approval, allowance, or payment of any claim against the United States
or any officer thereof, forges or counterfeits, or procures or advises
the forging or counterfeiting of, any signature upon any writing or
other paper, or uses, or procures or advises the use of, any such
signature, knowing the same to be forged or counterfeited; or
Who, having charge, possession, custody, or control of any money or
other property of the United States, furnished or intended for the
military service thereof, knowingly delivers, or causes to be delivered,
to any person having authority to receive the same, any amount thereof
less than that for which he receives a certificate or receipt; or
Who, being authorized to make or deliver any paper certifying the
receipt of any property of the United States, furnished or intended for
the military service thereof, makes, or delivers to any person, such
writing, without having full knowledge of the truth of the statements
therein contained, and with intent to defraud the United States; or
Who steals, embezzles, knowingly and willfully misappropriates, applies
to his own use or benefit, or wrongfully or knowingly sells or disposes
of any ordnance, arms, equipments, ammunition, clothing, subsistence
stores, money, or other property of the United States, furnished or
intended for the military service thereof; or
Who knowingly purchases, or receives in pledge for any obligation or
indebtedness, from any soldier, officer, or other person who is a part
of or employed in said forces or service, any ordnance, arms,
equipments, ammunition, clothing, subsistence stores, or other property
of the United States, such soldier, officer, or other person not having
lawful right to sell or pledge the same,
Shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by fine or imprisonment, or by
such other punishment as a court-martial may adjudge. And if any person,
being guilty of any of the offenses aforesaid, while in the military
service of the United States, receives his discharge, or is dismissed
from the service, he shall continue to be liable to be arrested and held
for trial and sentence by a court-martial, in the same manner and to the
same extent as if he had not received such discharge nor been dismissed.
ART. 61. Any officer who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer
and a gentleman shall be dismissed from the service.
ART. 62. All crimes not capital, and all disorders and neglects, which
officers and soldiers may be guilty of, to the prejudice of good order
and military discipline, though not mentioned in the foregoing Articles
of War, are to be taken cognizance of by a general, or a regimental,
garrison, or field-officers’ court-marshal,[2] according to the nature
and degree of the offense, and punished at the discretion of said court.
[2] Court-martial.
ART. 63. All retainers to the camp, and all persons serving with the
armies of the United States in the field, though not enlisted soldiers,
are to be subject to orders, according to the rules and discipline of
war.
ART. 64. The officers and soldiers of any troops, whether militia or
others, mustered and in pay of the United States, shall, at all times
and in all places, be governed by the Articles of War, and shall be
subject to be tried by courts-martial.
ART. 65. Officers charged with crime shall be arrested and confined in
their barracks, quarters, or tents, and deprived of their swords by the
commanding officer. And any officer who leaves his confinement before he
is set at liberty by his commanding officer shall be dismissed from the
service.
ART. 66. Soldiers charged with crimes shall be confined until tried by
court-martial, or released by proper authority.
ART. 67. No provost-marshal, or officer commanding a guard, shall refuse
to receive or keep any prisoner committed to his charge by an officer
belonging to the forces of the United States; provided the officer
committing shall, at the same time, deliver an account in writing,
signed by himself, of the crime charged against the prisoner.
ART. 68. Every officer to whose charge a prisoner is committed shall,
within twenty-four hours after such commitment, or as soon as he is
relieved from his guard, report in writing, to the commanding officer,
the name of such prisoner, the crime charged against him, and the name
of the officer committing him; and if he fails to make such report, he
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
ART. 69. Any officer who presumes, without proper authority, to release
any prisoner committed to his charge, or suffers any prisoner so
committed to escape, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
ART. 70. No officer or soldier put in arrest shall be continued in
confinement more than eight days, or until such time as a court-martial
can be assembled.
ART. 71. When an officer is put in arrest for the purpose of trial,
except at remote military posts or stations, the officer by whose order
he is arrested shall see that a copy of the charges on which he is to be
tried is served upon him within eight days after his arrest, and that he
is brought to trial within ten days thereafter, unless the necessities
of the service prevent such trial; and then he shall be brought to trial
within thirty days after the expiration of said ten days. If a copy of
the charges be not served, or the arrested officer be not brought to
trial, as herein required, the arrest shall cease. But officers
released from arrest, under the provisions of this article, may be
tried, whenever the exigencies of the service shall permit, within
twelve months after such release from arrest.
ART. 72. Any general officer, commanding the army of the United States,
a separate army, or a separate department, shall be competent to appoint
a general court-martial, either in time of peace or in time of war. But
when any such commander is the accuser or prosecutor of any officer
under his command, the court shall be appointed by the President, and
its proceedings and sentence shall be sent directly to the Secretary of
War, by whom they shall be laid before the President, for his approval
or orders in the case.
