Articles of War

[shanman_77]

I was wondering if there was in place or made after the Civil War some kind of article or whatever drew up about unfair treatment of army POW's... I'm writing a story and would like to know how the precedings and things would go to try to convict an officer of unfair treatment of POW's in front of a military tribunal...

 

[huskerblitz]

The Lieber Code was in effect during the Civil War.

You can view all of them here: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lieber.asp

Articles dealing with prisoners of war can be found here: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lieber.asp#sec3

 

[major bill]

Violating General Order No. 100 (Lieber Code) would have been considered disobeying an order and soldiers could have been charged with this. I am not sure one will find many examples of soldiers or officers being charged with disobeying orders in regard to the treatment of prisoners.

I am not sure when the concept of committing a crime while violating orders allowed one to be changed with a crime. One would assume that killing or injuring a prisoner could be seen as murder or battery. The current United Code of Military Justice in the US Army was still years away and you might want to look at the Army Court Martial books from that time frame to give you some hints. Also the Army JAG Corps was not what it is today.

Remember there was no International Red Cross in 1865 and in 1865 the concept of war crimes was not the same it is today.

 

[streetwiseprof]

Capt. Henry Wirz, commander of Fort Sumter (Andersonville) POW camp was tried, convicted, and hanged for violating the rules of war in his treatment of Union prisoners at the camp. The specific charges included "violation of the laws of war, to impair and injure the health and to destroy the lives—by subjecting to torture and great suffering; by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quarters; by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the dews and burning sun of summer; by compelling the use of impure water; and by furnishing insufficient and unwholesome food—of large numbers of Federal prisoners."

The Andersonville National Historical Site contains the National POW Museum. They would probably be the best source of information about prosecutions for mistreatment of POWs during the Civil War.

 

[leftyhunter]

I was wondering if there was in place or made after the Civil War some kind of article or whatever drew up about unfair treatment of army POW's... I'm writing a story and would like to know how the precedings and things would go to try to convict an officer of unfair treatment of POW's in front of a military tribunal...

We have some past threads on the treatment of Pows by both sides. Treatment of Pows was harsh on either side. @major bill has a past thread on a related subject "Why no galvanized Confederates " in that thread I pointed out that the Confederates did recruit Union soldiers at the Pow Camp at Camp Salisbury, North Carolina. The Union also recruited Pows at Camp Douglas, Illinois to fight Indians out West. Colonel Kirk of the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Union also recruited Confederate Pows.

Other then Witz no one else was punished for mistreatment of Pows.
Leftyhunter