"Beloved Friends": The Execution of Henry A. Burnham

 We return to the desertion issues faced by the New Hampshire regiments and their new recruits in 1864. Namely the execution of one Henry A. Burnham at Point Lookout, Maryland. The below account consists in large measure of his "gallows' speech" . . .

May 9, at 8 a. m., Henry A. Burnham, of Company E, was shot to death as a deserter He had deserted twice, received two bounties and been a bad soldier generally.

But the end of our experience at Point Lookout was at hand. The last week of May, 1864, we left there by steamer to rejoin the Array of the Potomac, from which we had been separated since the latter part of July, 1863. On the 28th of May we were at Port Royal, Va., and on the 1st of June, just two years after our first pitched battle, we rejoined the First Brigade, First Division, Second Corps."

During the winter an occasional escape from the prisoners-of-war camp, and many desertions from the recruits in our regiments, served to render our officers alert and vigilant. Among these the desertion, capture, trial, and attempted second escape, sentence and execution of private Henry A.Burnham, Company E, Fifth Regiment, were noticeable. This soldier attempted to desert to the enemy, and had upon his person, when captured, evidence sufficient to convict him beyond doubt. He had a fair trial, was convicted and sentenced to be executed by shooting. At night he escaped from the guard-house with some fellow-prisoners and launched a boat, from near the colonel's quarters, into the bay This escape was discovered and they were arrested by the sentinels and returned to confinement. The affair produced much excitement throughout the encampment. The following account is taken from the "Hammond Gazette," issued at Point Lookout, May 18, 1864: —

AN EXECUTION.

On Monday morning, May 9th inst., at 8 o'clock, in accordance with General Orders No. 15, the troops of this command were marched to the open field opposite the grove, and formed three sides of a hollow square, to witness the execution of Henry A. Burnham, Company E, Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers. At twenty minutes of 8 o'clock the prisoner, escorted by a detachment of twelve men of the provost guard, arrived upon the ground. After taking a position he was asked by Lieutenant Hilliard if he had anything to say, when he expressed himself as follows: —

"My friends: — The time has come when I must die. I am willing to die and leave this world of sorrow. There is but one step between me and eternity, and I feel as if it were my duty to acknowledge that it is for a beloved country's good that I should die at the time appointed. I have forgiven all my friends in the Fifth New Hampshire Regiment. I have forgiven all who have ever done me wrong or injured me, and I hope to be forgiven bj' all to whom I have ever done an injury.

"Beloved friends, — I can address you as friends, for you have acted as such to me — it is necessary that we should all be prepared for death, since we must all die. I admit that I am a sinner. I have not acted manly to the government that I have defrauded, not only once, or twice, but many times, and I now feel that I have done a serious wrong. My advice to you is to do your duty to your country, faith-fully and well. Be true to the oath which you have taken, and you will feel better in your own heart. I do not see that in any other case you can do better. The only source of happiness in this world springs from doing your duty to your country and your God, and unless you serve them faithfully you cannot experience true enjoyment of mind. I would also say to you, that you have taken the oath to obey your superiors ; so have I, and I now know the advantage which would arise from that obedience. It is only since I received my sentence that I have realized the full enormity of my errors; you should do so whilst you have yet time. Furthermore, my advice to you in future is to attend to your duty as you owe it to yourselves and the country o defend her.

"I hope if there is any one here who may have any hard feelings towards me, that he will forgive me as I have forgiven every one who has ever done me an injury You can all better your country far more by obeying the laws which govern you, and it is the last hope and prayer of a dying man that you will endeavor to do so. There is but one step between me and eternity, and in my case it is a solemn thing. It is solemn and sad, indeed, to dear friends to stand by the bedside and watch the spirit of the dear friend they love taking its flight from the world; but if that be solemn, how much more solemn must it be to a dear friend of mine, to see me depart in such a way as this, with an offended law taking justice upon me. I die to-day, and it may be better that I should do so; as, although I may have wished that a little longer time had been extended to me to prepare for so awful a fate, still I may not be any better for it. I may be putting off repentance to the last moment, and then what would I have gained by the delay? I feel now as if I were prepared to die — as if I am prepared to meet my God. I have placed my whole trust in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners. This has been the only subject of my reflections since the moment I received my sentence. I feel as if I could do a great deal of good for myself in this world, if I could only live, after the feelings which have taken possession of me within the last few days. But notwithstanding, I feel that it is for the beloved country's good, and I am satisfied. I cannot view it in any other light; it is necessary, and that is enough for me to know.

