Reply #76: actually, the rules of war for the Civil War forbade assassinations [View All]

[fishwax]

The Lieber Code of 1863 set down the laws of war for the Union army. It was commissioned and approved by Lincoln, written by Francis Lieber, and issued as General Order no. 100.

Here is what it had to say about assassination: "148. The law of war does not allow proclaiming either an individual belonging to the hostile army, or a citizen, or a subject of the hostile government an outlaw, who may be slain without trial by any captor, any more than the modern law of peace allows such international outlawry; on the contrary, it abhors such outrage. The sternest retaliation should follow the murder committed in consequence of such proclamation, made by whatever authority. Civilized nations look with horror upon offers of rewards for the assassination of enemies as relapses into barbarism."

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/law/liebercode.htm