Civil War: Courts-Martial and Military Commissions of Union Soldiers Executed 1861-1866
Proceedings of U.S. Army Courts-Martial and Military Commissions of Union Soldiers Executed by U.S. Military Authorities, 1861-1866.
9,619 pages of records covering 220 U.S. Army general courts-martial, 2 drumhead courts-martial, and 12 military commissions of 234 Union soldiers who were executed between 1861 and 1866.
Desertion and murder were the two crimes for which most of the soldiers were executed, and death by musket fire and hanging the two most common modes of execution. Nearly all of the 267 soldiers executed by military authorities between 1861 and 1866 were tried by courts-martial for violations of the Articles of War, the code of laws that govern the conduct of all persons subject to military law.
Records include copies of orders establishing the court or commission, directives giving the names of the officers chosen to serve on the court and of its judge advocate, the defendant's name and unit, the place where and the date on which the court was to convene, the charges and specifications directed against the accused and his plea.
Most entries consist of a verbatim transcript of the questions asked by the court, the judge advocate, the defendant, and the defendant's counsel and the responses of the witnesses, the finding of the court, its sentence, and the review of findings by the officer who ordered the proceeding. In some cases, exhibits offered as evidence and the confirmation or remittance of a death sentence by the President of the United States.
This document collection includes a copy of “List of U.S. Soldiers Executed by United States Military Authorities During the Late War" (Adjutant General's Office, 1885). Only 25 copies of this 11 page publication was printed. This publication gives the name and rank of each soldier, the military unit in which he served, the nature of his offense, date of execution, mode of execution, and the authority (general court-martial order, general order, or special order) announcing the soldier's court-martial or commission trial, sentence, and execution. The list was compiled by the Adjutant General's Office in response to numerous requests on the subject. The names of 267 soldiers are included in the list, but trial proceedings of only 234 soldiers were located while collecting material for this collection.
Soldiers included in this collection served with the federal organizations United States Colored Troops (41), United States Regular Army (5), United States Volunteers (2), and United States Veteran Reserve Corps (1).
From state and territories of New York (34), Connecticut (24), Pennsylvania (22), New Hampshire (13), Massachusetts (13), Kentucky (11), Maryland (9), New Jersey (9), Indiana (8), Illinois (5), Missouri (5), Ohio (4), California (4), Maine (4), Vermont (4), New Mexico (2), Arkansas (2), West Virginia (2), Rhode Island (2), Colorado (1), Delaware (1), Kansas (1), Louisiana (1), Michigan (1), Oregon (1), Texas (1), and Wisconsin (1).