"Every man of you who has common sense must know that the state of things which has existed here, must be stopped. This rebellion must be put down, the country must be defended and the law upheld; and how is this to be done if desertion is not checked and discipline preserved in our army? I think the army is fighting in a good cause — the suppression of the rebellion; and if desertion is tolerated, it cannot succeed; it might as well be given up and all those who are true to their oaths, return home, having gained nothing by their exertions and zeal.

"I have, as I said before, forgiven every one who may have injured me; I have forgiven all the officers of the Fifth New Hampshire Regiment, as well as of all the regiments in the field, and I trust in God that they will endeavor to be as good as they can to the private soldiers. I suppose I am the first man who has been sentenced to pay the penalty of death on Point Lookout, Md., and I am satisfied to bear with it as an example. I have felt many times, since I received my sentence,that it would do the country a great deal of good by dying so — that I could do her more good in this way than by all the fighting I could do in the field, and I hope there is no one here who will doubt me. You do not better your condition by deserting; you may for a time succeed in escaping detection, but you have taken the oath before God and man that you will fight for the country, and it is a solemn and a very serious thing to break it.

"Dear friends, I hope that you will all come to Christ immediately; it is very wrong for you to delay; death is before you, and you do not know how soon it may come. I have enjoyed in my life all the earthly comforts which money could give on this earth ; but, after all, I was not happy, I was not contented, and no matter how badly he may have spent his life while on earth, when the time comes that he must die, he turns his heart to Christ for true happiness, and although I have lived a sinner, I want to die a Christian. Christ is willing to receive me even at the eleventh hour. I feel as if I were the greatest of sinners, but it is never too late to repent. Come to Christ immediately; the Christian's hope is great.

"Alas! my dear father and mother! How many hours have they wasted away in instructing me in the love which I owed to the Saviour! I forgot all their teachings; their hearts would be sad, indeed, to know the result of my waywardness. I never knew the worth of their teachings until within the last forty-eight hours. I feel it all now, the folly of my life, the reward of my neglect. Yes, it is true that order must be preserved amongst you. I say you, not myself, because I am about to die in a few, a very few minutes, and to appear before my God to answer my final account. That is a tribunal which is reserved for all, and from which none of us can escape, and I trust to Him for mercy. I have borne myself through this terrible ordeal as well as I could, perhaps as well as most men could, and I have been reconciled to my doom because it was one which I knew to be just, and because I threw myself upon Christ altogether in my hour of need, and I felt He would not forsake me. My last words then are, that you will do all in your power to procure for yourselves salvation. This world is nothing when compared with the world upon which I am about to enter. The trials, the sufferings of the just and righteous before God are easily borne with here. Be good Christians; obey the laws, and, when your hour comes, you can call upon Christ with confident hearts.

"My dear friends, I feel as if I could spend a much longer time speaking to you on this subject ; I could spend a whole day, but my time is come. I must say farewell to all. May you never meet so sad a fate. May you awake to the realization of the great truths of Christianity and reap the benefit of your devotion hereafter."

At the conclusion of his address he requested permission of the provost marshal to shake hands with the men who were detailed as the firing party, which was at once granted. He went through the ranks, accompanied by Lieutenant Hilliard, and clasped each man warmly by the hand. His step was firm to the last, and his voice clear and distinct. His memory seemed to catch inspiration from his position, as he did not forget even the most trivial matter which he wanted to settle. It compassed in that brief space the work which might, under ordinary circumstance, have taken years to accomplish.

Having bade farewell to his friends, the spot was pointed out to him where he was to stand, and he walked to it with great coolness, though exhibiting symptoms of confusion. He stood for a few seconds with his hands clasped in prayer, and when he had concluded he was requested to bend on one knee, which having done, the word was given to fire. One groan, alone, told that his troubles in this world were at an end — but two or three throes of the body, and all was still.

The deceased was a native of Vermont, was about twenty-eight years of age, had no family except brothers and sisters, to whom he sent his photograph with letters of condolence. His last words were,

"May God have mercy on me and receive my spirit."

-A history of the Fifth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, in the American Civil War, 1861-1865
William Child, M.D., Major and Surgeon
Historian of the Veterans' Association of the Regiment.
1893

Unamiable Firmness and General Wistar: Addendum

 In reference to the April executions at Yorktown we have General Butler's side of the correspondence . . .



