Lincoln's Code

by John Fabian Witt

  261 Grant himself offered: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, 456.

  261 “die in the last ditch”: OR, series 2, 6: 226.

  262 “They well know”: Kenneth W. Noe, “ ‘Alabama, We Will Fight for Thee’: The Initial Motivations of Later-Enlisting Confederates,” Alabama Review (July 2009): 163, 179.

  262 “the chief” and “insurmountable” obstacle: OR, series 2, 7: 105.

  263 Some 55,000 men died: Sanders, While in the Hands of the Enemy, 1.

  263 Joseph Holt was born . . . worked feverishly to bolster: Elizabeth D. Leonard, Lincoln’s Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion After the Civil War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), 12–23; Mary Bernard Allen, Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, 1862–1875: A Study in the Treatment of Political Prisoners by the United States Government During the Civil War, Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1927, 47–75.

  263 delivered to the new president: Joshua E. Kastenberg, Law in War, War as Law: Brigadier General Joseph Holt and the Judge Advocate General’s Department in the Civil War and Early Reconstruction, 1861–1865 (Durham, NC.: Carolina Academic Press, 2011), 25–27.

  263 “went further in his hatred”: Ibid., 17.

  263 “the fallacy of neutrality”: Joseph Holt, The Fallacy of Neutrality: An Address by the Hon. Joseph Holt, to the People of Kentucky, Delivered at Louisville, July 13, 1861 (New York: J. G. Gregory, 1861).

  263 he nearly chose Holt as Cameron’s: Leonard, Lincoln’s Avengers, 25–26.

  264 From 1821 to 1849: The Army Lawyer: A History of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1775–1975 (Washington, DC: Judge Advocate General’s Department, 1975), 35–40.

  264 John Fitzgerald Lee: Kastenberg, Law in War, War as Law, 5, 38–52.

  264 He doubted military commissions’ authority: OR, series 2, 1: 373; Kastenberg, Law in War, War as Law, 49.

  264 “when not a legitimate belligerent” . . . “known to our laws”: Allen, Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, 37–39.

  264 recruited thirty-three men: The Army Lawyer, 54; William McKee Dunn, A Sketch of the History and Duties of the Judge Advocate General (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1876). Biographical information on the Civil War judge advocates is drawn mostly from Kastenberg, Law in War, War as Law, 117–58.

  265 affirmed the president’s power: Kastenberg, Law in War, War as Law, 27.

  265 “a most powerful and reliable”: Joseph Holt to Edwin M. Stanton, August 20, 1863, JHP LC.

  265 the self-defense rights of newly free: Joseph Holt to AL, May 30, 1864, and Joseph Holt to AL, June 6, 1864, both in JHP LC; West Bogan, NN 1823, box 1689, record Group 153, NARA.

  265 “as occupying the status of freedmen”: Holt to AL, May 30, 1864.

  265 rumors that Confederate captors were quietly: Kastenberg, Law in War, War as Law, 243.

  266 “barbarous avarice”: Joseph Holt to AL, May 24, 1864, JHP LC.

  266 “state or political prisoners”: Stat., 12: 755.

  266 “extremely difficult of construction”: Joseph Holt to Edwin M. Stanton, June 9, 1863, JHP LC.

  267 “the most common form of charge”: William Winthrop, Digest of Opinions of the Judge Advocate General of the Army (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 3d ed., 1868), 234.

  267–68 abusing prisoners of war . . . occasionally charged men: See, e.g., Joseph J. Zabu, LL 561, record group 153, NARA; James Fitzgerald, LL 550, record group 153, NARA; John Flora, OO 1452, record group 153, NARA.

  268 lurking behind Union lines: E.g., Thomas Laswell, LL 2638, box 762, record group 153, NARA; NN2732, record group 153, NARA.

  268 Breaking oaths of allegiance: Winthrop, Digest of Opinions, 383.

  268 parole violation: E.g., John A. Skaggs, MM 1303, box 990, record group 153, NARA.

  268 recruiting for the Confederacy behind Union lines: John Thraikill, NN 1233, box 1638, record group 153, NARA; Joseph R. Mathews, LL 1902, record group 153, NARA; Edward A. Muir, LL 938, record group 153, NARA.

  268 constituted nearly 85 percent: I made these calculations from Gideon Hart’s research, which found military commissions charging law of war violations against 566 civilians, 32 guerrillas, 71 Confederate soldiers, and 13 Union soldiers. For examples, see James H. Smith, MM 1309, box 990, record group 153, NARA (violation of laws of war for being a guerrilla); Jesse Fassell, KK 121, record group 153, NARA (violation of the laws of war for being a marauder).

