Major Henry Leonard
The influence of a gaping and curious public can have no effect on the conduct of the Judge Advocate in this matter. . . . The hallowed grave of a dead son is no more sacred than the grave of a military reputation and there are a great many military reputations at stake in this hearing.—Major Henry (Harry) Leonard
A 33-year-old hero who had lost his left arm in the Boxer Rebellion, Major Leonard proved to be a formidable judge advocate and an ideal one to handle Rosa Sutton in what was supposed to be an unbiased investigation into the facts surrounding Sutton’s death. As it turned out, Rosa needed to be handled—she was strong minded, a devout Catholic, and just as determined as he was to defend values that were (and are) sacred to a large number of Americans.
The “curious public” egged on by the press was a major reason for the 1909 Inquiry. How much impact did public opinion really have on Leonard’s actions in the summer of 1909? His comments reveal his concern about his own reputation, and also his awareness that his duty was to be impartial. Was that possible? As a Marine Corps officer, his actions were also driven by his loyalty to his fellow marines. So Leonard hoped the Marines’ attorney could attack Rosa Sutton’s credibility. Arthur Birney would go after her mental stability, and, aware that many spectators in the auditorium of what is now Mahan Hall, were empathetic to the military, he proclaimed: “We know what an officer’s honor is to him. It cannot be stained without the same kind of injury which is done to a woman’s honor when it is stained….” Mr. Birney would argue that Rosa Sutton exhibited the “ferocity of a tiger” in going after the marines who were with her son on the night he died without any proof they had committed a crime.
The case became a battle between protagonists who fought hard for sacred reputations and for their own versions of the truth. The need for esprit de corps gave some of the officers and enlisted men who testified in the inquiry a challenge when they were asked to describe what really happened to Lieutenant Sutton. Their stories changed and their memories, in some cases, became sharper two years after the fatal brawl that resulted in Jimmie’s Sutton’s death.
America’s service academies—then as now—are always scrutinized more than other institutions of higher education in this country. Because so many citizens felt they had a stake in what happened in the Sutton case, the government’s representatives fought for the hearts and minds of Americans inside this military courtroom. The Marines’ code of conduct was just as important to them as Rosa Sutton’s spiritual mission–to ensure her son would have a place in Heaven– was to her. The nation’s newspapers shaped the public dialogue about this story, and the lawyers’ closing arguments in the makeshift courtroom in what was then called the Academic Building.
Not long before A Soul on Trial was first published in hardcover, journalists reported on three Army families whose sons had died in the Army under questionable circumstances in 2004. As they tried to learn the truth, these mens’ mothers faced evasive answers in the face of devastating tragedy. Their challenges were an inspiration to me in 2004 and remain so more than 20 years later. A new Epilogue in the 2026 release of A Soul on Trial revisits these three courageous mothers, Peggy Buryj, Karen Meredith and Mary Tillman and explores how they finally learned how their sons died with the help of journalists and the expansive twenty-first century. press. Reporters have kept up with their stories; and the lessons learned over time.
Look for the updated first ever paperback and e-book of A Soul on Trial in the spring of 2026.