                   From General Butler

Brig. Genl' WISTAR, YORKTOWN                         April 11, 1864

DETAIL a Court Martial at once, try them on the spot. Send to me for approval of the conviction by telegraph.

Catch those that are running away at all hazards. Shoot them if necessary.

                    BENJ. F. BUTLER, Maj. Gen. Comdg.





   
                From General Butler

Brig. Gen l. WISTAR, Comdg. at YORKTOWN             April 13, 1864

I HAVE not respited the execution for any want of purpose, to make the most pungent examples of these substitute deserters, but we cannot take life without the forms of law except the imperious law of necessity. The record of the proceedings is defective in this, it contains no statement of a point at which the prosecution closed their case. 2nd- there is no record that the accused was allowed to examine witnesses in his own behalf, there is no record that he was allowed to make any statement to the court in his behalf. Now I have no doubt that all this was done, because all Court Martials do it;the difficulty is that the record, to have it amended, [must go] by special steamer. Shall ask you to call the Court together to have it amended to-night. When I receive it amended, a telegram will go to have the execution done. See that the other records are amended and sent back by the boat. Have the record state in each case whether the man is a recruit, substitute, or conscript.

                BENJ. F. BUTLER, Maj. Gen. Comdg.

               



   
                From General Butler

Brig. Gen. WISTAR, YORKTOWN                 April 14, 1864

I FORWARD you by the boat to Yorktown the approval of the proceedings in the case of privates Egan & Holt, whom you will cause to be executed at such time and place as you choose to direct after receiving the order, and had better in form them at once of the order and its time of execution, and of the fact that it is irrevocable.

Send forward any other records that you have, and see that they are correct. The record of the case of Holt is slightly irregular in not saying whether the prisoner had an opportunity to examine witnesses, but having counsel there, and having exercised it, that may properly enough be presumed. A good way to do is to say after each witness (if the fact be so) that the prisoner did not wish to question this witness.

                BENJ. F. BUTLER, Maj. Gen. Comdg.



-Private and official correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler: during the period of the Civil War
Vol. IV
Privately Issued
1917

While in the House of Lords . . .

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC

 Wherein Gen. Wistar's actions have international repercussions.

HOUSE OF LORDS,

Thursday, May 12, 1864.

UNITED STATES- KIDNAPPING FOREIGN SUBJECTS FOR MILITARY SERVICE- OBSERVATION

THE EARL of ELLENBOROUGH: My Lords: I wish to draw the attention the noble Earl the Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the statements contained in a letter of General Wistar, an officer of the United States army, with reference to the kidnapping of persons, principally foreigners, mostly seamen, and, therefore very likely to be British subjects, with the view of forcing them to take service in the armies of the United States. I believe I shall do most justice to the case, and to the gallant officer who has written this letter, by reading the whole of it The letter certainly does him very great credit. The letter is dated Yorktown, April 15, 1864, and is addressed to Major General John A. Dix ,New York city. It is in these words-

"General,- An extended spirit of desertion prevailing among the recruits recently received from the North in some of the regiments of my command has led me to make some inquiries in apparently well authenticated information, which I beg respectfully to communicate to you in this unofficial manner deeming it required by humanity, no less than by our common desire to benefit the service. There seems to be little doubt that many- in fact, I think I am justified in saying that most of these unfortunate men were either deceived or kidnapped, or both, in the most scandalous and inhuman manner in New York city, where they were drugged and carried off to New Hampshire and Connecticut, mustered in and uniformed before their consciousness was fully restored. Even their bounty was obtained by _the parties who were instrumental in these nefarious transactions, and the poor wretches find themselves, on returning to their senses, mustered soldiers, without any pecuniary benefit. Nearly all are foreigners, mostly sailors, both ignorant of and indifferent to, the objects of the war in which they thus suddenly find themselves involved. Two men were shot here this morning for desertion, and over thirty more are now awaiting trial or execution. These examples are essential, as we all understand: but it occurred to me, General, that you would pardon me for thus calling your attention to the greater crime committed in New York, of kidnapping these men into positions where, to their ignorance, desertion must seem like a vindication of their own rights and liberty. Believe me to be General, with the highest esteem, your servant

J.J. Wistar" (sic)

"To Major General John A. Dix New York city."

