Your book The Fort was interesting, especially its look at Paul Revere. But he is not the only “American Hero” accused of cowardice in battle. Senator Sam Ervin, known nowadays as the country lawyer from the NC mountains who took on President Richard Nixon in the Watergate Senate investigations,was lionized by the media, particularly the left-leaning writers. Yet, when I was a USMC officer attending Duke Law School 31 years ago, I had a seminar with his former Senate Staff aide, Professor Robinson Everett. At a social occasion at Professor Everett’s home one evening, I took him aside and asked if he had ever known that Senator Ervin had been charged with cowardice in the trenches in WWI. The professor was shocked and said he hadn’t. This is important because Ervin , prior to Watergate, was known for his reforms of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1968, with Everett as his right hand man. I added that the source I had found showed that Lt Ervin received no formal punishment for this breach of duty (long artillery bombardment temporarily drove him nuts). So you just never know about your “heroes”!

Bill Johnson