Dear List Members;
I looked this up and typed it up as to post here to benefit all:
The 1865 Customs of Service - For Officer of the Army --A Handbook of the Duties of Each Grade - Lieutenant to Lieut. General - Author August V. Kautz
#49 - The charge of prisoners is a responsibility of some importance even in a Regiment, and a sergeant called a “Provost Sergeant” is often detailed to take charge of the prisoners during working hours, to keep the record of their names, and the kind and duration of their several punishments.
[This section is under the Grand Guards and Police Guards]
According to #362 -
Provost Marshal--Provost Marshal are of two kinds. The strictly Military Provost Marshal is a Military Police officer, whose duty is to suppress marauding and depredations, and to prevent all kinds of disturbances; to keep order and regulate drinking establishments and other resorts, and prevent drunkenness, and all kinds of disorders; to enforce orders with regard to the conduct of a camp or sity, and regulations for the markets, hotels, taverns, and places of public amusement; to make searches, seizures, and arrests; to execute sentences of military courts, involving imprisonment and corporeal or capitol punishment.
#363 - The Provost Marshal takes charge of all prisoners, whether captured from the enemy, or otherwise held; he arrests stragglers and other offenders of the command, and forwards them to their proper regiments and companies, with the written charges against them; he has the supervision of the passes of officers and soldiers, and signs the passes to citizens authorized within the lines for trade or other purposes; he investigates complaints of citizens arising from the conduct of the troops; and may have charge of scouts and spies employed in the command.
#364- Such as the character of the duties that are usually assigned to the Provost Marshal, but usually only some part of them would fall to his lot at one time, unless the headquarters of an army, where the Provost Marshal might have all the foregoing, and more too; to attend to. It is only in time of war that a Provost Marshal is greatly needed, and then he is an officer of great importance, and should not be dispensed with, and he should be selected with references to his fitness and capacity for the duty.
#365- To establish a bureau to control the enrollment of the militia, the enlistment of volunteers and to execute the draft the Provost Marshal General’s Department was organized, first by the War Department, and subsequently by act of Congress (G.O., No. 140, 1862; Act March 3d, 1863, sec. 5) Provost Marshals were appointed for each Congressional District, each Territory, and the District of Columbia, and Deputy Provost Marshals to assist them were authorized, who in addition to enrolling and drafting, were charged with the arrest and confinement of deserters, spies, and persons resisting or interfering with the enrollment or draft.
#366- The District Provost Marshals were appointed from civil life, and were under the orders of the Provost Marshal of the State, and not all receive their orders and instructions from the Provost Marshal General at Washington. This Provost Marshal system, improperly named, was called into existence by the necessity of raising large armies to suppress the rebellion, which being achieved, the necessity for such a bureau no longer exists, although there is no doubt a bureau where the enrollment of the male population of the country should be kept correctly, would be vast assistance in the event of another war.
#367-In the field the Provost Marshals are selected from the line officers, and varied in rank from Lieutenants to Generals. They were attached to brigades, divisions, corps, and armies, and often local Provost Marshals for cities, towns, and districts, were appointed, and even detachments, operating independently for a few days, had their Provost Marshals for the time being to look after stragglers, marauders, and pillagers, and to take charge of prisoners.
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For the history of Provost Marshal - Revolutionary War on - please look at:
Evolution of the Office of the Provost Marshal General | Mil...
Evolution of the Office of the Provost Marshal General from Military Police in News provided free by Find Articles.
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBW/is_1_4/ai_n... - 42k - Similar pages
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m..._4/ai_n6124024
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Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf
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