  268 suspected members of the notorious: Jeremiah Hoy, KK 151, record group 153, NARA (violation of the laws of war for murdering with Quantrill’s raiders).

  268 “using disloyal language” . . . Going into the South without a pass: Winthrop, Digest of Opinions, 225–27, 230, 234, 288–89, 383–84, 386–87.

  268 trading with the enemy: M. T. Wells, KK 833, record group 153, NARA (carrying a dispatch to a Confederate general); William J. Kribben, LL 534, LL 674, record group 153, NARA (carrying letters across Union lines to the South).

  268 after joining the rebel army: Albert Johnson, II 999, record group 153, NARA; William Russell, LL 580, folder 1, record group 153, NARA; James Herron, LL 563, record group 153, NARA.

  268 evading service in the Union armed forces: James C. Moore, LL 647, record group 153, NARA.

  269 One St. Louis woman: Zaidee J. Bagwell, LL 548, record group 153, NARA.

  269 A Baltimore woman: Winthrop, Digest of Opinions, 384.

  269 Horse-stealing could be a war crime: Aroswell D. Severance, II 951, II 931, record group 153, NARA.

  269 Expressing anti-Union views: J. S. Hyatt, KK 821, record group 153, NARA; Winthrop, Digest of Opinions, 225.

  269 Judge advocates sometimes charged: E.g., Thomas Clark, KK 833, KK 818, record group 153, NARA; William Harding, KK 818, record group 153, NARA; A. Alexander, LL 289, folder 1, record group 153, NARA.

  270 Congress belatedly recognized this: L. D. Ingersoll, A History of the War Department of the United States: With Biographical Sketches of the Secretaries (Washington, DC: Francis B. Mohun, 1879), 150.

  270 promoting the Judge Advocate General: The Army Lawyer, 51.

  270 John Frémont in Missouri: Gideon Hart, “Military Commissions and the Lieber Code: Toward a New Understanding of the Jurisdictional Foundations of Military Commissions,” Military Law Review 203 (Spring 2010): 1, 9–12.

  270 So did Ulysses S. Grant: Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York: Oxford University, 1991), 35, 39.

  270 to try civilians for treason: Ibid., 42–43; Hart, “Military Commissions and the Lieber Code,” 19.

  270 Halleck edited so heavily: Halleck’s markup of the committee print of Lieber’s early draft code is in the Huntington Library. See “A Code for the Government of Armies in the Field as Authorized by the Laws and Usages of War on Land,” HL, register no. 243077, Y Halleck II.

  270 cited particular code provisions: E.g., James McGregory, NN 1234, box 1638, record group 153, NARA; Winthrop, Digest of Opinions, 382–83.

  270 relied on Lieber for advice: Joseph Holt to FL, February 20, 1863, box 11, FLP HL; Joseph Holt to FL, February 26, 1863, box 11, FLP HL; Neely, Fate of Liberty, 160; Allen, Joseph Holt, 110; see also Elizabeth D. Leonard, Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate Joseph Holt of Kentucky (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 181.

  270 the prosecution and the defense: E.g., Joseph Holt, “To Major General Summer, President and the Members of the Court,” box 2, Joseph Holt Collection, HL.

  270 appointed Lieber’s son Norman: The Army Lawyer, 85–86.

  270 military commissions spread to military departments: I rely here on the prodigious research done for me by Gideon Hart. See Hart, “Military Commissions and the Lieber Code,” 41–42.

  271 “take cognizance of”: Ibid., 40.

  271 “War is not carried on”: Instructions, art. 17.

  271 “native of a hostile country”: Ibid., art. 21.

  271 “to property, and to persons”: Ibid., art. 7.
r />   271 “or rather must”: Neely, Fate of Liberty, 160.

  271 “careful trials of spies”: FL to Henry Halleck, March 18, 1865, box 28, FLP HL.

  271 “no person accused”: FL to Joseph Holt, June 12, 1863, JHP LC.

  271 arrested Vallandigham in his bedroom: Frank L. Klement, The Limits of Dissent: Clement Vallandigham & the Civil War (New York: Fordham University Press, 1998), 157–58.

  271 “Lincoln and his minions”: The Trial of Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham by a Military Commission and the Proceedings Under His Application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus (Cincinnati: Rickey & Carroll, 1863), 11.