These my Lords are the very proper of this American officer. It said that many of those who have kidnapped are seamen and subjects of Majesty; it is scarcely possible that transactions could take place without knowledge of many of the officers of American army; it is scarcely that the Government itself should not cognizant of them. I understand that one case where a Frenchman was the French Admiral interfered, the was released, and the captain in regiment he was placed was the service. Many of your Lordships a few days ago a statement, which know to be true from other sources, the case of a poor man named Edwards, a seaman of one of the Liverpool steamers, and who had only recently been married. He left his clothes on board his vessel, and the money which was due to him, went on shore by direction of the to get a warm bath. He was taken to drinking shop, was drugged, and when recovered his senses found himself in uniform of the United States, was told had enlisted, and carried off to a depot, having no means whatever either of joining his family or informing them of of his case. He sent in Welsh, which his wife Liverpool, and that led to inquiries being made This is a very serious grievance. I am not aware if the noble Earl has been previously made acquainted with the case. If he has I wish to know what steps he has taken; and if he has now heard of it for the first time what steps he proposes to take, for the purpose of protecting Her Majesty's subjects from these monstrous atrocities, not only for the future but in order to obtain the release of those who may have been so seriously ill-treated, and to obtain compensation to them for what they have suffered?

EARL RUSSELL, who was very imperfectly heard, was understood to say that he knew nothing of the letter which the noble Earl had read, further than that a copy of it had been sent to him. Without, therefore, giving any answer to the individual cases stated by the noble Earl, he would say that very great hardships were incurred in such cases. It appeared that the bounty given on enlistment by the general Government of the United States and by the States Government amounted altogether to 600 dols. or 700 dols.; and this large sum, it appeared induced nefarious and unprincipled men to get hold of persons on landing in the United States, who drugged them, kept them without food, and tempted them to enlist, when they were marched off to some depot and deprived of all means of obtaining their liberty. Whenever such cases came to the knowledge of Lord Lyons, he had made immediate representations to the United States Government. He was not so much surprised at the unprincipled conduct of the parties referred to as that attempts should be made to throw protection around them; and he was sorry to say that Lord Lyons had made repeated complaints, but in most cases he had not obtained that satisfaction which he had a right to expect. The noble Earl then read the following passages from a memorandum of similar cases which had recently occurred, and the result of the representations made by Lord Lyons:-

 "Two other cases have been reported to us by the Board of Trade. The first is that of Hugh Bennett, who stated that having gone on shore from his ship, the Edinburgh, at New York, in order to make a purchase, he was induced to enter a public house, where he, in company with eleven other steamboat men, had been drugged and carried off to the United States receiving ship North Carolina. This case having been referred to Lord Lyons, he has succeeded in obtaining the man's discharge. The other case is that of a seamen named Charles Thompson, who wrote from Beaufort, South Carolina on the 25th of February last, to say he had been drugged, and while in that state was enlisted, not knowing anything until he came to himself, when he was informed that he was a soldier. He further stated that as soon as a sailor arrived in the United States was nearly certain to be drugged and made soldier of before he knew anything about it, and that in several cases the British had obtained their release."

Several cases had been brought to the notice of the British agents in the American States in which several British subjects were kidnapped, as was alleged, while in a state of intoxication. In reply to a representation from Lord Lyons, the United States War Department said they would investigate the case, and in a certain sense they did so, examining the recruiting agents and other persons who stated that the men were sober when they enlisted. Lord Lyons answered, very properly, that that investigation was not satisfactory, it having been carried on entirely in the absence of the men themselves, four or five of whom had been sent forward to the army. The recruiting agents were tempted by the very large bounty to use every I fair means of inveigling men to enlist. He must say it would throw great discredit on the United States Government if such practices were allowed to go on. It was their bounden duty to see that these persons were not forced to enter the service against their will. He must say that these proceedings would render it necessary that Her Majesty's Government should make the strongest remonstrance to the United States Government. No doubt if the facts referred to by the noble Earl were authentic they formed a very great hardship and disclosed conduct on the part of agents of the United States Government which was highly reprehensible.

-The Parliamentary Debates (Authorized Edition)
  Wyman, 1864

"Cuss the sub"- The Second New Hampshire

Point Lookout, Md. View of Hammond Genl. Hospital & U.S. genl. depot for prisoners of war

A little background on the situation in the Second New Hampshire as they received their "subs" at Point Lookout, Maryland . . .

