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rior grades if it can be avoidedhours of proceeding.

can be avoided. Nor shall any proceedings or trials tial, nor by infebe carried on, excepting between the hours of eight in the morning and three in the afternoon, except in cases, which, in the opinion of the officer appointing the court, require immediate example.

sence of courts

ART. 12. No person whatsoever shall use menacing Conduct in prewords, signs or gestures in the presence of a court-martial. martial, or shall cause any disorder or riot to disturb their proceedings, on the penalty of being punished at the discretion of the said court-martial.

charge of non

ficers and sol.

ART. 13. No commissioned officer shall be cashiered, Dismissal of ofor dismissed from the service, excepting by order officers, and disCongress, or by the sentence of a general court-mar- commissioned of tial; and no non-commissioned officer or soldier shall diers. be discharged the service, but by the order of Congress, the secretary at war, the commander-in-chief, or commanding officer of a department, or by the sentence of a general court-martial.

cers-breach of arrest.

ART. 14. Whenever any officer shall be charged with Arrest and cona crime, he shall be arrested and confined to his bar. finement of offi racks, quarters or tent, and deprived of his sword by his commanding officer. And any officer, who shall leave his confinement before he shall be set at liberty by his commanding officer, or by a superior power, shall be cashiered for it.

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ART. 15. Non-commissioned officers and soldiers, Imprisonment of who shall be charged with crimes, shall be imprisoned, soldiers. until they shall be tried by a court-martial, or released by proper authority.

rest and confine.

ART. 16. No officer or soldier, who shall be put in ar- Limitation of ar rest or imprisonment, shall continue in his confinement ment. more than eight days, or until such time as a courtmartial can be assembled.

ceive prisoners.

ART. 17. No officer commanding a guard, or provost- Refusal to remarshal, shall refuse to receive or keep any prisoner committed to his charge by any officer belonging to the forces of the United States, provided the officer committing shall, at the same time, deliver an account in writing signed by himself, of the crime with which the said prisoner is charged.

ART. 18. No officer commanding a guard, or provost- Release and esmarshal, shall presume to release any person commit- cape of prisoners. ted to his charge, without proper authority for so doing; nor shall he suffer any person to escape on penalty of being punished for it by the sentence of a court-martial.

ART. 19. Every officer, or provost-marshal, to whose Prisoners to be charge prisoners shall be committed, shall, within reported daily.

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haviour.

twenty-four hours after such commitment, or soon as he shall be relieved from his guard, make report in writing, to the commander-in-chief, or commanding officer, of their names, their crimes, and the names of the officers who committed them, on the penalty of his being punished for disobedience or neglect at the discretion of a court-martial.

ART. 20. Whatever commissioned officer shall be conScandalous be- victed before a general court-martial, of behaving in a scandalous and infamous manner, such as is unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, shall be dismissed the service.

Suspension.

Officers cashier.

ice-sentence, to

newspapers, &c.

ART. 21. In cases where a court-martial may think it proper to sentence a commissioned officer to be suspended from command, they shall have power also to suspend his pay and emoluments for the same time, according to the nature and heinousness of the offence.

ART. 22. In all cases where a commissioned officer is ed for coward cashiered for cowardice or fraud, it shall be added in be published in the sentence, that the crime, name, place of abode, and punishment of the delinquent be published in the newspapers, in and about the camp, and of the particular state from which the offender came, or usually resides; after which it shall be deemed scandalous for any officer to associate with him.

Commanders of

courts-martial to

departments,

ART. 23. The commanding officer of any post or deposts shall re-tachment, in which there shall not be a number of offiport the neces sity for general cers adequate to form a general court-martial, shall, in commanders of Casts which require the cognizance of such a court, report to the commanding officer of the department, who shall order a court to be assembled at the nearest post or detachment and the party accused, with the necessary witnesses, to be transported to the place where the said court shall be assembled.

&c.

Sentence of

of corporal pun.

ART. 24. No person shall be sentenced to suffer death--limitation death, except in the cases expressly mentioned in the ishment. aforegoing articles; nor shall more than one hundred lashes be inflicted on any offender at the discretion of a court-martial.

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Every judge-advocate, or person officiating as such, at any general court martial, shall transmit, with as much expedition as the opportunity of time and distance of place can admit, the original proceedings and sentence of such court martial, to the secretary at war, which said origmal proceedings and sentence, shall be carefully kept and preserved in the office of the said secretary, to the end, that persons entitled thereto, may

be enabled, upon application to the said office, to obtain copies thereof.

tled to copy on

The party tried by any general court-martial, shall Party tried enti be entitled to a copy of the sentence and proceedings of demand. such court-martial after a decision on the sentence, upon demand thereof made by himself, or by any person or persons in his behalf, whether such sentence be approved or not.

-rules of pro.

powers.

