§ 83. An armistice is the cessation of active hostilities for a period,
agreed upon between belligerents. It must be agreed upon in writing, and
duly ratified by the highest authorities of the contending parties.
§ 84. Armistices may be general, and valid for all points and lines of
the belligerents, or special, that is, referring to certain troops or
certain territories only.
Armistices may be concluded for a definite time or for an unsettled
time, with a stipulated period, which must elapse between the notice
given by either party that hostilities will be resumed and the actual
resumption of hostilities; or they may be concluded for a definite time,
and so much longer as may be found convenient for the belligerents, with
the obligation of giving due notice of the resumption of hostilities, a
fixed time previous to the actual resumption.
§ 85. The motives which induce the one or the other belligerent to
conclude an armistice, whether it be expected to be preliminary for an
ultimate treaty of peace, or to prepare during the armistice for a more
vigorous prosecution of the war, does in no way affect the character of
the armistice itself.
§ 86. Every armistice involves not only the idea of the cessation of
actual hostility, that is of attacking the enemy, but also that the
hostile armies or troops remain in _status quo_ with reference to the
position of the hostile armies opposite to or fronting one another.
Neither belligerent is allowed to extend his troops to the injury of the
other, or to make any change in his front; but each belligerent in the
open field, may do whatever he may deem advantageous for securing or
fortifying himself in his position, if it can be done without extending
or advancing his lines or posts, and he may receive additional troops,
supplies, or ammunition. He may levy new troops during the armistice.
§ 87. The law of war is in full action during an armistice except only,
as to fighting and hostile changes of the front; or if the armistice is
a general one, as to the sending hostile expeditions to distant places.
§ 88. Armistices are binding for the belligerent governments from the
day of the agreed commencement; but the officers of the armies are
responsible from the day only when they receive official information of
the conclusion of the armistice. If any injury results to one or the
other party from this difference, which cannot be avoided in war, it
belongs to the province of the belligerent governments to seek redress,
and to provide for the remedy. Military officers having thus done the
injury cannot be made responsible for the same in any way, nor do these
injuries amount to cases requiring retaliation.
§ 89. Commanding officers have the right to conclude armistices
extending to the district over which their command extends, but such
armistice is subject to the ratification of the superior authority, and
ceases so soon as it is made known that the armistice is not ratified,
even if a certain time for the elapsing between giving notice of
cessation and the resumption of hostilities should have been stipulated
for.
§ 90. It is incumbent upon the contracting parties of an armistice, to
stipulate what intercourse of persons or traffic between the inhabitants
of the territories occupied by the hostile armies shall be allowed, if
any.
If nothing is stipulated the intercourse remains suspended as during
actual hostilities.
An armistice is not a partial or a temporary peace; it is only the
suspension of attack or actual injury.
§ 91. When an armistice is concluded between a fortified place and the
army besieging it, it is agreed by all the authorities on this subject,
that the besieger must cease all extension, perfection, or advance of
his attacking works as much so as from the attacks by main force.
But there is a difference of opinion among the martial jurists, whether
the besieged have the right to repair breaches or to erect new works of
defence within the place during an armistice.
[It is therefore declared by the United States, that they neither claim
for themselves, nor allow to their enemies, the right of the besieged to
repair breeches or to erect new works of defence during an armistice,
unless the contrary be distinctly stipulated in the agreement concluding
the armistice.]
The United States expect every American officer to stipulate distinctly
for the one or the other, in an armistice which he may conclude with the
enemy.
§ 92. So soon as a capitulation is signed, the capitulator has no right
to demolish, destroy, or injure the works, arms, stores, or ammunition,
in his possession, during the time which elapses between the signing and
the execution of the capitulation, unless otherwise stipulated in the
same.
§ 93. So soon as an armistice is broken, hostilities recommence in all
their vigor on all points, without previous notice.
The injured belligerent government must seek redress.
[Prisoners captured during a breach of the armistice, are nevertheless
prisoners of war, whether they are officers or privates.]
§ 94. Armistices and capitulations are sacredly to be observed, in good
faith and military honor; and since capitulations imply many conditions
and measures which cannot be altered or retraced, if the government does
not ratify them, the utmost caution and undaunted fortitude must prevail
in agreeing to them.
§ 95. Belligerents frequently conclude an armistice, while their
plenipotentiaries are met to discuss the conditions of a treaty of
peace; but, as often, the plenipotentiaries meet without a preliminary
armistice. In the latter case, the war is carried on without any
abatement, and the army must not suffer itself to be influenced by any
inconvenience which the changes of fortune in the field may exercise on
the diplomatic discussions. It belongs to the belligerent governments to
adjust these inconveniences, and not to the generals to slacken the war
on these, or, indeed, on any other occasions.