Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field

Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field

Art. 76. Prisoners of war shall be fed upon plain and wholesome food,
whenever practicable, and treated with humanity.

They may be required to work for the benefit of the captor’s government,
according to their rank and condition.

Art. 77. A prisoner of war who escapes may be shot or otherwise killed in
his flight; but neither death nor any other punishment shall be inflicted
upon him simply for his attempt to escape, which the law of war does not
consider a crime. Stricter means of security shall be used after an
unsuccessful attempt at escape.

If, however, a conspiracy is discovered, the purpose of which is a united
or general escape, the conspirators may be rigorously punished, even with
death; and capital punishment may also be inflicted upon prisoners of war
discovered to have plotted rebellion against the authorities of the
captors, whether in union with fellow prisoners or other persons.

Art. 78. If prisoners of war, having given no pledge nor made any promise
on their honor, forcibly or otherwise escape, and are captured again in
battle after having rejoined their own army, they shall not be punished for
their escape, but shall be treated as simple prisoners of war, although
they will be subjected to stricter confinement.

Art. 79. Every captured wounded enemy shall be medically treated, according
to the ability of the medical staff.

Art. 80. Honorable men, when captured, will abstain from giving to the
enemy information concerning their own army, and the modern law of war
permits no longer the use of any violence against prisoners in order to
extort the desired information or to punish them for having given false
information.

SECTION IV

Partisans – Armed enemies not belonging to the hostile army –
Scouts – Armed prowlers – War-rebels

Art. 81. Partisans are soldiers armed and wearing the uniform of their
army, but belonging to a corps which acts detached from the main body for
the purpose of making inroads into the territory occupied by the enemy. If
captured, they are entitled to all the privileges of the prisoner of war.

Art. 82. Men, or squads of men, who commit hostilities, whether by
fighting, or inroads for destruction or plunder, or by raids of any kind,
without commission, without being part and portion of the organized hostile
army, and without sharing continuously in the war, but who do so with
intermitting returns to their homes and avocations, or with the occasional
assumption of the semblance of peaceful pursuits, divesting themselves of
the character or appearance of soldiers – such men, or squads of men, are
not public enemies, and, therefore, if captured, are not entitled to the
privileges of prisoners of war, but shall be treated summarily as highway
robbers or pirates.

Art. 83. Scouts, or single soldiers, if disguised in the dress of the
country or in the uniform of the army hostile to their own, employed in
obtaining information, if found within or lurking about the lines of the
captor, are treated as spies, and suffer death.

Art. 84. Armed prowlers, by whatever names they may be called, or persons
of the enemy’s territory, who steal within the lines of the hostile army
for the purpose of robbing, killing, or of destroying bridges, roads or
canals, or of robbing or destroying the mail, or of cutting the telegraph
wires, are not entitled to the privileges of the prisoner of war.

Art. 85. War-rebels are persons within an occupied territory who rise in
arms against the occupying or conquering army, or against the authorities
established by the same. If captured, they may suffer death, whether they
rise singly, in small or large bands, and whether called upon to do so by
their own, but expelled, government or not. They are not prisoners of war;
nor are they if discovered and secured before their conspiracy has matured
to an actual rising or armed violence.

SECTION V

Safe-conduct – Spies – War-traitors – Captured messengers –
Abuse of the flag of truce

Art. 86. All intercourse between the territories occupied by belligerent
armies, whether by traffic, by letter, by travel, or in any other way,
ceases. This is the general rule, to be observed without special
proclamation.

Exceptions to this rule, whether by safe-conduct, or permission to trade on
a small or large scale, or by exchanging mails, or by travel from one
territory into the other, can take place only according to agreement
approved by the government, or by the highest military authority.

Contraventions of this rule are highly punishable.

Art. 87. Ambassadors, and all other diplomatic agents of neutral powers,
accredited to the enemy, may receive safe-conducts through the territories
occupied by the belligerents, unless there are military reasons to the
contrary, and unless they may reach the place of their destination
conveniently by another route. It implies no international affront if the
safe-conduct is declined. Such passes are usually given by the supreme
authority of the State, and not by subordinate officers.

Art. 88. A spy is a person who secretly, in disguise or under false
pretense, seeks information with the intention of communicating it to the
enemy.

The spy is punishable with death by hanging by the neck, whether or not he
succeed in obtaining the information or in conveying it to the enemy.

Art. 89. If a citizen of the United States obtains information in a
legitimate manner, and betrays it to the enemy, be he a military or civil
officer, or a private citizen, he shall suffer death.

Art. 90. A traitor under the law of war, or a war-traitor, is a person in a
place or district under Martial Law who, unauthorized by the military
commander, gives information of any kind to the enemy, or holds intercourse
with him.

Art.91. The war-traitor is always severely punished. If his offense
consists in betraying to the enemy anything concerning the condition,
safety, operations, or plans of the troops holding or occupying the place
or district, his punishment is death.

Art. 92. If the citizen or subject of a country or place invaded or
conquered gives information to his own government, from which he is
separated by the hostile army, or to the army of his government, he is a
war-traitor, and death is the penalty of his offense.

Art. 93. All armies in the field stand in need of guides, and impress them
if they cannot obtain them otherwise.

Art. 94. No person having been forced by the enemy to serve as guide is
punishable for having done so.

Art. 95. If a citizen of a hostile and invaded district voluntarily serves
as a guide to the enemy, or offers to do so, he is deemed a war-traitor,
and shall suffer death.

Art. 96. A citizen serving voluntarily as a guide against his own country
commits treason, and will be dealt with according to the law of his
country.


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