On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lieutenant Moody Dustin was acquitted in a court martial. The orders of the day read:

Lieut. Dustin of Capt. Farringtons Company, in the 16th Regiment of Foot, tried at a General Court Martial whereof Col. Patterson was President for “Cowardice on the 7th of Jany last, when on Command with a Detachment sent towards Bunkers-hill”—is unanimously acquitted with Honor by the Court—The General approves of the proceedings and orders Lieut. Dustin to be released from his arrest.

The records I have reviewed did not indicate any details of the charge of cowardice against Lt. Moody Dustin that was rejected by the Court Martial, but he would later be promoted to captain and continue to serve honorably for the remainder of the Revolution. He was discharged from the Continental Army in December 1783 when the Army was disbanded.

Sources: “General Orders, 3 February 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0178. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, p. 242.]; https://www.socnh.org/moody-dustin/