The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-07

ly one of the most dangerous punish
ments known. The sweat box was also
a. great institution with officers who
had bad men to punish in hot weather.
1t was a box is inches square, and as
long as a man. The ''bad'un'' stood up
in this, sweltered and theoretically re-
pented of his evil-doing. Generally,
however, there was more thought of
getting even than of repenting.
The pack drill has already been
mentioned. A variation of that is car
rying a. small log-a good sized fence
post it generally was. For back talk
the general punishment was bucking
offenders mouth. A stout stick was
placed against the back of his legs at
the knees. Under this stick his arms
were passed and tied at the wrists in
front of the knees. The soldier could
sit, but neither lie nor stand, talk HOT
make motions. Another fayorite pun
ishment was to make the culprit stand
on the head of a barrel. a variation
of this was to knock out the head and
make the soldier maintain his footing
on the chime. Some officers cut hole
in one end of the barrel and knocked
the other head out. This the soldier in
disgrace wore as an Overcoat. He
! walked, not home, but the beat in
| barrel.
] 4hethliS LlS.l SCcnQ With arms eX-
tendel dashed to piece of wood across
the shoulders was also common
thing. LaShing a man to a wooden
! horse, eight or nine feet high. Men
were tied up by their thumbs. so their
toes would barely touch the ground
| One company commander during the
! late war erected a platform on sup
! ports 10 feet high On this single of
! fender was placed, to broil in the sun
| m. oh in ha oil do
! out food or permission to lie or sit
down. That was worse than the pillory
| or the stocks in some respects, but it
! could not compare in the physical pain
endured with the punishment known
as riding the buck. This consisted of
/ sitting astride a rail raised six or
| eight feet above the ground.
When non commissioned officers sin
! they lose their chevrons. When commits
stoned officers sin-stea1 government
money, get drunk or strike privates-
they are generally fined and permitted
! to resign. When they are tried their
equals try them. When a private sins
he is tried by the peers of the man
who accuses him. Army judicial pro-
cedure is based upon the assumption
that the private is wrong and that the
officer is right. Punishment is meted
out upon the assumption that the pri-
waite can be reached most readily by
physical pain. The army and it's ideas
of punishment are just where the civil
authorities We're some 200 or 300 years
ago, when men were logged, put in
the pillory or in the stock for small
misdeneanors, and hanged for Of
lenses that are now punished by jail
sentences.
Captain Lowering in his testimony
said he had Hammond dragged, while
ne kicked and stabbed him. Hammond
was therefore administered punishment
before there was accusation. He
thought it necessary to punish a pris-
oner and had refused to obey what he
thought an illegal proceeding before
the matter was Investigated. If Ham
mond had not been a prisonet and haC
refused to obey, then perhaps Lowering
might have made an example of hin
without waiting for an investigation.
The opinion about the war depart
ment is that the court of inquiry vii