Bounty jumper
Bounty jumpers were men who enlisted in the Union or Confederate army during the American Civil War only to collect a bounty and then leave. The Enrollment Act of 1863 instituted conscription but allowed individuals to pay a bounty to someone else to fight in their place. Bounty jumpers commonly enlisted numerous times in the army, collecting many bounties in the process.
Methods
Being a bounty jumper was more profitable in the North. A month after the
Typically, the bounty jumper would desert his unit before arriving on the front lines, traveling to a new area to gain another bounty.[2] One bounty jumper collected at least 32 bounties.[4] Another bounty jumper, John Larney aka "Mollie Matches", claimed to have enlisted and deserted from 93 regiments for bounties.[5]
Consequences
Due to the number of bounty jumpers taking advantage of being substitutes for those drafted, the Confederate Congress withdrew the law making substitutions possible in December 1863.[6]
Not all bounty jumpers successfully left their new unit. During the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864, one bounty jumper who was a member of the 35th Massachusetts Regiment shouted "Retreat!" causing the entire unit to panic and run back to their earthworks.[7]
A popular place for bounty jumpers to go to was New York City. At one time 3,000 professional bounty jumpers were believed to be in the city. A dozen a day were found in a brief campaign to catch jumpers in February 1863; many were caught while enjoying a
One bounty jumper became particularly famous. Adam Worth became an international thief, with the theft of Thomas Gainsborough's painting Duchess being his most famous crime. He would become known as the "Napoleon of Crime", a label Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would borrow when creating the character Professor Moriarty, whom Doyle loosely based on Worth.[10] According to William Pinkerton, Worth did actually fight once, for the Union in the Battle of the Wilderness, and once collected a $30 Confederate bounty, only to eventually fight for the Union. Pinkerton further said that Worth did what he did due to greed and lack of patriotism, not for cowardice.[10]
Northerners typically saw bounty jumpers as either "urban, largely foreign underclass" worthy of contempt, or viewed as urban dandies. The view of them as cowardly was generally universal. This wide view allowed Northern authorities to punish bounty jumpers more harshly than other deserters.[11]
Punishment
Bounty jumping could be a
Not all punishments were capital. When a man who bounty jumped 32 times was caught, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
Bounty jumpers also faced torture. One method to torture bounty jumpers was by use of
References
- ^ Heidler p.256
- ^ a b Heidler p.257
- ^ a b Amedeo p.258
- ^ Farwell p.122
- ^ "Professional Criminals of America" 1886 .pp.67-68 by NYPD Inspector Thomas Byrnes.
- ^ Wert
- ^ Griffith p.131
- ^ a b Spann p.183
- ^ a b Smith p.159
- ^ a b Smith p.162
- ^ Smith pp.151, 160, 161, 164
- ^ Pullen p.154-157
- ^ Bodenhamer p.442
- ^ Smith p.150
- ^ a b Smith p.167
- Amedeo, Michael (2007), Civil War: Untold stories of the Blue and the Gray, West Side Publications, ISBN 978-1-4127-1418-1
- Bodenhamer, David (1994), The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-31222-1
- ISBN 0-393-04770-9
- Griffith, Paddy (2001), Battle Tactics of the Civil War, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-08461-7
- Heidler, David (2002), Encyclopedia Of The American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-04758-X
- Pullen, John J. (1957), The Twentieth Maine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War, Stackpole Books, ISBN 0811735249
- Smith, Michael (June 2005), The Most Desperate Scoundrels Unhung, American Nineteenth Century History
- Spann, Edward (2002), Gotham at War: New York City, 1860–1865, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0-8420-5057-4
- Wert, Jeffry (Oct 2006), CONFEDERATE CONSCRIPTION WOES, Civil War Times