67th Tigers
Captain
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2006
The law, as of the Act of 17th July, 1862, proscribes that officers my only be held under arrest for 8 days without charges being preferred. If charges are preferred in this period, then the court-martial must occur within 10 days of the preferment of charges, and the arrested officer may remain under arrest during this period. If charges are brought within 8 days, but the court martial cannot be convened, then the officer may be kept in arrest upto an additional 30 days awaiting the court martial before they must be released.
If an officer is released from arrest without charge, charges may still be preferred at a later date, upto one calendar year from the arrest.
That is, if you lay the formal charge within 8 days, you have a maximum of 40 days to have the court martial, or the charges are dropped. The alternative is not to make the charges, in which case you have one year to lay the charges and start the clock. During the ACW, the latter was invariably the route chosen.
Common practice on campaign was to immediately (i.e. the same day) reassign the arrested officer to their home or a barracks to await further orders (i.e. the charges and arrangements for the court martial), rather than keep them in camp under arrest.
In some cases no-one ever got around to making the formal charge, but simply ran the clock out. The most famous example of this was General Stone, whose arrest was the reason why Congress placed the one year limit.
If an officer is released from arrest without charge, charges may still be preferred at a later date, upto one calendar year from the arrest.
That is, if you lay the formal charge within 8 days, you have a maximum of 40 days to have the court martial, or the charges are dropped. The alternative is not to make the charges, in which case you have one year to lay the charges and start the clock. During the ACW, the latter was invariably the route chosen.
Common practice on campaign was to immediately (i.e. the same day) reassign the arrested officer to their home or a barracks to await further orders (i.e. the charges and arrangements for the court martial), rather than keep them in camp under arrest.
In some cases no-one ever got around to making the formal charge, but simply ran the clock out. The most famous example of this was General Stone, whose arrest was the reason why Congress placed the one year limit.