In March 1890, six of the eleven Koehler siblings gathered in LeMars, Iowa, to observe their mother’s birthday. Front, from left: Edgar, Margaret, Ben, Sophia. Back: Lizzie, Henry, Rudolph. Courtesy Mary Elke

Sophia in 1894, the year before she graduated high school. Courtesy Mary Elke

Ben, standing behind Peyton March, both lieutenants leading the Astor Battery in the Philippines, 1898. Courtesy Mary Elke

Sophia and Ben, now a captain, in 1902. Location unknown, but likely the Presidio in San Francisco. Courtesy Mary Elke

Fort Terry on Plum Island, circa 1913. Officers’ houses are on the left; the guardhouse is the small building to the right of the road; a large barracks building #54 is at the far right. The parade ground is the grassy expanse in front. Courtesy Bolling Smith, Coast Defense Study Group

When soldiers from other forts visited for summer drills, they slept in tents on the parade ground. Courtesy Bolling Smith, Coast Defense Study Group

A wagon called a buckboard, drawn by horses or mules, provided the primary means of transportation at Fort Terry—as well as the setting for one of the claims against Major Koehler. Courtesy Bolling Smith, Coast Defense Study Group

Philip Worcester, date unknown. Photo by Michael Belis

Louis Koehler, circa 1915. Courtesy Mary Elke

Ben Koehler walks behind Samuel Hudson, his lawyer, and Colonel Harry Hawthorne, his military counsel, on the day photographers were allowed on Plum Island during the court-martial. Leavenworth Post, March 16, 1914.

Schenectady Gazette, April 15, 1914. Left to right, Lieutenant Humphreys, Ben Koehler, Lieutenant Steese, and Colonel Kirby, the jury president.

The Sun, February 23, 1914

The New York Times, March 7, 1914

The New York Times, Feb. 23, 1914

The Sun, March 4, 1914

Ben and Sophia’s farm in Hawarden, Iowa, as it looked in 2016. © Marian E. Lindberg

Ben at the Hawarden farm, 1925. Courtesy Mary Elke

Sophia with her son, Louis, in 1920 in Portland, Oregon. Courtesy Mary Elke

One of the former Fort Terry barracks #54, 2017. © Marian E. Lindberg

The view from Eldridge gun battery, 2017. East Point is in the distance. © Marian E. Lindberg

The largest of the barracks (#55, with 218 beds) viewed from the beach in 2017. © Marian E. Lindberg

Plum Island Light was built in 1869 to help boaters navigate Plum Gut, the unpredictable body of water between Orient Point and Plum Island. The granite building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. © Marian E. Lindberg