War Crime?

CMWinkler

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My eldest brother, C. A. Peddicord, was a member of the "Summer Greys," Company K, Second Tennessee Infantry, mustered in at Richmond, Va., May 14, 1861, and the youngest, C. J. Peddicord, was a member of Ben Hardin Helm's First Kentucky Cavalry. He was taken out of prison at Gallatin, Tenn., during Gen. Payne's reign, and shot near the farm of a Mr. Malone because he refused to guide or inform on his friends. C. A. Peddicord was fatally wounded in an encounter at the close of the war with three ex-Federal soldiers at Glasgow, Ky., and died near Glasgow Junction, where both lie buried at the family grounds of the "Old Bell Tavern."

Confederate Veteran 1902 p 214

Was C. J. Peddicord the victim of a war crime?
 
So he was shot twice? Ooops. Never mind. Yeah, the first man, maybe. The second one? Not enough info
 
Murder, I guess. Maybe a war crime - shrug

Peddicord-Carolus-J_.jpg
 
I'm not a lawyer, but I would suggest that the difference between a a crime which just happens to occur during a war and a war crime is that the war criminal's purpose is related to his conduct of the war. C.A. Peddicord's death would seem to be the former, C.J.'s the latter.
 
General Eleazor Paine has a very bad reputation hereabouts. The stories of his depredations have been passed down even to the third and fourth generations. I was being a bit facetious about the war crime though I think it was. The other brother was clearly just a crime.

Paine was infamous for his murders. One was a 12 year old boy who was found near the L&N railway near the bridge at Station Camp Creek. He claimed he was going to fish and had a cane pole but was accused of sabotage. He was brought to General Paine who ordered him executed. He was. Bad times in Sumner County.
 
. . . C.A. was shot long after the war by three or four citizens. It is C.J. that is the subject of @CMWinkler's question.

It seems that C.A.'s wife was imprisoned at Gallatin some time before and was only released after she was banned from returning to her own farm property in TN. It sure made her angry as hornets.

ETA: yeah, that Paine is really dubious character indeed
 
My eldest brother, C. A. Peddicord, was a member of the "Summer Greys," Company K, Second Tennessee Infantry, mustered in at Richmond, Va., May 14, 1861, and the youngest, C. J. Peddicord, was a member of Ben Hardin Helm's First Kentucky Cavalry. He was taken out of prison at Gallatin, Tenn., during Gen. Payne's reign, and shot near the farm of a Mr. Malone because he refused to guide or inform on his friends. C. A. Peddicord was fatally wounded in an encounter at the close of the war with three ex-Federal soldiers at Glasgow, Ky., and died near Glasgow Junction, where both lie buried at the family grounds of the "Old Bell Tavern."

Confederate Veteran 1902 p 214

Was C. J. Peddicord the victim of a war crime?

http://www.visitmeadecounty.org/the-fighting-peddicords/
 
The second shooting was plain murder. That's just the way it was during the post-war period. One modern historian dubbed the South the "earlier version of the Wild West".
 
The idea of a war crime as a legal definition came long after the ACW so we would have to apply 20th Century values to 19th Century events. If this act were a crime at all it would be under the laws and regulations in force at the time. Would the killer's army regard his conduct as a crime? Would the killer's enemy regard it as a crime? I assume the killer would be exempt from civilian justice. The passage does not identify the killer(s).
 
About the OP as history and evidence: This is lifted out of the Confederate Veteran 40 years after the fact. The author of the article does not identify how he learned of the event so it is, at best, second or third hand. We can discuss the merits of the alleged event without assessing its veracity.
 
I'm not so sure. Look at the two charges (not all the specifications thereof) against Henry Wirz:


1. That Henry Wirz maliciously, willfully,

and traitorously conspired to injure the

health and destroy the lives of soldiers in

the military service of the United States,

then held prisoners of war; in violation of


the laws and customs of war.


2. Murder, in violation of the laws and


customs of war.


Now that seems to me to be exactly "war crimes". The term we use came later, of course.
 
1899 and 1907. The 2 Hague conversions that codified War Crimes. The concept did not exist legally before.

Accusing someone of a "War Crime" then, is not that different than accusing an antebellum slaveowner of a "Hate Crime"...
 
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Both sides in the American Civil War did things that would now be cosidered war crimes.This was not unusual during wars then or even a terrible wars. In most civil wars this kind of thing was too comon. What surprises me is that the American Civil War was as civil as it was.
 
From the National Historic Park site, (Georgia):
While the trial of Henry Wirz was by far the most famous of the military tribunals at the end of the Civil War, it was not the only one. In fact, there were nearly 1,000 military tribunals in which Confederates, both regulars and guerrillas, were charged with various violations of the laws of war – mostly related to the treatment of prisoners of war. Some of these trials even led to acquittals. For example, the camp commander at Salisbury Prison, Major John Gee, was arrested in the fall of 1865 and charged with similar crimes as Wirz. Unlike Wirz, Gee was unanimously acquitted in the spring of 1866. After the war, General Grant actually prevented the tribunal of another of Salisbury's commanders, Bradley T. Johnson, who faced charges of negligence at the prison and for burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1864. Even among those convicted, Wirz did not stand alone for the atrocities of Andersonville. James Duncan, who worked in the quartermaster's office at Andersonville, was arrested and convicted of manslaughter by a military tribunal for his role in intentionally withholding rations from prisoners. He was sentenced to hard labor at Fort Pulaski, where he escaped a year later.


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Souix-ExecutionsSmall.jpg

The execution of 38 Souix after conviction by a military tribunal - December 26, 1862

Library of Congress

In addition to post-war military tribunals by the US Army, the Confederate military routinely punished individual guards who committed violations against prisoners. For example, several guards at Andersonville were court-martialed by their own superior officers and placed in the stocks or given the ball and chain right alongside the Union prisoners.


I guess there was such thing as war crimes in the post war period. Im not sure all that would have happened if Lincoln lived.
 
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I wonder if would there be any interest in pursing the "war crime" of summary executions of POW's by the CS. Somehow I doubt it greatly...

The US wasn't the best about pursing punishment for criminals in their own ranks but... there are at least records of men being punished for crimes in the US Army during that period. I wonder how much of such could be found in CS records?
 
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