Military Executions

This entry focuses on the who, offenses, place, number, how, and by whom of U.S. military executions. These are deaths that have been imposed on U.S. military personnel because of misconduct and behavior in violation of military codes of conduct. In most instances, the executions resulted from unanimous jury decisions that were reviewed and approved by military judges. Nearly all of the information is from the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II—no U.S. soldiers were executed during the Korean or Vietnam Wars.

Historical Background of Military Executions

Type of Offenses

Throughout our history, soldiers have been executed for crimes specific to the military, (e.g., desertion, mutiny, and/or cowardice). They have also been executed for misbehavior defined as felonies by civilian authorities that are also prohibited by military law—murder, rape, and murder and rape together. During the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington approved hundreds of executions, some for desertion. On April 23, 1779, two soldiers were shot at Washington's Morristown, New Jersey, camp for repeated desertion. During the American Civil War, more than 275 men were executed for military offenses by the Union Army, whether guilty or not. More than half of these deaths resulted from desertion; some of the others included cowardice. No soldier was executed for desertion again until WWII. During WWI, no soldier was executed for a purely military offense, leading one army colonel to conclude that this was evidence of the good conduct and discipline of the American soldiers who served abroad. The U.S. Army has executed no soldier since 1961, when a black trooper was hanged for raping an 11-year-old white girl in Austria.

During war and peace, U.S. military executions have almost invariably been held at military installations. General Washington's executions are thought to have occurred outdoors on parade grounds at military camps or forts. The same practice appears to have been followed by the Union Army. The major purpose of these executions was discipline by example.

...