  271–72 “all persons found within”: General Orders No. 38, April 13, 1863, OR, series 1, 23 (part 2): 237. There is no direct evidence that Burnside drew on Lieber’s text. Halleck told Lieber that Burnside had acted on his own without consulting Union authorities in Washington—Henry Halleck to FL, May 16, 1863, box 9, FLP HL. Early prints of the draft code had been distributed in March. Whether Burnside had patterned his order off Lieber’s or not, Lieber thought that Burnside’s order was dangerously aggressive—FL to Henry Halleck, May 15, 1863, box 27, FLP HL.

  272 he was not, he insisted: Trial of Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham, 12, 29.

  272 Aaron Fyfe Perry: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000241.

  272 Flamen Ball: “Obituary: Flamen Ball,” American Law Record 13 (1885): 572.

  272 “laws of war” . . . “the women and children”: Ex parte Vallandigham, 28 F. Cas. 874, 894 (C.C.S.D. Ohio 1863) (argument of Aaron Perry).

  272 “Ohio . . . is at war”: 28 F. Cas. at 919 (argument of Flamen Ball).

  273 Sensing that he was in: 28 F. Cas. at 922–23.

  273 pronounced Vallandigham guilty: Trial of Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham, 33.

  273 Lincoln promptly reduced: Ibid., 34.

  273 “in conformity with the instructions” . . . “common law of war”: Ex parte Vallandigham, 68 U.S. 243, 248–49 & nn.1–2 (1864).

  273 A small rebel office: The Army Lawyer, 58–59.

  273 executed them by hanging: OR, series 1, 10 (part 1): 630–38; William Pittenger, Daring and Suffering: A History of the Andrews Railroad Raid into Georgia in 1862 (New York: War Publishing Co., 1887), supp. 50–51.

  273 refused to appoint a Judge Advocate General: William Morrison Robinson, Justice in Grey: A History of the Judicial System of the Confederate States of America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941), 378–80.

  273 martial law as anathema: Ibid., 381.

  273 no military tribunal jurisdiction: OR, series 2, 4: 894–97.

  274 “irksome, uncongenial”: Henry G. Connor, John Archibald Campbell: Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1853–1861 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), 159.

  274 under the state criminal laws: Berlin et al., eds., Black Military Experience, 567–68.

  274 Athens, Georgia, in 1862: Mark Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861–1865 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 81–84; Earnest E. East, “Lincoln’s Russian General,” Illinois State Historical Society 52, no. 1 (Spring 1959): 106, 108–12; George C. Bradley & Richard L. Dahlen, From Conciliation to Conquest: The Sack of Athens and the Court-Martial of Colonel John B. Turchin (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006).

  274 the events at Chambersburg: Harry Stout, Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 375–76.

  274 taken out and shot by firing squad: Lonnie R. Speer, War of Vengeance: Acts of Retaliation Against Civil War POWs (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002), 29–41.

  275 the population had provided: Burrus M. Carnahan, Lincoln on Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010), 63–64.

  275 internecine guerrilla actions across the Upper South: See, e.g., Richard R. Duncan, Beleaguered Winchester: A Virginia Community at War, 1861–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007), 177–91; Robert R. Mackey, The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861–1865 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 33–40.

  275 Rumors of exploding bullets: “Greek Fire,” from the New York Evening Post, September [1?], 1863, in box 20, FLP HL.

  275 old vessels in the mouth of the harbor: Clippings on “Stone Blockade,” folder 18, box 2, FLP JHU.

  275 booby-trapped bodies: Harper’s Weekly, September 19, 1863, box 20, FLP HL.

  275 Sherman’s background: John F. Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order (New York: Free Press, 1993).

  275 “standard of conduct was”: Charles Royster, The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), 95.

  276 “Goths or Vandals”: James M. McPherson, “Two Strategies of Victory: William T. Sherman in the Civil War,” Atlanta History 33, no. 4 (Winter 1989–90): 5, 12.

  276 “fugitive slaves must be delivered”: OR, series 2, 1: 749.

  276 “all in the South are enemies”: McPherson, “Two Strategies of Victory,” 15.

  276 “not only fighting hostile armies”: Simpson & Berlin, eds., Sherman’s Civil War, 776.

  276 “all the damage you can”: McPherson, “Two Strategies of Victory,” 6.

  276 “destroy every mill”: Sherman, Memoirs, 603.

  276 “make a wreck of the road”: OR, series 1, 36 (part I): 39.

  276 “the utter destruction”: OR, series 1, 39 (part 3): 162.

