Punitive expedition

“ When a soldier commits any crime for which he merits punishment, his captain must not hide or palliate the offense, in order to save him from prison or from being punished—as is done quite commonly, to the great injury of all. ”

“ Every person who, within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States, begins, or sets on foot, or provides or prepares the means for, any military expedition or enterprise, to be carried on from thence against the territory or dominions of any foreign prince, state, colony, district or people, with whom the United States are at peace, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined not exceeding $3,000, and imprisoned not more than three years. ”

“ Escaped prisoners, recaptured before they have succeeded in rejoining their army, or before quitting the territory occupied by the army that captured them, are liable to disciplinary punishment. Prisoners who after succeeding in escaping are again taken prisoners are not liable to any punishment for their previous flight. ”

“ Talking of the want of definite instructions to military expeditions, it says:
“The consequences are often very murderous. And one must not be astonished. If in the course of THESE DELICATE OPERATIONS, WHOSE OBJECT IT IS TO SEIZE HOSTAGES AND TO INTIMIDATE THE NATIVES, constant watch cannot be exercised over the sanguinary instincts of the soldiers when orders to punish are given by superior authority, it is difficult that the expedition should not degenerate into massacres, accompanied by pillage and incendiarism.” ”

“ In an expedition conducted by government, the line of discipline is so distinctly understood, and its infringement so strictly punished, that small hazard is incurred of any inconvenience arising from such a source. With an individual, however, there is no such assurance, for he cannot appeal to the articles of war ”

“ Unluckily, by our mode of proceeding, punishment is, in some measure, converted, by its slowness, into a kind of torture; and if flagellation is to be unfortunately allowed to continue in a British army, it most probably would be better if fewer lashes were awarded by the sentences of courts-martial, but to be inflicted more after the manner practised in our navy. ”

“ By § 12 of the act every person subject to military law who deserts or attempts to desert, or who persuades or procures any person to desert, shall, on conviction by court martial, if he committed the offence when on active service or under orders for active service, be liable to suffer death, or such less punishment as is mentioned in the act. When the offence is committed under any other circumstances, the punishment for the first offence is imprisonment, and for the second or any subsequent offence penal servitude or such less punishment as is mentioned in the act. ”

“ In the extreme cases in which expeditions are unavoidable, they are analogous to legal penalties for civil crime—evils in themselves inevitable from deficiencies of preventive police, but redeemed by their deterrent effects. ”

“ So low had sunk the morale of too many of the rank and file, and so ardent was the desire for change of any kind, no matter what or where, that men deliberately laid themselves out to earn the punishment of transportation. This was not a difficult task. The soldier had only to make a blow at his superior officer—and all above him from a lance-corporal to the colonel were his superior officers—or even to throw a cap or a glove at him, to have himself charged with the offence of mutinous conduct. The pro forma court-martial sat; the soldier pleaded guilty ”

“ Then at last, having been made leader of the ship, with the captain and the lieutenants sent safely ashore, and disagreeing with the policy of the Delegates in not accepting the terms offered, I brought the ship out, commanding it from the captain's cabin, and have so continued until to-day. If I'm put ashore at Jamaica, I'll keep my parole; if I stay a prisoner here, I'll keep my parole. If I've done you service, admiral, be sure of this, it was done with clear intent. My object was to save the men who, having mutinied and fled from Admiralty control, are subject to capital punishment. ”

“ As the chief solicitude of the inquisitors should be the prevention of relapse, he therefore empowered them to change the perpetual prison of penitents into other penalties—deportation to the colonies, or imprisonment in the royal galleys, where, in perpetual confinement, they might render enforced service, or to any other perpetual punishment, according to their quality and offences. ”

“ If any alien in whose case an expulsion order has been made is at any time found within the Colony or Protectorate in contravention of the order, he shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding ten years. ”

“ Further it must be borne in mind that military punishments are more severe than civil; they follow more rapidly the crime. A breach of parole was a military crime as well as a civil offence, for which loss of liberty on a Chatham hulk was perhaps a fitting punishment. By Clause 4 of Rules to be observed by the prisoners of war in Great Britain, Ireland, etc.—rules with which all prisoners, whether in captivity or on parole, were familiar—very severe punishment for any escaped prisoner who was retaken was laid down for every class. ”

“ Many others were exiled, some from their villages, and others to Nueva España who sail in this ship. By this punishment it seems as if the people have become somewhat cowed. May God aid us, and free us from so many dangers to which we are exposed. This land will be lost and ruined if your Majesty does not expressly order a goodly number of soldiers to be sent here, and that something be paid to the men for their support. It is pitiful to see them die of hunger, and if they are not paid no soldiers will care to come here, to be in captivity; and we are dying off very fast. ”

“ Two mates of vessels engaged in the trade and one person in equipping a vessel as a slaver have been convicted and subjected to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, and one captain, taken with a cargo of Africans on board his vessel, has been convicted of the highest grade of offense under our laws, the punishment of which is death. ”

“ All combatants, and also all officers and members of the crews of captured merchantmen, could formerly [406] be made prisoners of war. According to articles 5 to 7 of Convention XI. of the Second Peace Conference—see above in § 85—such members of the crews as are subjects of neutral States may never be made prisoners of war; but the captain, officers, and members of the crews who are enemy subjects, and, further, the captain and officers who are subjects of neutral States may be made prisoners of war in case they refuse to be released on parole. ”

“ In the French army degrading punishments are illegal, but soldiers may be confined to quarters or deprived of the liberty of leaving the garrison; confined in the guard-room, in prison, or in dungeon; required to walk or to perform hard labor; and officers may be subjected to simple or rigorous arrests. Every officer who inflicts a punishment, must account for it to his superior, who approves or disapproves, confirms, augments, or diminishes it. ”

