Discipline in the war

The senior officer was the President of the court and he both conducted the court and ruled on questions of law. A judge-advocate was also present to certify that the court was correctly conducted, as well as to summon witnesses and try the case. He was also to serve as the counsel to the defendant until a plea had been entered. The defendant could also seek an outside counsel, although this counsel was not allowed to address the court but was present only as a ’friend of the prisoner’.

Although not strictly legal, both sides resorted to ’drumhead court-martials’ in emergency situations. These were quickly convened by a commanding officer to punish extremely bad behaviour, and just as quickly adjourned, the defendant having been found guilty and punished. At least one Union soldier was hanged as the result of a drumhead court-martial.

Since it had to rule so much territory without civilian governments, as the war progressed the US set up military commissions to try cases involving local civilians and soldiers.
Soldiers convicted of serious crimes were usually imprisoned in a federal jail. Deserters and cowards were often drummed out of the service. Their sentences were read out at the retreat parade or a special parade, their buttons and rank insignia were ripped from their uniforms, their heads usually shaved, and, wearing a sign proclaiming their guilt, they were marched out of the camp surrounded by soldiers carrying their arms reversed. Drummers beat ’The Rogues’ March’, or, in the Confederate Army, ’Yankee Doodle’.

In extreme cases such as murder, mutiny, treason, rape, desertion or sometimes even theft or pillage, the sentence was death. In all, 287 Union soldiers were executed for these crimes, most having been found guilty of desertion.
Most military executions involved firing-squads. In some cases, such as black soldiers being found guilty of raping white women, hanging was used. During the early days of the war, crimes against civilians such as rape or murder were usually punished by hanging, while military crimes were punished by firing-squad. Later, the firing-squad was the usual method of execution, although prisoners were occasionally hanged throughout the war. In both types of execution, all nearby units were made to witness the execution to bring home the seriousness of such crimes.

When a soldier was executed by firing-squad a fairly set ritual was followed. Witnessing units were formed on three sides of a square, facing in. The prisoner, after praying with a clergyman of his choice, was dressed in civilian clothing, usually a white shirt and dark trousers, so as not to disgrace the uniform, and was placed in a wagon with his coffin to go to the place of execution. Led by a corporal, a funeral squad of eight men, marching with arms reversed, accompanied the wagon, with drummers beating a funeral march.
A firing-squad of a dozen men waited at the site. The prisoner, having arrived, was helped off the wagon and in turn often helped carry his own coffin to the grave which had already been dug.

He then sat on the coffin while his sentence was read aloud. Another prayer from the clergyman followed and he was then given a chance to say his last words. Some men showed bravado, one even drinking stagnant water from his own grave. Some wept or shook with fear. The condemned man was then blindfolded and his hands were tied behind him. He then knelt either before the grave or on the coffin; the provost marshal gave the command, and the firing-squad fired the volley. It is said that the weapon of one man in the firing-squad was loaded with a blank cartridge, the idea being that each man might take comfort from the thought that he might not have fired the fatal shot. The fact, of course, is that there is very little recoil when firing a blank cartridge.
A surgeon then proclaimed the man dead. If, as often happened, the prisoner survived the volley, the provost marshal advanced and administered the coup de grace.
In virtually all executions, witnesses were horrified by what they saw, and often felt anger at their own officers; they often felt that the condemned man was more victim than transgressor.

Indeed, often they were, for the law was applied on both sides with a very uneven hand.
In late 1862 six deserters from the Army of Tennessee got off with some ’fatherly advice’ from their commanding general, while other Confederates were noted as having deserted as many as six times, caught, but simply returned to the ranks without punishment. On the other hand, Private Samuel Mapp, a black soldier from Virginia, was convicted of mutiny, disobedience of orders, and threatening the life of a superior officer for joining a protest against the inequality of pay scales between black and white soldiers. He was shot at City Point, Virginia, on 20 April 1865.

Taken from Civil War Source Book by Philip Katcher.