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'Hard Tack & Coffee' by John D Billings is one of the best reads of
what life was like for a typical soldier in the Army of the Potomac.
John Billings served with the 10th Mass. Battery during the late War of
Rebellion. This chapter is one description of an execution.
Chapter VIII.
Offences and Punishments.
The penalty attaching to desertion is death by shooting, and this was
no uncommon sight in the army; but it did not seem to stay the tide of
desertion in the least. I have seen it stated that there was no time in
the history of the Army of the Potomac, after its organization by
McClellan, when it reported less than one-fourth it's full membership
as absent without leave. The general reader will perhaps be interested
in the description of the first execution of a deserter that I ever
witnessed. It took place about the middle of October 1863. I was then a
member of Sickles' Third Corps, and my company was attached for the
time being to General Birney's First Division, then covering Fairfax
Station, on the extreme left of the army. The guilty party was a member
of a Pennsylvania regiment. He had deserted more than once, and was
also charged with giving information, to the enemy whereby a wagon
train had been captured. The whole division was ordered out to witness
the execution. The troops were drawn up around three sides of a
rectangle in two double ranks, the outer facing inward and the inner
facing outward. Between these ranks, throughout the entire extent, the
criminal was obliged to march, which he did with lowered head. The
order of the solemn procession was as shown in the accompanying
diagram, the arrows indicating direction. [editors note: diagram not
copied or scanned to this document.]
First came the provost-marshal, - the sheriff of the army, - mounted;
next, the band playing (what to me from its associations has now come
to be the saddest of all tunes) Pleyel's Hymn, even sadder than the
Dead March in "Saul," which I heard less frequently; then followed
twelve armed men, who were deployed diagonally across the open end of
the space, after the procession had completed its round, to guard
against any attempt the prisoner might make to escape; fourth in order
came four men bearing a coffin, followed by the prisoner, attended by a
chaplain, and a single guard on either side; next a shooting detachment
of twelve men. Eleven of these had muskets loaded with ball, while the
twelfth had a blank cartridge in his musket; but as the muskets had
been loaded beforehand by an officer, and mixed up afterwards, no one
knew who had possession of the musket loaded without ball. After these
marched an additional shooting force of six, to act in case the twelve
should fail in the execution of their duty.
When the slow and solemn round had been completed, the prisoner was
seated on an end of his coffin, which had been placed in the centre of
the open end of the rectangle, near his grave. The chaplain then made a
prayer, and addressed a few words to the condemned man, which were not
audible to any one else, and followed them by another brief prayer. The
provost marshal next advanced, bound the prisoner's eyes with a
handkerchief, and read the general order for execution. He then gave
the signal for the shooting party to execute their orders. They did so,
and a soul passed into eternity. Throwing up his arms convulsively into
the air, he fell back upon his coffin but made no further movement, and
a surgeon who stood near, upon examination, found life to be extinct.
The division was then marched past the corpse, off the field, and the
sad scene was ended.
I afterwards saw a deserter from the First Division of the Second Corps
meet his end in the same way, down before Petersburg, in the summer of
1864. These were the only exhibitions of this sort that I ever
witnessed, although there were others that took place not far from
camp. The artillery was brigaded by itself in 1864 and 1865, and
artillerymen were not compelled to attend executions which took place
in the infantry.
Here is a story of another deserter and spy, who was shot in or near
Indianapolis in 1863. He had enlisted in the Seventy-First Indiana
infantry. Not long afterwards he deserted and went over to the enemy,
but soon reappeared in the Union lines as a Rebel spy. While in this
capacity he was captured and taken to the headquarters of General Henry
B. Carrington, who was then in command of this military district. He
indignantly protested his innicence of the charge, but a thorough
search for evidence of his treachery was begun. His coat was first
taken and cut into narrow strips and carefully scrutinized, to assure
that it contained nothing suspicious. One by one, the rest of his
garments were examined and thrown aside, until at last he stood naked
before his captors with no evidnece of his guilt having been
discovered. He was then requested to don a suit of clothes that was
brought in. This he did, and then triumphantly demanded his release.
But the General told him to keep cool, as the search was not yet
completed; that full justice should be done him whether guilty or
innocent. Taking up the trousers again, the General noticed that one of
the spring-bottoms was a little stiffer than the other, and on further
investigation with his scissors, sure enough, carefully sewed in under
the buckram, found a pass from Rebel General Kirby Smith.
At this discovery the culprit dropped on his knees, and begged for his
life. He was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to be hanged -
hanging is the penalty for treason, shooting being considered too
honorable a death for traitors. But General Carrington, wishing the
influence of the execution to be exerted as a check against desertion,
which was very common, decided that he should be shot. It is customary
to detail the shooting squad from the company to which the deserter
belongs. But so enraged were the members of this man's company at his
offence that they sent a unaninous request that the entire company
might act as firing party. This request was refused, however, and
detail of fifteen men made for that purpose. But whereas it is usual
for the sergeant in charge of such a detail to load the muskets
himself, putting blank cartridges into one, two, or three of the
muskets, on this occasion the men were allowed to load for themselves,
and when the surgeon examined the lifeless body he found fifteen
bullets in it, showing that each one of the fifteen men had felt it to
be his duty to shoot his former comrade, and that he had
conscientiously acted up to that duty.
from 'Hard Tack & Coffee' [George M. Smith & Co. Boston,
Massachusetts, 1887]
By John D Billings