The Fifth Regiment arrived from New Hampshire on the afternoon of November 13. On the following day they disembarked, and made their camp on the Chesapeake side of the point, just north of the prison camp. The regiment had been recruited up, very largely with that execrable class of substitutes known as "bounty jumpers." A big proportion of these were only awaiting an opportunity to desert, and some got in their work very soon. As early as the 17th, the following entry appears in the writer's diary:

Several of the Fifth Regiment's subs, attempted to get away today. Two boarded a schooner, and gave the negro captain fifty dollars to take them up the river. A gunboat got onto the racket and gave chase, overhauling and bringing back the whole outfit. Another party paddled up the river in a canoe. A mounted party pursued up the beach, but they landed at a point outside the guards and escaped to the woods. To prevent these attempts in the future, the small boats from which we have derived so much pleasure are all taken away. Cuss the subs!"

November 30th, the Second received its first dose of the same material one hundred and seventy-five and on the 19th of December another installment of three hundred and fifty came along. Quite a number had found opportunities to desert while en route. There was a little good material mixed in with these recruits, but it is no credit to New Hampshire that she turned such a mass of rubbish loose into her old veteran regiments. The old men of the Second, the true New Hampshire boys, who for more than two years had faced death fearlessly to make a record which should be the pride of their state for ages, keenly felt the change which had come. For them the "Old Second" of glorious memory and heroic achievements had ceased to exist. This feeling was a serious blow to the veteranizing, or re-enlistment, of the old men, which was invited about this time.

In spite of all precautions, a number of these rascals got away. December 3d, a party made off with a boat in which an officer had come ashore from one of the gunboats. Later, one who had been made a corporal rowed away, sometime between sunset and sunrise, with his entire squad posted at the wharf.

-A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion
Martin A. Haynes 
Lakeport, New Hampshire 1896

The Executions at Yorktown- the Second New Hampshire

 More on the executions at Yorktown in spring of 1864, from the history of the Second New Hampshire Regiment . . .

AT an early hour on the morning of the 8th of April the Second landed at Yorktown, marched up through the little town, and went into camp on the plain outside the encircling fortifications. The post was under command of General Wistar, with a garrison consisting of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth New York and a brigade of colored troops. On the 11th the Twelfth New Hampshire came down from Point Lookout, one of the colored regiments being sent up to take their place.

The regiment was hardly in camp before the bounty jumpers began to jump. Within three days over a hundred men deserted from the Second. But very few got clear away. Some made their way toward the rebel lines, but the greater part struck down the Peninsula toward Fort Monroe, and were gathered in like rats in a bag. At Point Lookout they had been reasonably sure of escape if they could but once get outside the camp limits; but here the conditions were reversed their troubles commenced where they had formerly ended. The old men cursed each successive squad as they were brought in, and felt more homesick than ever.

It was a military necessity that an example should be made of some of these, and a court martial was convened for the trial of the most flagrant cases. John Egin, of Company A, was tried on the 12th, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot to death between the hours of 5 and 6 p.m. on the 13th. Egin was picked up while making his way toward the rebel lines by a Union scout in rebel uniform. Preparations were made for carrying out the sentence. The Second marched to the place selected for the execution, and Egin was on his way when a reprieve arrived and arrested the proceedings. Egin threw his cap in the air and danced for joy. He probably thought the whole affair was only "a bluff." But his reprieve was only temporary. On the 15th he rode forth again, seated upon his coffin, this time with a comrade in misery and to his death. His companion was from Company F, and had enlisted under the name of Henry Holt; but the night before his death he divulged that his name was McGuire, and that he was from Yorkshire, England, where he had a wife and two children.

The place of execution was about a mile below the fort, upon the bluff overlooking the river. The regulation formalities and arrangements for a military execution were fully observed. The condemned men's own regiment was drawn up in line, with unloaded muskets, facing the spot where the deserters were to die. A section of artillery was upon the left of the regiment, trained to rake it. The One Hundred and Forty-eighth New York, in line to its rear, and two colored regiments on the right, all with loaded muskets, hedged the Second round about. No words can tell how keenly the proud old men of the proud old Second felt the disgrace of the position.

