Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-27
ARMY %PUNISHMENTS.
Penalties Imposed for Violation
Of Military Law.
Scenes and Incidents at Some Execution
in the Confederate Army-A Thief
Drummed Out of Camp-A
Convict's Life.

COnvict's Life.
1t has been said-inter anna, silent
leges-in times Of wal the law is SILENT;
and in a great measure this adage is
true, so far as the operations of the
civil Laws are concerned, as was we'll
exempliied on both sides of the fence,
SO to speak, in our late civil war. But,
as there is law in civil life, so is there
in the military, only that the latter is
more hide-bound, its code being the
army regulations, supplemented by the
large discretionary power of the COM
manding officer. In the earlier part of
the civil contest, when the volunteer
troops considered themselves as good
as their officers, the privates in very
many instances being superior to those
placed by fortune over them, both in
education and social position, were
very FESTIVE under the salutary restraint
OF military discipline, and if the supe-
rior officers had not been wise enough
to make allowances for this state Of
feeling and to relax the strictness of
the rules with discretion at the outset
it is probable that serious mutinies
would have hampered the efforts of the
commanding generals on both sides.
But even at that period punishments
for the refractory were put in practice
confinement in the guard-souse the
bail and chain, extra police duty, riding
the wooden horse, carrying a rail, ETC.,
etc. Ii is not. however, OF these minor
p~unishments I wish to write in this
sketch. They were the common in
cidents of camp life, and conveyed no
special warning to the offenders or
their comrades. It is of those seyerer
punistments, cruel, doubtless, in them
selves, but absolutely necessary for
discipline, which carried to the hearts
OF all who witnessed them, the neces-
sity Of prompt and strict obedience to
the rules governing the vast machine
the army-of which they Were an in
tegral part. The lesson was thoroughly
learned by the volunteers later on in
the war. .
When General Johnston's army fell
back from before the lines of General
Mcclellan in front of Washington, in
the fall of 1861, to 90 into winter quar-
sers at Centerville, his army had been
brought into a very fair state of dis
sipline for those days. As weeks went
by and discipline was relaxed, the
monotony of life and the vices en-
%gendered by a long stay in the idleness
IT winter quarters began to tell upon
the morale of the army. 1nsubordina-
ton was rife, and the Generals deter
mined to put the screws down, so to
peak, that discipline might be re-
stored. Accordingly daily drills We're re-
illnled whenever the weather would
permit, and quarter-guards and camp
guards were vigorously maintained.
About this time two of the men of
the Sixth Louisiana Regiment of In
;antry q forget now which) attacked
one of their officers on account OF some
order he had given them which was
listateful to them, and beat him with
n an inch Of his life. They were a
rough set, those L~ouisianians, by the
way. The offenders were tried by
court-martial and ordered to be shot
on a day stated. Now, up to this
time, as far as my memory serves me,
there had been no military execution
n the army of Northern Virginia,
and it was not generally believed that
the sentence would be carried into eff
feet. 1t was thought to be too severe
a punishment for merely putting a
head on a subordinate officer. But,
considering the lax state of discipline
existing, General Beauregard, in whose
section of the Joint command of John
ston and himself the condemned men
were enrolled, determined to make an
example that would prove to the entire
army that the Commander-in-Chief
was in dead earnest to maintain disci-
nina Stran11n11c oHN1.fe yra,.o rooIn +>
save these men, and kilograms came
pouring into headquarters as thick as
flies in August, but to no avail. Ex-
iiuential men besieged the headquar-
tiers, but the General was obdurate. On
the day set for execution the brigade
to which the regiment of the con-
demned men was attached was drawn
up in a large open field in three sides
OF a square. The prisoners, seated on
their collins in an open wagon, fol-
lowed by a strong guard, were then
where two graves had been dug. Thou
sands from the other brigades Of the
army had 1ocked to ~ tness the specta-
Gle. The collins were placed beside the
open graves and the doomed men were
o1lilA1OA0CN 1A AOlSCA w hllCC1 upOu
them. To render the scene more i'm
pressive. while the firing platoon were
making ready the band Of the brigade
played a funeral dirge. A flash, a roll
OF smoke, and the men fell forward on
their faces, and all was over. A fatigue
party buried them where they fell, while
the troops We're marched off to their
camps, deeply impressed with the idea
Sl.4 -,:J,4,~ 49,, ,-,1, ,,,>r <f s,,- TA.-,
not to be said that the dreadful scene
had u wholesome etfec..
Another incident that I recollect hap
pened in the writer regiment (seven-
which partook more OF the nature of a
comedy than 8 tragedy, and yet the
punishment was more disgraceful tc
che men involved thar IN the case of