ART. 73. In time of war the commander of a division, or of a separate
brigade of troops, shall be competent to appoint a general
court-martial. But when such commander is the accuser or prosecutor of
any person under his command, the court shall be appointed by the next
higher commander.
ART. 74. Officers who may appoint a court-martial shall be competent to
appoint a judge-advocate for the same.
ART. 75. General courts-martial may consist of any number of officers
from five to thirteen, inclusive; but they shall not consist of less
than thirteen when that number can be convened without manifest injury
to the service.
ART. 76. When the requisite number of officers to form a general
court-martial is not present in any post or detachment, the commanding
officer shall, in cases which require the cognizance of such a court,
report to the commanding officer of the department, who shall,
thereupon, order a court to be assembled at the nearest post or
department at which there may be such a requisite number of officers,
and shall order the party accused, with necessary witnesses, to be
transported to the place where the said court shall be assembled.
ART. 77. Officers of the Regular Army shall not be competent to sit on
courts-martial to try the officers or soldiers of other forces, except
as provided in Article 78.
ART. 78. Officers of the Marine Corps, detached for service with the
Army by order of the President, may be associated with officers of the
Regular Army on courts-martial for the trial of offenders belonging to
the Regular Army, or to forces of the Marine Corps so detached; and in
such cases the orders of the senior officer of either corps who may be
present and duly authorized, shall be obeyed.
ART. 79. Officers shall be tried only by general courts-martial; and no
officer shall, when it can be avoided, be tried by officers inferior to
him in rank.
ART. 80. In time of war a field-officer may be detailed in every
regiment, to try soldiers thereof for offenses not capital; and no
soldier, serving with his regiment, shall be tried by a regimental[3]
garrison court-martial when a field-officer of his regiment may be so
detailed.
[3] The word _or_ omitted from the roll.
ART. 81. Every officer commanding a regiment or corps shall, subject to
the provisions of article eighty, be competent to appoint, for his own
regiment or corps, courts-martial, consisting of three officers, to try
offenses not capital.
ART. 82. Every officer commanding a garrison, fort, or other place,
where the troops consist of different corps, shall, subject to the
provisions of article eighty, be competent to appoint, for such garrison
or other place, courts-martial, consisting of three officers, to try
offenses not capital.
ART. 83. Regimental and garrison courts-martial, and field-officers
detailed to try offenders, shall not have power to try capital cases or
commissioned officers, or to inflict a fine exceeding one month’s pay,
or to imprison or put to hard labor any non-commissioned officer or
soldier for a longer time than one month.
ART. 84. The judge-advocate shall administer to each member of the
court, before they proceed upon any trial, the following oath, which
shall also be taken by all members of regimental and garrison
courts-martial: “You, A B, do swear that you will well and truly try and
determine, according to evidence, the matter now before you, between the
United States of America and the prisoner to be tried, and that you will
duly administer justice, without partiality, favor, or affection,
according to the provisions of the rules and articles for the government
of the armies of the United States, and if any doubt should arise, not
explained by said articles, then according to your conscience, the best
of your understanding, and the custom of war in like cases; and you do
further swear that you will not divulge the sentence of the court until
it shall be published by the proper authorities; neither will you
disclose or discover the vote or opinion of any particular member of the
court-martial, unless required to give evidence thereof, as a witness,
by a court of justice, in a due course of law. So help you God.”
ART. 85. When the oath has been administered to the members of a
court-martial, the president of the court shall administer to the
judge-advocate, or person officiating as such, an oath in the following
form: “You, A B, do swear that you will not disclose or discover the
vote or opinion of any particular member of the court-martial, unless
required to give evidence thereof, as a witness, by a court of justice,
in due course of law; nor divulge the sentence of the court to any but
the proper authority, until it shall be duly disclosed by the same. So
help you God.”
ART. 86. A court-martial may punish, at discretion, any person who uses
any menacing words, signs or gestures, in its presence, or who disturbs
its proceedings by any riot or disorder.
ART. 87. All members of a court-martial are to behave with decency and
calmness.
ART. 88. Members of a court-martial may be challenged by a prisoner, but
only for cause stated to the court. The court shall determine the
relevancy and validity thereof, and shall not receive a challenge to
more than one member at a time.
ART. 89. When a prisoner, arraigned before a general court-martial, from
obstinacy and deliberate design, stands mute, or answers foreign to the
purpose, the court may proceed to trial and judgment, as if the prisoner
had pleaded not guilty.
ART. 90. The judge-advocate, or some person deputed by him, or by the
general or officer commanding the army, detachment, or garrison, shall
prosecute in the name of the United States, but when the prisoner has
made his plea, he shall so far consider himself counsel for the prisoner
as to object to any leading question to any of the witnesses, and to any
question to the prisoner the answer to which might tend to criminate
himself.
