Thread: a good letter to the editor

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

This was my real point of the GBurg address. Too bad it's heading for an untimley death.

Crimes and Punishment, In the Civil War, Part One
By Robert A Niepert

At its highest level, 280,000 Federals deserted. It is estimated
by some that one in seven Union soldiers deserted and in 1864 the Federal
desertion average per month was 7,333 men.
Although the Confederacy had as all armies throughout time have
had a problem with soldiers deserting on any given day and even during
battle itself desertion in the southern army was far less extensive than
in the northern army. Only about 104,000 Confederates, far less than
half as many as the Union forces, deserted their comrades. Estimates
claim that one out of nine Confederate soldiers left without permission.
President Davis tried to curb the desertion rate by offering its soldiers
a $100 bond in exchange for a promise not to leave. The Civil War
set the record for deserters. The average rate for both armies at
any given time was an incredible 11% of their total available strength.

The sentence for this cowardly act has been carried out in many
different forms including flogging, imprisonment, a "D" branded on the
deserter's face or death by firing squad. Yes, it is true that the
flogging and branding of deserters was an acceptable form of punishment
as far back as the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. Although these punishments
were common and imposed with shocking severity during that time period
and both were authorized in 1861-1865 War Between the States, neither were
used with regularity. Usually deserters when recaptured were put
to hard labor on government works or confined in a penitentiary to work
out their unexpired term of service. Strangely enough was the fact
that in the Union army less than 10% of those convicted of desertion actually
died at the hands of a firing squad and a quarter of those sentenced received
commutation. Executions for desertion in the South ran higher.
Both the Union and Confederate army took the problem of desertion
very seriously. The death penalty was recommended by both armies
for this crime.

War is Ugly, but not as UGLY as the Men who cause them.