Editing Lieber Code (section)

==Legal provisions==
For the Union Army's prosecution of the American Civil War, General Order No. 100 (April 24, 1863) concerns the practical particulars of [[martial law]], military [[jurisdiction]], and the treatment of Confederate [[Irregular military|irregular fighters]], such as spies, [[deserter]]s, and prisoners of war. In the field practice of military justice, the unit commander held authority for any prosecution under the Lieber Code, which command authority included the [[summary execution]] of Confederate prisoners of war and war-criminal soldiers of the Union Army.<ref>Article 77, Section III: Deserters—Prisoners of war—Hostages—Booty on the Battle-field, ''Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field'' (1863) </ref> In the context of the American Civil War, the Lieber Code explains the concepts of ''military necessity'' and ''humanitarian needs'' in articles 14, 15, and 16 of Section I:

{{quote|1=<nowiki/>
#<li value="14"> Military necessity, as understood by modern civilized nations, consists in the necessity of those measures which are indispensable for securing the ends of the war, and which are lawful according to the modern law and usages of war.</li>
# Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies, and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable in the armed contests of the war; it allows of the capturing of every armed enemy, and every enemy of importance to the hostile government, or of peculiar danger to the captor; it allows of all destruction of property, and obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic, travel, or communication, and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy; of the appropriation of whatever an enemy's country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the Army, and of such deception as does not involve the breaking of good faith either positively pledged, regarding agreements entered into during the war, or supposed by the modern law of war to exist. Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings, responsible to one another and to God.
# Military necessity does not admit of cruelty – that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge, nor of maiming or wounding except in fight, nor of torture to extort confessions. It does not admit of the use of poison in any way, nor of the wanton devastation of a district. It admits of deception, but disclaims acts of perfidy; and, in general, military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult.}}

In the late 19th century, the Lieber Code was the first modern codification of both [[customary international law]] and the [[law of war]] of Europe, and later was a basis for the [[Hague Convention of 1907]], which restated and codified the practical particulars of that U.S. military law for application to international war among the signatory countries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vergerio |first1=Claire |editor1-last=Bukovanski |editor1-first=Mlada |editor2-last=Keene |editor2-first=Edward |editor3-last=Reus-Smit |editor3-first=Christian |editor4-last=Spanu |editor4-first=Maja |title=The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations |date=2022 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345939338 |chapter=The Berlin and Hague Conferences}}</ref>

===Ethical warfare===
As the [[Modernity|modernization]] of the 1806 Articles of War (An Act for Establishing Rules and Articles for the Government of the Armies of the United States), the Lieber Code defines and describes what is a state of [[civil war]], what is [[military occupation]], and explains the politico-military purposes of war; explains what are the permissible and the impermissible military means an army can employ to fight and win a war; and defines and describes the nature of the [[nation-state]], the nature of national [[sovereignty]], and what is [[rebellion]].<ref>articles 149, 150, and 151, Section X: Insurrection—Civil War—Rebellion, ''Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field'' (1863) </ref>
{{Jus in bello}}
The Code requires the humane, ethical treatment of civil populations under the military occupation of the Union Army, and forbids the [[No quarter|policy of killing prisoners of war]] – except when taking prisoners endangers the capturing unit.<ref>Article 60, Section III, ''Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field'' (1863).</ref> Moreover, concerning the ethics of fighting a [[civil war]], Article 70, Section III stipulates that "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."<ref>Article 70, Section III, ''Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field'' (1863).</ref>

The Code forbids [[torture]] as warfare; thus Article 44, Section II prohibits "all wanton violence committed against persons in the invaded country, all destruction of property not commanded by the authorized officer, all robbery, all pillage or sacking, even after taking a place by main force, all rape, wounding, maiming, or killing of such inhabitants, are prohibited under the penalty of death, or such other severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity of the offense. A soldier, officer, or private, in the act of committing such violence, and disobeying a superior ordering him to abstain from it, may be lawfully killed on the spot by such superior."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.civilwarhome.com/liebercode.htm |title=The Lieber Code of 1863 |first=Francis |last=Lieber |publisher=United States War Department |date=April 24, 1863 |access-date=10 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010407120840/http://www.civilwarhome.com/liebercode.htm |archive-date=2001-04-07 }}</ref><ref name="Kuo 2002 306">{{cite journal|last=Kuo|first=Peggy|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1467&context=jil|title=Prosecuting Crimes of Sexual Violence in an International Tribunal|journal=Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law|year=2002|volume=34|pages=306–307|quote=[military commanders were] given the power to execute a soldier immediately if that person committed one of the prohibited acts.}}</ref>