ART. 91. The depositions of witnesses residing beyond the limits of the
State, Territory, or District in which any military court may be ordered
to sit, if taken on reasonable notice to the opposite party and duly
authenticated, may be read in evidence before such court in cases not
capital.
ART. 92. All persons who give evidence before a court-martial shall be
examined on oath, or affirmation, in the following form: “You swear (or
affirm) that the evidence you shall give, in the case now in hearing,
shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help
you God.”
ART. 93. A court-martial shall, for reasonable cause, grant a
continuance to either party, for such time, and as often, as may appear
to be just: _Provided_, That if the prisoner be in close confinement,
the trial shall not be delayed for a period longer than sixty days.
ART. 94. Proceedings of trials shall be carried on only between the
hours of eight in the morning and three in the afternoon, excepting in
cases which, in the opinion of the officer appointing the court, require
immediate example.
ART. 95. Members of a court-martial, in giving their votes, shall begin
with the youngest in commission.
ART. 96. No person shall be sentenced to suffer death, except by the
concurrence of two-thirds of the members of a general court-martial, and
in the cases herein expressly mentioned.
ART. 97. No person in the military service shall, under the sentence of
a court-martial, be punished by confinement in a penitentiary, unless
the offense of which he may be convicted would, by some statute of the
United States, or by some statute of the State, Territory, or District
in which such offense may be committed, or by the common law, as the
same exists in such State, Territory, or District, subject such convict
to such punishment.
ART. 98. No person in the military service shall be punished by
flogging, or by branding, marking, or tattooing on the body.
ART. 99. No officer shall be discharged or dismissed from the service,
except by order of the President, or by sentence of a general
court-martial; and in time of peace no officer shall be dismissed,
except in pursuance of the sentence of a court-martial, or in mitigation
thereof.
ART. 100. When an officer is dismissed from the service for cowardice or
fraud, the sentence shall further direct that the crime, punishment,
name, and place of abode of the delinquent shall be published in the
newspapers in and about the camp, and in the State from which the
offender came, or where he usually resides; and after such publication
it shall be scandalous for an officer to associate with him.
ART. 101. When a court-martial suspends an officer from command, it may
also suspend his pay and emoluments for the same time, according to the
nature of his offense.
ART. 102. No person shall be tried a second time for the same offense.
ART. 103. No person shall be liable to be tried and punished by a
general court-martial for any offense which appears to have been
committed more than two years before the issuing of the order for such
trial, unless, by reason of having absented himself, or of some other
manifest impediment, he shall not have been amenable to justice within
that period.
ART. 104. No sentence of a court-martial shall be carried into execution
until the whole proceedings shall have been approved by the officer
ordering the court, or by the officer commanding for the time being.
ART. 105. No sentence of a court-martial, inflicting the punishment of
death, shall be carried into execution until it shall have been
confirmed by the President; except in the cases of persons convicted, in
time of war, as spies, mutineers, deserters, or murderers, and in the
cases of guerilla marauders, convicted, in time of war, of robbery,
burglary, arson, rape, assault with intent to commit rape, or of
violation of the laws and customs of war; and in such excepted cases the
sentence of death may be carried into execution upon confirmation by the
commanding general in the field, or the commander of the department, as
the case may be.
ART. 106. In time of peace no sentence of a court-martial, directing the
dismissal of an officer, shall be carried into execution, until it shall
have been confirmed by the President.
ART. 107. No sentence of a court-martial appointed by the commander of
a division or of a separate brigade of troops, directing the dismissal
of an officer, shall be carried into execution until it shall have been
confirmed by the general commanding the army in the field to which the
division or brigade belongs.
ART. 108. No sentence of a court-martial, either in time of peace or in
time of war, respecting a general officer, shall be carried into
execution, until it shall have been confirmed by the President.
ART. 109. All sentences of a court-martial may be confirmed and carried
into execution by the officer ordering the court, or by the officer
commanding for the time being, where confirmation by the President, or
by the commanding general in the field, or commander of the department,
is not required by these articles.
ART. 110. No sentence of a field-officer, detailed to try soldiers of
his regiment, shall be carried into execution, until the whole
proceedings shall have been approved by the brigade commander, or, in
case there be no brigade commander, by the commanding officer of the
post.
ART. 111. Any officer who has authority to carry into execution the
sentence of death, or of dismissal of an officer, may suspend the same
until the pleasure of the President shall be known; and, in such case,
he shall immediately transmit to the President a copy of the order of
suspension, together with a copy of the proceedings of the court.
ART. 112. Every officer who is authorized to order a general
court-martial shall have power to pardon or mitigate any punishment
adjudged by it, except the punishment of death, or of dismissal of an
officer. Every officer commanding a regiment or garrison in which a
regimental or garrison court-martial may be held, shall have power to
pardon or mitigate any punishment which such court may adjudge.
