MILITARY PUNISHMENTS, those which are inflicted upon soldiers regularly enlisted, or non-commissioned or commissioned officers, for infractions of discipline or breaches of military law. Among the ancient Greeks the commander of an army was empowered, in ease of sedition or mutiny, to cause the ringleaders to be seized and instantly put to death. Thus, we read in tlie _Iliad that Agamemnon threatened deserters with death; and Alexander the great, when a mutiny took place partly in consequence of the jealousy excited by the favor which he showed the Persians, caused thirteen of his Macedonians to be executed without a trial. The military law of Athens prescribed the punishment of death for the crime of desertion while on service. Among the LacedEe monians, cowards and deserters were either put to death or publicly disgraced; offenders who did not suffer the extreme penalty were made, when at home, to wear a parti-colored dress, and were obliged to submit in silence to any insult which the meanest citizen would like to offer. Disgrace was also attached to any soldier who had the misfortune to lose his shield. Said the Spartan mother to her son, " Return, my son, Avith your shield, or upon it." The ancient Romans punished crimes committed by the soldiery with great severity. For the gravest offenses they were beheaded or crucified; and under the Pagan emperors, some were burned alive, while others were exposed to N-vild beasts; but this may have been in the cases of those who professed the Christian religion. On the occurrence of a mutiny, every tenth, twentieth, or hundredth man engaged in it was selected for punishment; though sometimes only the ringleaders were chosen. Frequently, in the case of deserters or seditious persons, they were first scourged and afterwards sold into slavery; and sometimes such an offender was condemned to lose his right hand, or was bled nearly to death. If a soldier absented himself from his post when doing guard duty, he was examined by the tribune, and on the offense being proved against him was sentenced to the bastinado. Sometimes the culprit was per mitted to escape, if able, while a shower of blows was being visited upon him; but in such instances he became an outcast, whom no one dare harbor. Punishments for theft, or for giving false testimony, and sli,,,crht breaches of discipline, were lighter, though frequently of a similar character. Sometimes the culprit was temporarily deprived of his pay, forfeited his arms, or was degraded in rank. Again, he was sen tenced to remain outside the camp, subject to the danger of being captured by the enemy; or lie was made to stand in the prietorium exposed in an unmilitary dress. Or lie was sentenced to a period of hard labor, reduced to an inferior rank, or dismissed the service in disgrace. Cowardice, or loss of arms, always subjected the Roman soldier to punishment. A centurion who committed a breach of discipline was condemned to surrender his emblem of authority, a vine branch. The power of life and death rested in the hands of a dictator, who could sentence to death any offender against military regulations; and the Roman consuls had the power of exercising summary jurisdiction in capital cases. Punishments were ordered by the legionary tribunes and by the pre fects, with the concurrence of a council. The R=an system of punishments continued In vogue among the nations of modern Europe, so far as military offenses were con cerned, until a recent date. Besides the infliction of a certain number of lashes with cords, soldiers convicted of theft, marauding, or any other breach of discipline not punishable with death, were sentenced to run the gauntlet [ga-antelope, or ganglope; from gang, a passage, and the root " to run," found in elope]. For the execution of this sentence the regiment was drawn up in a double line, and each man being furnished with a small stick, generally of osier (except the grenadiers, who used their belts), the culpnt, naked to the waist, was either marched slowly or allowed to run as fast as he could, according to circumstances, from the head to the rear extremity between the two lines, each man striking him as he passed along. In certain cases the offender was
afterwards expelled from the regiment, and sometimes also from the town or district, with a charge never to appear there again under pain of death. The punishment of the knout in tile Russian army is inflicted with a leathern strap or belt, having a wooden handle, and is applied on the naked back of the offender. Cavalry soldiers were for merly frequently punished by the picket, as it was called; this consisted in the man being made to hang by his hands from a beam during a certain time, a stake, -with its upper end made sharp, being planted in the ground under him, so that, when from weariness he could no longer keep himself up, his foot was pierced with the stake; this kind of punishment has been long abolished. Confinement without light during a certain number of hours was, and still is, a frequent punishment for being absent without leave from parade, either on account of drunkenness or from any other cause. Formerly the pillory was a punishment awarded to offenses of this nature. Besides the punishments of death and transportation, which for great crimes are within the scope of military law in the British army, breaches of discipline are visited by temporary imprisonment, extra 'drills, extra guards, and the performance of fatigue duties; but punishments consisting of protracted periods of confinement to barracks accompanied by laborious employmants, inflicted at the discretion of commanders of regiments, have been abolished for many years, not, however, before the most serious mortality in consequence had made it abso lutely necessary. While an army is in the field, breaches of discipline must be punished promptly and with more than usual severity. It might be presumed that acts of treachery will seldom be comrnitted; desertions to the enemy do, however, occasionally take place; but the more usual crime is quitting the ranks on a lawless expedition of plunder, generally accompanied by gross acts of outrage and often murder, against the defenseless people of an invaded or occupied country. In such cases, it is generally conceded that the offenders should be, and they usually are, shot or hanged on the spot. Even when the crime is less heinous, the well-being and perhaps the safety of an army may be periled in consequence of resentment excited among the surrounding inhaln. tants, and punishment should be swift and condign. In the presence of an enemy there can scarcely be a more serious offense than intoxication; miscarriage of an enterprise, and defeat, vvith the loss of numbers of gallant men in an action, may be the fatal con sequences of indulgence under such circumstances. Whatever may be the defense in other instances, there CHM be none in this, and the punishment is therefore always imme diate and -without recourse. The punishment of the lash is one that is now given up by civilized nations. Formerly, and particularly in the British army, a terrible frequency in the use of this discipline could not but tend finally to the demoralization of the men. Gen. sir Charles Napier has stated that in the beginning of this century, when flogging was common, he had frequently seen from 600 to 1000 lashes given under sentence by merely regimental courts-martial; and in those days a man who had suffered a part of his sentence was often brought from the hospital, before his wounds were entirely healed, to receive the remainder. The power of public opinion proved so strong in England, and was so naanifestly opposed to flogging in the army and navy, that it gradually' fell into disuse, until a regulation issued in 1866 practically abolished it. By the existing law, a man has to be convicted of one disgraceful offense before he becomes liable to flogging for the next one, and fifty lashes is the extreme penalty; see FLOGGING. In the United States this practice does not exist. Punishment by military law is confaned, except in the case of the death-penalty, when engaged in war, to imprisonment, expul sion from the service, and minor penalties.