Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field |
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according acknowledged admitted allows American Army armistice bearer belonging besieged breaking the parole capital punishment capitulation captivity captured officers cartel cease character civil officers Commissioned officers committed common law concluded condition crimes destruction diplomatic agents district enemy's enslave entitled escape exchange of prisoners expel field flag of truce force FRANCIS LIEBER give no quarter GOVERNMENT OF ARMIES hospitals Hostages hostile army hostile country hostile government individual inflicted intercourse invaded country killing law and usages law of nations law of war legitimate government levy ligerents loyal citizens Martial Law ment military authority Military necessity modern law noncombatants oath occu offense parties penal law persons pledge prisoners of war private property public enemy rank rebellion rebels released retaliation revenge right to declare safe-conduct safety SECTION slavery soldiers sovereign stipulated suffer death territories occupied tion Traitor treated as prisoners treaty of peace troops unarmed United War-rebels wounded
Popular passages
Page 10 - The law of war can no more wholly dispense with retaliation than can the law of nations, of which it is a branch. Yet civilized nations acknowledge retaliation as the sternest feature of war. A reckless enemy often leaves to his opponent no other means of securing himself against the repetition of barbarous outrage.
Page 4 - Martial Law is simply military authority exercised in accordance with the laws and usages of war. Military oppression is not Martial Law ; it is the abuse of the power which that law confers. As Martial Law is executed by military force, it is incumbent upon those who administer it to be strictly guided by the principles of justice, honor, and humanity — virtues adorning a soldier even more than other men, for the very reason that he possesses the power of his arms against the unarmed.
Page 23 - Whoever intentionally inflicts additional wounds on an enemy already wholly disabled, or kills such an enemy, or who orders or encourages soldiers to do so, shall suffer death, if duly convicted, whether he belongs to the army of the United States or is an enemy captured after having committed his misdeed.
Page 20 - A prisoner of war is subject to no punishment for being a public enemy nor is any revenge wreaked upon him by the intentional infliction of any suffering or disgrace, by cruel imprisonment, want of food, by mutilation, death or any other barbarity.
Page 11 - Ever since the formation and co-existence of modern nations' and ever since wars have become great national wars, war has come to be acknowledged not to be its own end, but the means to obtain great ends of state, or to consist in defence against wrong ; and no conventional restriction of the modes adopted to injure the enemy is any longer admitted ; but the law of war imposes many limitations and restrictions on principles of justice, faith, and honor.
Page 25 - Honorable men, when captured, will abstain from giving to the enemy information concerning their own army, and the modern law of war permits no longer the use of any violence against prisoners in order to extort the desired information, or to punish them for having given false information.
Page 38 - If an armistice be declared, without conditions, it extends no further than to require a total cessation of hostilities along the front of both belligerents. If conditions be agreed upon, they should be clearly expressed, and must be rigidly adhered to by both parties. If either party violates any express condition, the armistice may be declared null and void by the other.
Page 4 - Martial law in a hostile country consists in the suspension by the occupying military authority of the criminal and civil law, and of the domestic administration and government in the occupied place or territory, and in the substitution of military rule and force for the same, as well as in the dictation of general laws, as far as military necessity requires this suspension, substitution, or dictation.
Page 43 - Treating captured rebels as prisoners of war, exchanging them, concluding of cartels, capitulations, or other warlike agreements with them; addressing officers of a rebel army by the rank they may have in the same ; accepting flags of truce ; or, on the other hand, proclaiming martial law in their territory, or levying...
Page 5 - All civil and penal law shall continue to take its usual course in the enemy's places and territories under Martial Law, unless interrupted or stopped by order of the occupying military power ; but all the functions of the hostile...