ART. 113. Every judge-advocate, or person acting as such, at any general
court-martial, shall, with as much expedition as the opportunity of time
and distance of place may admit, forward the original proceedings and
sentence of such court to the Judge-Advocate General of the Army, in
whose office they shall be carefully preserved.
ART. 114. Every party tried by a general court-martial shall, upon
demand thereof, made by himself, or by any person in his behalf, be
entitled to a copy of the proceedings and sentence of such court.
ART. 115. A court of inquiry, to examine into the nature of any
transaction of, or accusation or imputation against, any officer or
soldier, may be ordered by the President or by any commanding officer;
but, as courts of inquiry may be perverted to dishonorable purposes, and
may be employed, in the hands of weak and envious commandants, as
engines for the destruction of military merit, they shall never be
ordered by any commanding officer, except upon a demand by the officer
or soldier whose conduct is to be inquired of.
ART. 116. A court of inquiry shall consist of one or more officers, not
exceeding three, and a recorder, to reduce the proceedings and evidence
to writing.
ART. 117. The recorder of a court of inquiry shall administer to the
members the following oath: “You shall well and truly examine and
inquire, according to the evidence, into the matter now before you,
without partiality, favor, affection, prejudice, or hope of reward. So
help you God.” After which the president of the court shall administer
to the recorder the following oath: “You, A B, do swear that you will,
according to your best abilities, accurately and impartially record the
proceedings of the court and the evidence to be given in the case in
hearing. So help you God.”
ART. 118. A court of inquiry, and the recorder thereof, shall have the
same power to summon and examine witnesses as is given to courts-martial
and the judge-advocates thereof. Such witnesses shall take the same oath
which is taken by witnesses before courts-martials,[4] and the party
accused shall be permitted to examine and cross-examine them, so as
fully to investigate the circumstances in question.
[4] _Sic_ in the roll.
ART. 119. A court of inquiry shall not give an opinion on the merits of
the case inquired of unless specially ordered to do so.
ART. 120. The proceedings of a court of inquiry must be authenticated by
the signatures of the recorder and the president thereof, and delivered
to the commanding officer.
ART. 121. The proceedings of a court of inquiry may be admitted as
evidence by a court-martial, in cases not capital, nor extending to the
dismissal of an officer: _Provided_, That the circumstances are such
that oral testimony cannot be obtained.
ART. 122. If, upon marches, guards, or in quarters, different corps of
the Army happen to join or do duty together, the officer highest in rank
of the line of the Army, Marine Corps, or militia, by commission, there
on duty or in quarters, shall command the whole, and give orders for
what is needful to the service, unless otherwise specially directed by
the President, according to the nature of the case.
ART. 123. In all matters relating to the rank, duties, and rights of
officers, the same rules and regulations shall apply to officers of the
Regular Army and to volunteers commissioned in, or mustered into said
service, under the laws of the United States, for a limited period.
ART. 124. Officers of the militia of the several States, when called
into the service of the United States, shall on all detachments,
courts-martial, and other duty wherein they may be employed in
conjunction with the regular or volunteer forces of the United States,
take rank next after all officers of the like grade in said regular or
volunteer forces, notwithstanding the commissions of such militia
officers may be older than the commissions of the said officers of the
regular or volunteer forces of the United States.
ART. 125. In case of the death of any officer, the major of his
regiment, or the officer doing the major’s duty, or the second officer
in command at any post or garrison, as the case may be, shall
immediately secure all his effects then in camp or quarters, and shall
make, and transmit to the office of the Department of War, an inventory
thereof.
ART. 126. In case of the death of any soldier, the commanding officer of
his troop, battery, or company shall immediately secure all his effects
then in camp or quarters, and shall, in the presence of two other
officers, make an inventory thereof, which he shall transmit to the
office of the Department of War.
ART. 127. Officers charged with the care of the effects of deceased
officers or soldiers shall account for and deliver the same, or the
proceeds thereof, to the legal representatives of such deceased officers
or soldiers. And no officer so charged shall be permitted to quit the
regiment or post until he has deposited in the hands of the commanding
officer all the effects of such deceased officers or soldiers not so
accounted for and delivered.
ART. 128. The foregoing articles shall be read and published, once in
every six months, to every garrison, regiment, troop, or company in the
service of the United States, and shall be duly observed and obeyed by
all officers and soldiers in said service.
SEC. 1343. All persons who, in time of war, or of rebellion against the
supreme authority of the United States, shall be found lurking or acting
as spies, in or about any of the fortifications, posts, quarters, or
encampments of any of the armies of the United States, or elsewhere,
shall be triable by a general court-martial, or by a military
commission, and shall, on conviction thereof, suffer death.
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
(_For description of Illustrations, see body of work._)