  277 “If a little salt”: Sherman, Memoirs, 700.

  277 “I propose”: Joseph T. Glatthaar, The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman’s Troops in the Savannah and Carolina Campaigns (New York: New York University Press, 1985), 6.

  277 “I can make the march”: Hart, Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American, 320.

  277 “desolating the land”: Sherman, Memoirs, 614.

  277 “all idea of the establishment”: Ibid., 364.

  277 “I would not coax them”: Ibid., 365.

  277 managed to limit the violence: See Glatthaar, March to the Sea, 73–74, 87; Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War, 199 and passim; Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); and James M. McPherson, “The Hard Hand of War,” in James M. McPherson, This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 123–29.

  277 “anything of any military value”: Glatthaar, March to the Sea, 8.

  277 90,000 bales of cotton: Statistics of destruction come from ibid., 130–36.

  277 “The remainder”: OR, series 1, 44: 13.

  277 “spare nothing”: Sherman, Memoirs, 662.

  278 the “whole army”: Grimsley, Hard Hand of War, 201.

  278 The capital itself: Royster, Destructive War, 3–33.

  278 “hypocritical appeals”: Simpson & Berlin, eds., Sherman’s Civil War, 706.

  278 “outrages, cruelty, [and] barbarity” . . . “can whip”: Ibid., 694.

  278 “crowds of idlers”: Ibid., 689.

  278 “slow the progress of his army”: Paul J. Springer, America’s Captives: Treatment of POWs from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2010), 89.

  278 “At times”: Major S. H. M. Byers, With Fire and Sword (New York: Neale Publishing Co., 1911), 177.

  278 “To secure the navigation”: OR, series 1, 31 (part 3): 459.

  278 mass relocation of the southern population: E.g., OR, series 1, 32 (part 2): 278; Simpson & Berlin, eds., Sherman’s Civil War, 183.

  279 cotton works at Roswell: Mary Deborah Petite, “The Women Will Howl”: The Union Army Capture of Roswell and New Manchester, Georgia, and the Forced Relocation of Mill Workers (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing Co., 2008).

  279 then again at Atlanta: Grimsley, Hard Hand of War, 186–90.

  279 “th
e humanities of the case”: McPherson, “Two Strategies of Victory,” 15.

  279 the way to end the suffering of his people: Simpson & Berlin, eds., Sherman’s Civil War, 707–09.

  279 “the more awful you can make”: Byers, With Fire and Sword, 177.

  279 One officer under his command later remembered: Ibid.

  279 could not recall the occasion: Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion, 477.

  279 “War is barbarism”: Hart, Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American, 310.

  279 “war is simply power”: OR, series 1, 32 (part 2): 280.

  279 “war is cruelty”: Simpson & Berlin, eds., Sherman’s Civil War, 708.

  279 “Boys, it is all hell”: Fred R. Shapiro, ed., The Yale Book of Quotations (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 708.

  280 “barbarous cruelty” . . . “Thirty Years’ War”: Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1881), 2: 564, 629.

  280 Lincoln followed Sherman’s campaign: Henry Hitchcock to FL, January 15, 1865, box 11, FLP HL.

  280 taken care of the injured Hamilton: FL to Henry Halleck, March 18, 1862, box 27, FLP HL; FL to Charles Sumner, March 23, 1862, box 42, FLP HL.

  280 “Sherman moves his army better than”: FL to Henry Halleck, February 24, 1865, box 28, FLP HL.

  280 “Assuredly my name is” . . . “ruthless revenge”: FL to Henry Halleck, February 11, 1865, box 28, FLP HL.

  280 Napoleon’s rise from popular general: See, e.g., FL to [Alexander Dallas Bache], December 14, 1861, box 23, FLP HL; FL to Charles Sumner, March 28, 1865, box 44, FLP HL; see also Francis Lieber, “Washington and Napoleon,” in Daniel C. Gilman, ed., The Miscellaneous Writings of Francis Lieber (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1881), 1: 413–41.

  281 “forage liberally” . . . “discreet officers”: Sherman, Memoirs, 652.

  281 “most important”: Ibid., 651.

  281 “soldier passed me with a ham”: Ibid., 658.

  281 to vacuum all the usable goods: Glatthaar, March to the Sea, 121–55.

  281 Bummers hanged: Ibid., 72–73.

  281 pistols to the heads: Ibid., 126.

  281 Executions sometimes followed: Ibid., 72–73, 126.

  282 Confederate home guards: Ibid., 128.