The first case growing out of the acts of military officers during the war, which attracted general attention and created throughout the North an uneasy feeling, was the Milligan case, which was before the Court on habeas corpus.  In October, 1864, Milligan, a citizen of the United States and a resident of Indiana, had been arrested by order of the military commander of the district and confined in a military prison near the capital of the State.  He was subsequently, on the 21st of the same month, put on trial before a military commission convened at Indianapolis, in that State, upon charges of:  1st.  Conspiring against the government of the United States; 2d.  Affording aid and comfort to the rebels against the authority of the United States; 3d.  Inciting insurrection; 4th.  Disloyal practices; and 5th.  Violations of the laws of war; and was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.  He had never been in the military service; there was no rebellion in Indiana; and the civil courts were open in that State and in the undisturbed exercise of their jurisdiction.  The sentence of the military commission was affirmed by the President, who directed that it should be carried into immediate execution.  The condemned thereupon presented a petition to the Circuit Court of the United States in Indiana for a writ of habeas corpus, praying to be discharged from custody, alleging the illegality of his arrest and of the proceedings of the military commission.  The judges of the Circuit Court were divided in opinion upon the question whether the writ should be issued and the prisoner be discharged, which, of course, involved the jurisdiction of the military commission to try the petitioner.  Upon a certificate of the division the case was brought to the Supreme Court at the December term of 1865.  The case has become historical in the jurisprudence of the country, and it is unnecessary to state the proceedings at length.  Suffice it to say that it was argued with great ability by eminent counsel—­consisting of Mr. Joseph E. McDonald, now U.S.  Senator from Indiana, Mr. James A. Garfield, a distinguished member of Congress, Mr. Jeremiah S. Black, the eminent jurist of Pennsylvania, and Mr. David Dudley Field, of New York, for the petitioner; and by Mr. Henry Stanbery, the Attorney-General, and Gen. B.F.  Butler, for the government.  Their arguments were remarkable for learning, research, ability, and eloquence, and will repay the careful perusal not only of the student of law, but of all lovers of constitutional liberty.  Only a brief synopsis of them is given in the report of the case in 4th Wallace.  The decision of the Court was in favor of the liberty of the citizen.  Its opinion was announced by Mr. Justice Davis, and it will stand as a perpetual monument to his honor.  It laid down in clear and unmistakable terms the doctrine that military commissions organized during the war, in a State not invaded nor engaged in rebellion, in which the federal courts were open and in the undisturbed