Military Police contains information about military police functions in maneuver and mobility support, area security, law and order, internment/resettlement, and police intelligence operations.
Issue link: https://militarypolice.epubxp.com/i/383260
MILITARY POLICE . 19-14-2 34 for the fatal hour." 5 The narrative goes on to follow the prisoner through the entire execution routine until the pronouncement of death. About 50 American Service members were hanged or shot during the Mexican War. A large number of these executions occurred as a result of General Orders 259 and 263, which established two courts-martial for 72 deserters. Most of these men were Irish immigrants who had left the U.S. Army to serve in the San Patricio (Saint Patrick's) Bat- talion in Mexico. General Winfeld Scott issued the orders. Colonel John Garland convened the frst court-martial on 23 August 1847 in Tacubaya, Mexico. Colonel Bennet Riley, an Irish Catholic offcer, convened the second court-martial on 26 August 1847, in San Angel, Mexico. Only two of the 72 defendants avoided the death sentence; one was excused due to improper enlistment in the Army and the other because he was deemed insane. However, General Scott was trou- bled by the sweep of guilty verdicts. He knew that the Irish- born Catholic deserters had allegedly felt mistreated in the Army and that they had witnessed atrocities against their fellow Catholics, the Mexicans. He did not want to alienate the Mexican public, who by now considered the deserters national heroes. In addition, he did not want to encourage insurgency among the Mexican people, thereby weakening the pacifcation program that was in progress. Therefore, he felt the need to confrm the trials and sentences. He con- cluded that some of the men did not deserve such severe punishment, and he sat up nights attempting to come up with excuses to avoid the universal application of capital punishment. In the end, General Scott approved the death penalty for 50 of the de- serters, but later pardoned fve of these and reduced the sentences of 15 others, including the ringleader, Sergeant John Riley. This left 30 men slated for ex- ecution—16 of whom were hanged on 10 September 1847 and four of whom were hanged the follow- ing day. The rest were as- signed to Colonel William Harney for execution at a later date. 6 More Soldiers were ex- ecuted during the Ameri- can Civil War (1861–1865) than during all other American wars combined. About 500 men from the North and the South were hanged or shot during the 4-year of them for desertion. The "Articles of War for the Government of the Armies of the Confederate States" (commonly known as the "Con- federate Articles of War") specifed that "All offcers and Sol- diers who have received pay, or have been duly enlisted in the services of the Confederate States, and shall be convict- ed of having deserted the same, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as, by sentence of a court-martial, shall be ted." 7 The "General Orders of the War Department Embracing the Years 1861, 1862, and 1863" directed that those men convicted of desertion were "to be shot to death with musketry, at such time and place as the commanding general may direct." 8 Several members of the U.S. Army were executed during the Philippine-American War. One enlisted man serving in the Philippines was executed for murder during the year ending 30 June 1901. Another three were executed for murder during the year ending 30 June 1902. Two more (Private Edmond Dubose and Private Lewis Russell, 9th Cavalry Regiment) were executed on 7 February 1902 for desertion and joining the enemy. 9 Private William Taylor, 24th Infantry, was executed for shooting an offcer. The Houston Riot of 1917 (also known as the Camp Logan Mutiny) involved 156 Soldiers of the all-black 3d Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment—a unit of the famed Buffalo Soldiers. The riot was caused when Corporal Charles W. Baltimore, a black military police Soldier, approached two Houston, Texas, police offcers to question the brutal apprehension of a 24th Infantry Regiment Soldier and was attacked by one of the offcers, pistol-whipped, and fred at when he tried to escape. Although Baltimore was severely injured and jailed, word got back to camp that he had been Historical miltary execution