The condemned men rode to the spot seated upon their coffins, and accompanied by a priest. The carts stopped directly in front of the Second, where the men alighted, and their coffins were placed upon the ground, end to end, a few rods from the edge of the river bluff. The provost marshal read the findings of the court and the sentence, when the firing party of twelve men advanced and took position a few feet in front of the coffins. The prisoners removed their coats, and knelt upon the grass while the priest performed the holy offices of the church. Arising, they shook hands with the provost marshal and the priest. Their eyes were bandaged and their wrists tied with white handkerchiefs. Then they were led to and seated upon their coffins, facing the executioners. The marshal raised his hand, and his men brought their pieces to a "ready ;" again, and the guns sprang to the shoulder; a third time, and the volley rang out. Two or three bullets were heard singing out over the river, and Egin and Holt fell back across their coffins. After a short time the bodies were examined by surgeons, who declared life extinct, when all the troops were filed past the bodies and back to their camps.

But vengeance was not yet satisfied. James Scott, of Company G, and Owen McDonald, of Company K, had been picked up by the gunboat "Mystic," while paddling up Chesapeake Bay in a small boat, outside the Union lines. From memoranda found on their persons relative to the military preparations at Yorktown, it appeared that they were prepared to furnish valuable information to the enemy. They were tried for desertion, found guilty, and paid the penalty upon the plain in front of Fort Magruder, at Williamsburg, on the 29th of April.

These drastic measures had a most salutary effect, the desertions by wholesale being immediately checked. Fred Phisterer, sometime Adjutant General of New York, states in his statistical record that twelve men who were soldiers were executed by sentence of court martial during the war. If his figures are correct, the Second Regiment certainly furnished an undue proportion of this disgraceful roll.

                    
-A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion
Martin A. Haynes 
Lakeport, New Hampshire 1896

Unamiable Firmness and General Wistar

Picture from the autobiography of Isaac Wistar, 1914

An incident at Yorktown during  April of 1864 gives, I believe, some idea of the mindset of Isaac Wistar, the general who so often chevauchéd his way through the Tidewater of Virginia.

THREE DESERTERS SHOT AT SUNRISE

In April, 1864, numerous regiments and batteries gathered from all parts of the Department, were sent me to be organized and Brigaded into the 18th Army Corps, which it was understood was to be commanded by the able and well-known General William F. Smith, then wearing his freshly-won Chattanooga laurels, at which place by rescuing the communications of the Western Army he had saved the army itself and thus rendered possible its subsequent success. Many of the regiments were old ones recently filled up with drafted or kidnapped men by certain iniquitous practices first made known to me by the following circumstance which, in the interests of humanity, one may hope could scarcely happen outside of a free (?) Republic. A New Hampshire regiment one night reported its arrival and was posted by one of the staff a couple of miles from the fort, to be inspected and provisionally brigaded next day. But early in the morning the Colonel personally reported that eighty of his men had deserted during the night! In reply to some sharp strictures on the quality and discipline of a regiment in which such things could happen, he explained that his command was an old and good one of long service, but having been reduced by various casualties to barely 150 men, had just been filled up with 600 drafted men. These were foreigners, mostly speaking foreign languages, who had been drugged and kidnapped in New York, there purchased by the 'quota agents' of his State, their muster papers regularly made out, then heavily ironed, confined in box cars, and shipped like cattle, to his regiment.

All this proved on inquiry to be true. One could not but sympathize with the poor wretches thus maltreated on their arrival in a land whither many of them had probably fled to escape a much milder military service at home; nevertheless their chains had been forged by experienced hands and were without a flaw. They came to me with all regular forms complete, as duly enlisted, sworn and mustered soldiers of their regiment, and I was bound by every consideration of oath and duty to treat them as such until discharged, regardless of their individual misfortunes. The deserters were of course trying to get to the enemy, but must all be retaken sooner or later by our pickets or patrols. Should their escapade be allowed to pass without special attention, as might have been possible under almost any other circumstances, the offense would be repeated indefinitely by them, as well as by the hundreds of similar unfortunates drafted like them into other regiments, and must at last be stopped at any cost, even by wholesale executions, if required.

It was therefore not merely in the interest of the Government, but of humanity as well, that I felt that such an example must be made of a few of those first caught as might serve to cut short the contagious and dangerous defection. The opportunity was not long delayed. Three poor devils were brought in that evening, immediately tried by special court martial, found guilty, condemned to death, and sentenced to be shot at sunrise next morning, in presence of their regiment. I approved the conviction and sentence, as plainly authorized to do by the Sixty-fifth Article of War; but to avoid all question of authority, telegraphed the facts and my intention to execute the sentence to the Department-Commander at Fortress Monroe. General Butler wished the execution deferred till he could receive and examine the record, but feeling very clear both as respected my authority and duty, I declined to so do on the ground that the efficacy of the punishment as a deterring influence, lay mainly in its immediate infliction, and plainly stated that if restrained in this exercise of judgment, I should decline further responsibility for the troops in this condition, and would ask the favor of an immediate assignment to the Army of the Potomac. Butler then contented himself with requiring the record of conviction to be telegraphed him, which process went on through the remainder of the night and was still being conducted long after the culprits had ceased to exist.