ART. 25. In such cases, where the general, or com- Courts of inqui manding officer may think proper to order a court of organization inquiry, to examine into the nature of any transaction, ceeding, and accusation or imputation against any officer or soldier, the said court shall be conducted conformably to the following regulations: It may consist of one or more officers, not exceeding three, with the judge-advocate, or a suitable person, as a recorder, to reduce the proceedings and evidences to writing, all of whom shall be sworn to the faithful performance of their duty. This court shall have the same power to summon witnesses as a court-martial, and to examine them on oath; but they shall not give their opinion on the merits of the case, excepting they shall be thereto specially required. The parties accused shall also be permitted to cross-examine and interrogate the witnesses, so as to investigate fully the circumstances in question.

evidence by

&e-courts of

ed unless demarded by the

ART. 26. The proceedings of a court of inquiry must Proceedings may be authenticated by the signature of the recorder and be admitted as the president, and delivered to the commanding officer: court-martial, and the said proceedings may be admitted as evidence, inquiry prohibitby a court-martial, in cases not capital or extending to the dismission of an officer; provided, that the circum- accused, stances are such that oral testimony cannot be obtained. But as courts of inquiry may be perverted to dishonorable purposes, and may be considered as engines of destruction to military merit, in the hands of weak and envious commandants, they are hereby prohibited, unless demanded by the accused,

ART. 27. The judge-advocate, or the recorder, shall oaths of memadminister to the members the following oath:

bers, judge-advocate and wit

"You shall well and truly examine and inquire, ac- nesses, cording to your evidence, into the matter now before you, without favor or affection. So help you God.”

After which the president shall administer to the

judge advocate, or recorder, the following gath:

You A. B. do swear, that you will, according to your best abilities, accurately and impartially record the proceedings of the court, and the evidences to be given in the case in hearing. So help you God,"

immediately reported to the commanding of ficer present.

The witnesses shall take the same oath as is directed to be administered to witnesses sworn before a courtmartial.

Resolved, That when any desertion shall happen from Desertions the troops of the United States, the officer commanding the regiment or corps to which the deserters belonged, shall be responsible, that an immediate report of the same be made to the commanding officer of the forces of the United States present.

Resolved, That the commanding officer of any of the Deserters to be forces in the service of the United States, shall, upon vigorously pursued, advertised report made to him of any desertions in the troops unin newspapers, der his orders, cause the most immediate and vigorous ten dollars of search to be made after the deserter or deserters, apprehension of which may be conducted by a commissioned

and reward of

fered for the

each.

or

non-commissioned officer, as the case shall require. That, if such search should prove ineffectual, the officer commanding the regiment or corps to which the deserter or deserters belonged, shall insert, in the nearest gazette or newspaper, an advertisement, descriptive of the deserter or deserters, and offering a reward, not exceeding ten dollars, for each deserter who shall be apprehended and secured in any of the gaols of the neighboring states. That the charges of advertising deserters, the reasonable extra expenses incurred by the person conducting the pursuit, and the reward, shall be paid by the secretary at war, on the certificate of the commanding officer of the troops.

be stationed on the frontiers.

CHAPTER IX.

In Congress-October 3, 1787.

WHEREAS the time for which the greater part of the troops on the frontiers are engaged, will expire in the course of the ensuing year,

Resolved, That the interests of the United States re700 troops shall quire that a corps of 700 troops should be stationed on the frontiers to protect the settlers on the public lands from the depredations of the Indians; to facilitate the surveying and selling of the said lands, in order to reduce the public debt, and to prevent all unwarrantable intrusions thereon.

Resolved, That in order to save the great expense of Re-enlistment of transporting new levies to the distant frontiers of the those in service. United States, and also to avail the public of the discip

line and knowledge of the country, acquired by the troops on the frontiers, it is highly expedient to retain as many of them as shall voluntarily re-engage in the service.

700 troops sha II

*Resolved, That 700 non-commissioned officers and privates be raised for the term of three years, unless braised for 3 sooner discharged, and that the same be furnished in years, the proportions herein specified, by the states which raised the troops agreeably to the requisitions of Congress, of April, 1785:†

Connecticut,

New Jersey,

165,

New-York,

165,

110, Pennsylvania, 260. That the commissioned officers for the said troops be furnished by the said states, agreeably to the present proportions.

That the organization of the said troops, together organization with the two companies of artillery raised by virtue of the resolves of Congress of the 20th of October, 1786, be according to the present establishment, to wit: one regiment of infantry of eight companies, each company four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians, and sixty privates; and one battalion of artillery, of four companies, each company four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians, and sixty privates.

That the secretary at war make the necessary arrangements, from time to time, to replace the men on the frontiers whose engagements shall expire.

That the said troops shall be governed by such rules and articles of war as are or shall be established by Congress, or a committee of the states.

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That the pay and allowances of the said troops be the Pay and allowsame as directed by the resolve of Congress of April 12, 1785.f

CHAPTER X.

An act to establish an executive department, to be denominated the Department of War

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress

*The establishment provided for by these resolutions, was recognized and adopted by an act of congress under the constitution-see chapter 11, section I.

+See chapter 7.

Though this act has no direct bearing upon the military service, yet, it was thought, that, as it indicates the relation in which the secretary of the war department stands to the army, it would not be out of place here.

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