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- Aug 25, 2012
The rules of war allow for captured spies to be executed and it appears, during the Civil War, both sides did this. It doesn't appear to have been particularly common.
Spies seem to fall in to a couple of categories. Soldiers who dress up in enemy uniforms and cross the line to gain information is one type. Dressing in enemy uniforms to attack your enemy is another type. Civilian collecting information and passing it to the enemy is another type of spy.
While civilian spies could be shot, it was more common to transport them to the other side's territory. The number of civilians executed compared to the huge number of civilians passing on information shows that executing civilian for spying was uncommon.
There were several high profile cases of military spies getting executed.
Spies seem to fall in to a couple of categories. Soldiers who dress up in enemy uniforms and cross the line to gain information is one type. Dressing in enemy uniforms to attack your enemy is another type. Civilian collecting information and passing it to the enemy is another type of spy.
While civilian spies could be shot, it was more common to transport them to the other side's territory. The number of civilians executed compared to the huge number of civilians passing on information shows that executing civilian for spying was uncommon.
There were several high profile cases of military spies getting executed.
Bringing the