As part of our celebration of America at 250, we’ve started a weekly newsletter by historian Jonathan Horn. Learn what happened this week in American history, why it matters, and what else you should see and read in The Free Press and beyond. This week Jonathan looks at the court-martial of Billy Mitchell, the history of the Gadsden flag, and much more. To get this newsletter in your inbox every week, sign up here. —The Editors
The Court-Martial of the Century
“So far as air power is concerned, we would be in the hands of foreigners,” the witness said when asked if the United States had the domestic industry to keep pace in the event of war. Those words do not come, as they might seem, from some recent hearing on America’s preparedness for the drone warfare taking shape in Ukraine but rather from the testimony that Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell gave in his own defense at a 1925 court-martial. One hundred years ago today, a jury of generals found Mitchell, now known as the “father” of the U.S. Air Force, guilty of insubordination and all but ended his military career.
With our America at 250 coverage this month focusing on religious liberty, it’s fitting to remember Mitchell given that his followers often spoke of him in almost religious terms.
