I am indirectly related to this Thomas, as he was the brother of my GGGGG Grandfather, James Coulter (both of them sons of Alexander Coulter of NC and TN). Thomas had a relatively long career in the militia, culminating in his involvement in the later months of the War of 1812. As outlined in a biography of General James Winchester (Winchester was Thomas' immediate superior; his biography is authored by Walter T. Durham), Thomas was supposed to take his regiment from Knoxville to Mobile in order to assist in preventing a possible British invasion there. His departure from Knoxville was to occur about the middle of November in 1814; he was expected to arrive in Mobile within a month. Unfortunately, and much to the stress of Winchester, no one heard anything from Thomas until February of 1815, when he finally shows up outside of Mobile. Even then, it takes him another week to make the last few miles into the city, and most of his men are unarmed. While being ill-equipped might not have been Thomas' fault, his tardy arrival was certainly an issue (even though the war was now over). In Durham's book -- which is excellent, by the way -- this is pretty much the end of the story.
The rest of the story can be found in Thomas' service records held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Following his arrival in Mobile, Thomas was almost immediately arrested and subjected to courtmartial, on multiple counts of drunkenness and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. In essence, Thomas seems to have suffered from a serious case of alcoholism (not an unknown problem in the military in those days, of course!) His courtmartial trial dragged on for three weeks, with Thomas frequently manuevering to delay the proceedings. In his final defense, Thomas resorts to lengthy arguments over technicalities, such as seeking the prosecution's definition of "beastly drunk" (as opposed, I guess, to being normally drunk!). The record of the proceedings runs to thirty-six pages, many of which are water damaged. Still, what's left makes for excellent reading. In the end, he was found guilty of all of the charges and specifications except one, which was dismissed because of its lack of specificity regarding the date of a particular incident of drunkenness. He was sentenced to be cashiered (to be dismissed from the service in disgrace), and his final service record confirms that this occurred. Interestingly, his widow makes application years later for bounty land based upon his service, but apparently never receives the grant, which I seriously doubt she would have been entitled to anyway, due to Thomas' dishonorable discharge. I have the records of her application process as well...her son-in-law (who was in Thomas' regiment) makes a number of inquiries (over several years) as to why an answer to her application has been delayed, but she dies before this answer is apparently ever received. I've always been curious about this situation....did she not know what had happened in Mobile? Did she know, but didn't think it would matter? Did the authorities deliberately delay her application as a polite way of avoiding embarrassment for an aging wife? This last supposition is hard to buy; it's almost impossible to believe that she hadn't heard anything about it in all these years....after all, many of the men in Thomas' regiment were local to their home area in Tennessee, and country gossip would surely have reached her ears eventually! Even then, the government probably wouldn't have been too terribly sensitive regarding her feelings. It's all fascinating, that's for sure.
I'll admit that I was very disappointed to uncover this information years ago....I was so proud to have a high-ranking officer in our ancestry! It just goes to show you that alcohol never loses its ability to damage people's lives, now or then.
Copies of Thomas' records, including his courtmartial, may be obtained from the National Archives. Please respond if you have any questions, or just want to theorize about the situation.

Sincerely....
M. Coulter