Frederick Gotthold Enslin: 'Dismiss'd [From] the Service With Infamy' - San Francisco Bay Times

"On March 10, 1778, Gotthold Frederick Enslin became the first soldier to be tried, convicted, and expelled from the Continental Army for "Infamous Crimes" with another serviceman. Commander in Chief George Washington personally approved the court-martial decision. Whether Washington signed the discharge order because Enslin had been found guilty of intimate relations with a private, or because Enslin had been discovered socializing with someone below his rank, which was equally forbidden and scandalous, or because Enslin had lied about the matter to a superior officer,"

"Almost nothing is known of Enslin's life before he joined the army. He had traveled to the newly proclaimed United States of America on the Union, a recently built ship of "250 tons burthen" that arrived at Philadelphia on September 30, 1774. The ship had been built in Philadelphia and then registered for passengers barely six months earlier, on April 2, after a journey that originated in Rotterdam with calls at Portsmouth and Cowes. Enslin joined the fight for American Independence as a lieutenant"

Gotthold Frederick Enslin was court-martialed and expelled from the Continental Army on March 10, 1778, for "Infamous Crimes" involving another serviceman, with George Washington approving the decision. Possible reasons cited include intimate relations with a private, socializing with a lower-ranked person, or lying to a superior, but exact details remain unclear. Enslin arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Union in 1774 and later joined the Continental Army as a lieutenant. Earlier allegations prompted a Brigade Court Martial inquiry on February 27, 1778, when Ensign Anthony Maxwell faced charges of propagating a scandalous report about Enslin.

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