===Black prisoners of war===
The Lieber Code military law concorded with the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] (1 January 1863) and prohibited racial discrimination against [[United States Colored Troops|black soldiers of the Union Army]], specifically the Confederate Army denying them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war.<ref>{{harvnb|Witt|2013|}}, p. 243.</ref> Those stipulations of U.S. military law specifically addressed the Confederate government's proclamation that the [[Confederate Army]] would treat captured black soldiers of the Union Army as escaped slaves, and not as prisoners of war, subject either to summary execution or to re-enslavement in the Confederacy; likewise, the white officers commanding the captured black soldiers would be denied prisoner-of-war status and would be arrested, tried, and condemned as common criminals for helping slaves escape human bondage.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/the-lieber-codes/|title=The Lieber Codes|date=April 24, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e2126|title=Lieber Code|publisher=Oxford Public International Law|access-date=November 9, 2017}}</ref>

===Hard measures===
[[File:CarlvonClausewitz.jpg|thumb|right|The Prussian military theoretician Carl von Clausewitz in uniform]]
Regarding a successful military occupation, the Lieber Code proposed a reciprocal relationship between the U.S. military authority and the Confederate civilian population, whose co-operation with the military authority would ensure considerations and good treatment for the civilian populace; that against guerrilla warfare and armed resistance to [[martial law]] the Union Army would subject the insubordinate enemy civilians to imprisonment and death.<ref>{{cite journal | last= Birtle |first=Andrew J. | title=The U.S. Army's Pacification of Marinduque, Philippine Islands, April 1900 – April 1901 | journal= The Journal of Military History | date= April 1997| volume=61 | issue= 2| pages=255–282 | jstor= 2953967 | publisher= Society for Military History | doi=10.2307/2953967 }}</ref>

Moreover, to defend against the Confederate Army's violations of the laws of war by way of irregular fighters, the Lieber Code allowed [[reprisal|retaliation]] by musketry against Confederate POWs, and allowed the summary execution of captured enemy civilians (spies, saboteurs, ''[[francs-tireurs]]'', guerrillas) caught attacking the Union Army and the United States.<ref>articles 27, 28, and 29, Section I: "Martial Law—Military Jurisdiction—Military Necessity—Retaliation", ''Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field'' (1863)</ref>

In the 19th century, the Lieber Code legalized limited circumstances for retaliation against enemies for acts such as giving no quarter, reasoning "a reckless enemy ... leaves to his opponent no other means of securing himself against the repetition of barbarous outrage." (article 27) "Retaliation shall only be resorted to after careful inquiry into the real occurrence, and the character of the misdeeds that may demand retribution."(article 28)

However, retribution is limited: "Unjust or inconsiderate retaliation removes the belligerents farther and farther from the mitigating rules of regular war, and by rapid steps leads them nearer to the internecine wars of savages."(article 28)

As he believed war's ultimate goal is to bring peace, Lieber preferred for short wars fought and won with decisive warfare, as proposed in the strategy and tactics of the Prussian military science of [[Carl von Clausewitz]]. To that end, the Lieber Code legitimized and justified aggressive war to expand the operational range of the Union Army’s prosecution of the civil war to conquer the Confederacy and free the slaves.<ref>The Lieber Codes (April 24, 2013), ''The New York Times'', p. 2.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e2126|title=Lieber Code|publisher=Oxford Public International Law|access-date=November 9, 2017}}</ref>

===Occupation of the Confederacy===
[[File:Sherman-Horseback.jpg|thumb|right|Gen. Sherman at Federal Fort No. 7, after the Atlanta Campaign, September 1864.]]

For the conquest and military occupation of the [[Confederate States of America]] (February 8, 1861 – May 9, 1865), General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] based his Special Field Orders No. 120 (November 9, 1864) upon General Orders No. 100 (April 24, 1863) for the Union Army. To realize a peaceful [[military occupation]] of the state of Georgia, Special Field Order No. 120 stipulated that "in districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested no destruction of such property should be permitted; but, should [[guerrilla]]s or [[bushwhacker]]s molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility."<ref name="https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/145">{{cite web |last1=Sherman |first1=William T. |title=Special Field Orders No. 120 |url=https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/145 |date=9 November 1864}}</ref>

Moreover, the Lieber Code (General Orders No. 100, April 24, 1863) was the military law applied to the prosecution of [[war crime]]s and for equal prisoner-of-war exchanges between the Union Army and the Confederate Army, regardless of the skin color of the soldier.<ref>{{harvnb|Witt|2013}}.{{pageno|date=February 2023}}</ref>