“ Some of our brave fellows have been brought upon deck, every punishing day, and undergone this horrid punishment, three or four times over, until the crews of the men of war were disposed to cry out shame, upon their own officers! ”

“ Stealing a boat or an anchor holding a boat was punishable by hanging. Stealing an oar or an anchor was punishable by forty days imprisonment for the first offense, six months imprisonment for the second, and hanging for the third. Desertion was punishable by loss of double the amount of wages earned and imprisonment for one year. Cases were tried by jury in the Admiral's court.
Wines, vinegar, oil and honey imported shall be gauged by the
King's appointees.
A man may not hire another man to fight in his place in a quarrel, except one living in his household or his esquire. ”

“ To invest the Colonial Executives with such a power over the persons of all convicts, as transportation for life should imply, it would be expedient, moreover, that that sentence should in future be passed only on one or other of the two following classes of criminals; viz. 1. criminals guilty of atrocious crimes; and, 2. criminals who had already undergone a milder punishment for a first offence, and been afterwards convicted of a second. ”

“ The punishment for desertion when joined in by two or more soldiers in the execution of a conspiracy, or for desertion in the presence of an outbreak of Indians or of any unlawful assemblage which the troops may be opposing, shall not exceed dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement at, hard labor for five years. ”

“ Even if you are unsuccessful in bringing back the men, you will do your best to ascertain if their escape has been due to the sympathy of the settlers, or even with their preliminary connivance. They may not be aware that inciting enlisted men to desert is a criminal offence; you will use your own discretion in informing them of the fact or not, as occasion may serve you. I have only to add, that while you are on the waters of this bay and the land covered by its tides, you have no opposition of authority, and are responsible to no one but your military superiors. Good-bye, Mr. Calvert. ”

“ Punishments for violations of Articles of War 58, 59, 61, and 86, except as to offenses heretofore or hereafter committed in occupied enemy territory, shall be subject to the limitations prescribed by the Table of Maximum Punishments, paragraph 104 (c) of A Manual for Courts-Martial, United States Army (1928) . ”

“ Should the prisoner's plea be of no avail, and his crime be adjudged worthy of punishment, he is straightway condemned to stand up as a target, within easy spearing distance, and there to remain, perfectly nude, with only a simple shield for protection, for a space of about twenty minutes, whilst the young men of the tribe essay their marksmanship. ”

“ Civilians themselves, on the demand of the military authorities, would have to give up to them their own bloodhounds. A certain sum of money was promised to any one who should bring about the capture of the fugitive. More often than not it had been women or old men who had prevented our escaped comrades from getting successfully away. The punishment, always carefully announced in camp, was, in case of capture, forty-two days’ solitary confinement, during which the prisoner only received one platter of food (and that a prisoner’s portion) every two days. ”

“ These measures provided severe punishments and fines on convicts arriving in the colony who were not eligible to residence in the United Kingdom. Masters or owners of vessels were also liable to fines not exceeding, or to one month's imprisonment, for introducing these men. ”

“ It was not until the eighteenth century, with its general tendencies to mitigate the cruel practices of warfare, that matters changed for the better. The conviction in time became general that captivity should only be the means of preventing prisoners from returning to their corps and taking up arms again, and should, as a matter of principle, be distinguished from imprisonment as a punishment for crimes. ”

“ In fact, the naval officers on the coast had all come to the opinion that all colonists were criminals, as well as of the lowest class of people in the social scale, and that it was a duty to inflict punishment upon them whenever possible. ”

“ A certain number of crimes are punishable with death, but what is lacking is some adequate punishment between the capital award and nothing at all. To make the position worse in our case, men who had been sentenced to a term of service in the disciplinary battalions remained on in the ranks, and at the slightest show of gallantry on their part our kind-hearted officers asked that their sentence might be remitted or modified. As if this were not enough, insubordinate sailors used to be sent to the army for punishment! ”

“ The penalty attached to any violation of the rules of the camp was discretionary with the soldiers. In aggravated cases they would thresh the offender unmercifully. Sometimes they would cut the clothing of the man or woman entirely to pieces, slit down the lodge with their knives, break kettles and do other damage. ”

“ On the other hand, if a series of penitentiaries were to be formed in England on the American model, in which criminals, guilty of such crimes as at present subject the perpetrator to a sentence of transportation for seven years, should be subjected to hard labour and solitary confinement for two, three, or four years; not only might transportation for seven years be discontinued as a species of punishment, but a considerable number of criminals, of the class to which that punishment is at present awarded, might be permanently reclaimed and retained in England. ”

“ The system of punishment had always as its chief purpose the laying of emphasis upon duty, and this was often arrived at in an indirect way. For example, the soldier who failed to keep his valuables in the locker provided for him in his barracks and who lost them by theft, was punished for his own negligence. ”

“ When the signal is made for punishment, all the ships in the fleet send one or two boats each, with crews cleanly dressed, the officers in full uniform, and marines under arms. These boats collect at the side of the ship where the launch is lying, the hands are turned up, and the ship’s company are ordered to mount the rigging, to witness that portion of the whole punishment which, after the sentence has been read, is inflicted upon the prisoner. ”

“ Prompt punishment follows the perpetration of crime, and from time to time the presence of a gunboat serves to remind the savages along the coast of the power of their masters. Not more than two years ago the Fort Rupert Indians were severely punished for refusing to deliver up certain animals demanded by the civil magistrate. ”