Wayne, very interesting. I've never seen anything relating to this. Assuming the document is authentic, my guess would be that someone for some reason accused Peck of desertion. With all of the army politicking that went on, it could have been a jealous superior officer acting out of spite (I'm just speculating). When an officer believed he had been unjustly accused of improper behavior, such as not following orders or his leadership questioned or maybe that he had deserted, they often demanded a court of inquiry as a way to publicly clear their name. The fact such high ranking officers signed off on Peck's innocence and that the inquiry obviously didn't hurt his career makes me suspect that everyone realized the charge was bogus.