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

Art. 50. Moreover, citizens who accompany an army for whatever purpose,
such as sutlers, editors, or reporters of journals, or contractors, if
captured, may be made prisoners of war, and be detained as such.

The monarch and members of the hostile reigning family, male or female, the
chief, and chief officers of the hostile government, its diplomatic agents,
and all persons who are of particular and singular use and benefit to the
hostile army or its government, are, if captured on belligerent ground, and
if unprovided with a safe conduct granted by the captor’s government,
prisoners of war.

Art. 51. If the people of that portion of an invaded country which is not
yet occupied by the enemy, or of the whole country , at the approach of a
hostile army, rise, under a duly authorized levy en masse to resist the
invader, they are now treated as public enemies, and, if captured, are
prisoners of war.

Art. 52. No belligerent has the right to declare that he will treat every
captured man in arms of a levy en masse as a brigand or bandit.
If, however, the people of a country, or any portion of the same, already
occupied by an army, rise against it, they are violators of the laws of
war, and are not entitled to their protection.

Art. 53. The enemy’s chaplains, officers of the medical staff,
apothecaries, hospital nurses and servants, if they fall into the hands of
the American Army, are not prisoners of war, unless the commander has
reasons to retain them. In this latter case; or if, at their own desire,
they are allowed to remain with their captured companions, they are treated
as prisoners of war, and may be exchanged if the commander sees fit.

Art. 54. A hostage is a person accepted as a pledge for the fulfillment of
an agreement concluded between belligerents during the war, or in
consequence of a war. Hostages are rare in the present age.

Art. 55. If a hostage is accepted, he is treated like a prisoner of war,
according to rank and condition, as circumstances may admit.

Art. 56. A prisoner of war is subject to no punishment for being a public
enemy, nor is any Revenge wreaked upon him by the intentional infliction of
any suffering, or disgrace, by cruel imprisonment, want of food, by
mutilation, death, or any other barbarity.

Art. 57. So soon as a man is armed by a sovereign government and takes the
soldier’s oath of fidelity, he is a belligerent; his killing, wounding, or
other warlike acts are not individual crimes or offenses. No belligerent
has a right to declare that enemies of a certain class, color, or
condition, when properly organized as soldiers, will not be treated by him
as public enemies.

Art. 58. The law of nations knows of no distinction of color, and if an
enemy of the United States should enslave and sell any captured persons of
their army, it would be a case for the severest retaliation, if not
redressed upon complaint.

The United States cannot retaliate by enslavement; therefore death must be
the retaliation for this crime against the law of nations.

Art. 59. A prisoner of war remains answerable for his crimes committed
against the captor’s army or people, committed before he was captured, and
for which he has not been punished by his own authorities.

All prisoners of war are liable to the infliction of retaliatory measures.

Art. 60. It is against the usage of modern war to resolve, in hatred and
Revenge , to give no quarter. No body of troops has the right to declare
that it will not give, and therefore will not expect, quarter; but a
commander is permitted to direct his troops to give no quarter, in great
straits, when his own salvation makes it impossible to cumber himself with
prisoners.

Art. 61. Troops that give no quarter have no right to kill enemies already
disabled on the ground, or prisoners captured by other troops.

Art. 62. All troops of the enemy known or discovered to give no quarter in
general, or to any portion of the army, receive none.

Art. 63. Troops who fight in the uniform of their enemies, without any
plain, striking, and uniform mark of distinction of their own, can expect
no quarter.

Art. 64. If American troops capture a train containing uniforms of the
enemy, and the commander considers it advisable to distribute them for use
among his men, some striking mark or sign must be adopted to distinguish
the American soldier from the enemy.

Art. 65. The use of the enemy’s national standard, flag, or other emblem of
nationality, for the purpose of deceiving the enemy in battle, is an act of
perfidy by which they lose all claim to the protection of the Laws of war .

Art. 66. Quarter having been given to an enemy by American troops, under a
misapprehension of his true character, he may, nevertheless, be ordered to
suffer death if, within three days after the battle, it be discovered that
he belongs to a corps which gives no quarter.

Art. 67. The law of nations allows every sovereign government to make war
upon another sovereign state, and, therefore, admits of no rules or laws
different from those of regular warfare, regarding the treatment of
prisoners of war, although they may belong to the army of a government
which the captor may consider as a wanton and unjust assailant.

Art. 68. Modern wars are not internecine wars, in which the killing of the
enemy is the object. The destruction of the enemy in modern war, and,
indeed, modern war itself, are means to obtain that object of the
belligerent which lies beyond the war.

Unnecessary or revengeful destruction of life is not lawful.

Art. 69. Outposts, sentinels, or pickets are not to be fired upon, except
to drive them in, or when a positive order, special or general, has been
issued to that effect.

Art. 70. The use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or food,
or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare. He that uses it puts
himself out of the pale of the law and usages of war.

Art.71. Whoever intentionally inflicts additional wounds on an enemy
already wholly disabled, or kills such an enemy, or who orders or
encourages soldiers to do so, shall suffer death, if duly convicted,
whether he belongs to the Army of the United States, or is an enemy
captured after having committed his misdeed.

Art. 72. Money and other valuables on the person of a prisoner, such as
watches or jewelry, as well as extra clothing, are regarded by the American
Army as the private property of the prisoner, and the appropriation of such
valuables or money is considered dishonorable, and is prohibited.
Nevertheless, if large sums are found upon the persons of prisoners, or in
their possession, they shall be taken from them, and the surplus, after
providing for their own support, appropriated for the use of the army,
under the direction of the commander, unless otherwise ordered by the
government. Nor can prisoners claim, as private property, large sums found
and captured in their train, although they have been placed in the private
luggage of the prisoners.

Art. 73. All officers, when captured, must surrender their side arms to the
captor. They may be restored to the prisoner in marked cases, by the
commander, to signalize admiration of his distinguished bravery or
approbation of his humane treatment of prisoners before his capture. The
captured officer to whom they may be restored can not wear them during
captivity.

Art. 74. A prisoner of war, being a public enemy, is the prisoner of the
government, and not of the captor. No ransom can be paid by a prisoner of
war to his individual captor or to any officer in command. The government
alone releases captives, according to rules prescribed by itself.

Art. 75. Prisoners of war are subject to confinement or imprisonment such
as may be deemed necessary on account of safety, but they are to be
subjected to no other intentional suffering or indignity. The confinement
and mode of treating a prisoner may be varied during his captivity
according to the demands of safety.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, Laws of war, Revenge, country.