One reason for such unamiable firmness in the matter, was the prevailing feeling that among so many newly-drafted reinforcements, the prisoners could not be publicly executed without insubordination and perhaps mutiny. Even so good an officer as the colonel of their regiment, while concurring in other respects, begged that the execution might be private, or at least not in presence of his regiment, which he feared might not be controllable.

But his reason for privacy was mine for publicity, since the very existence of such doubts rendered it all the more imperative that the entire command should know by exhaustive public test, whether the Government with its officers, order and authority, was or was not stronger than the mutinous conscripts and drafted men, of whom the army was likely to become more and more composed.

The place of execution was selected near the center of a level plain south of the fortifications, extending from the high banks of the York estuary to a woods half a mile distant. Prior to the appointed hour, all troops having been first paraded in their respective camps, and the streets commanded by reliable artillery, the deserters' regiment was drawn up in line a few paces from the spot occupied by the prisoners, and a firing-party from their own regiment, closely watched by a picked detail of the provost guard. Opposite the flank of this regiment and at right angles with it, were posted two reliable regiments of my old brigade, one deployed in line of battle with a section of artillery in its center, the other in two columns each doubled on the center, in rear of the respective wings. A few squadrons of cavalry were drawn up at the edge of the woods, a quarter of a mile distant, a field battery, harnessed and mounted, was placed in position in the nearest bastion of the fort, and another was harnessed and standing ready on the road inside the nearest gate. It did not require a very experienced military eye to perceive that in case of any mutinous demonstration by the offending regiment, it could be mowed down by the enfilading fire of the regiment and guns on its flank, and if it broke, could be annihilated by the charge of the two infantry columns, and every straggler cut down or captured -by the cavalry in rear. The disposition being effectually, and therefore mercifully made, the ceremony was conducted deliberately and with perfect regularity. The men fell dead at the first discharge, and were buried where they fell, not another sound being audible from first to last, but the necessary officers' orders, till quick time beaten by the drum corps announced the ceremony completed.

The results justified the painful harshness of this measure. All the other deserters were captured and brought in within a few days and received less severe punishment, and not another desertion occurred except on a single occasion some weeks afterwards, when thirty-four of the same class of men deserted from a Connecticut regiment while in action at Drury's Bluff, but were mostly killed by our fire while running for the enemy's line. To say nothing of the necessities of the service and the interest of the Government and country, I believe that many lives were saved by this timely severity, and have always felt fully justified in it, even regarded as a measure of humanity alone. But it was none the less an infamous outrage not only on the poor ignorant victims, but on commanding officers constrained to such painful measures, that these should be rendered necessary by the base acts of those quota-hunting villains in northern cities, who, if justice could have been done, would have first felt the halter. Smarting under this feeling I wrote an indignant but unofficial letter to Major-General Dix, then commanding at New York, setting forth the violence and fraud by which emigrants and other friendless persons were dragged against their will into the service, by outrages committed in New York, worse than any acts of the old British naval press-gangs, and the responsibilities thus imposed on commanding officers charged with the duty of receiving such so-called recruits.

-Autobiography Of Isaac Jones Wistar 1827-1905, Vol. II
The Wistar Insititute Of Anatomy And Biology,
Philadelphia 1914


Here is where I pontificate.
That discipline is necessary for the ability of any military force to successfully carry out its mission goes without saying, however it also true that "discipline" and "firmness" can become the watchwords that cover a multitude of sins. That Wistar would try, convict, sentence and execute three members of his unit,  a) newly arrived conscripts, b) within 24 hours, c) not in the field but at his base of operations, d) without allowing any oversight by his superior officer, all the while admitting that the "draftees" had essentially been kidnapped off the streets of Northern cities is a black mark against him. That he then wrote "an indignant but unofficial letter" complaining of the prior treatment of the(now deceased) soldiers mitigates nothing, but instead smacks of a lethal hypocrisy. A hypocrisy all the more glaring, in that the war on the Virginia Peninsula, by 1864, had become one whose ostensible purpose was freedom and emancipation.