantees he will disobey a direct order and be punished. After his refusal, Charlie is held in jail until his court-martial can begin. Given the racial prejudice of the time, the outcome of the court-martial is a forgone conclusion and Charlie is dishonorably discharged and sentence to ten years in the penitentiary. As he serves out the time he has been sentenced to, he is exposed to discrimination and despicable behavior on an almost daily basis. Other inmates, guards, and officers of the Army treat him with a contempt that has nothing to do with Charlie as a man, and everything to do with the color of his skin.

During his time in prison, Charlie comes to understand that prejudice is not a one-way street. Many of the African-American citizens he meets along the way have the same feelings of hate and bigotry towards the white community. Prejudice isn’t just about race either. People are also mistreated because of their religious beliefs, their social status, their gender, and for any other belief or choice that someone else deems unacceptable. He also discovers that not everyone has these same hateful feelings in their hearts and he makes some unexpected friends and allies during his struggles.

Gerard Shirar’s novel, “The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell,” takes an in-depth look at the mistreatment that one man suffers based solely on the color of his skin and serves as a reminder of a dark time in our nation’s history. While the setting of the story is almost 100 years in the past and it is a work of fiction, it deals with a very real subject matter, of which the wounds are still fresh for many people. The injustice that Charlie experienced in the novel, which was a real occurrence for some of our populace, has not been eradicated from the hearts of all Americans. As much as we would like to forget that these things happened in our nation, “The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell” serves as an important reminder so that we can discourage such intolerance and narrow-mindedness in future generations.

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