1282. An armistice is not a partial or a temporary peace; it is only the suspension of military operations to the extent agreed upon by the parties. 1283. When an armistice is concluded between a fortified place and the army besieging it, it is agreed by all the authorities on this subject that the besieger must cease all extension, perfection, or advance of his attacking works, as much so as from attacks by main force.

But as there is a difference of opinion among martial jurists, whether the besieged have the right to repair breaches or to erect new works of defense within the place during an armistice, this point should be determined by express agreement between the parties.

1284. So soon as a capitulation is signed, the capitulator has no right to demolish, destroy, or injure the works, arms, stores, or ammunition, in his possession, during the time which elapses between the signing and the execution of the capitulation, unless otherwise stipulated in the same.

1285. When an armistice is clearly broken by one of the parties, the other party is released from all obligation to observe it.

1286. Prisoners, taken in the act of breaking an armistice, must be treated as prisoners of war, the officer alone being responsible who gives the order for such a violation of an armistice. The highest authority of the belligerent aggrieved may demand redress for the infraction of an armistice.

1287. Belligerents sometimes conclude an armistice while their plenipotentiaries are met to discuss the conditions of a treaty of peace; but plenipotentiaries may meet without a preliminary armistice; in the latter case, the war is carried on without any abatement.

SECTION IX.

Assassination.

1288. 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.

SECTION X.

Insurrection-Civil War-Rebellion.

1289. Insurrection is the rising of people in arms against their government, or a portion of it, or against one or more of its laws, or against an officer or officers of the government. It may be confined to mere armed resistance, or it may have greater ends in view.

1290. Civil war is war between two or more portions of a country or

state, each contending for the mastery of the whole, and each claiming to be the legitimate government. The term is also sometimes applied to war of rebellion, when the rebellious provinces or portions of the state are contiguous to those containing the seat of government.

1291. The term rebellion is applied to an insurrection of large extent, and is usually a war between the legitimate government of a country and portions or provinces of the same who seek to throw off their allegiance to it, and set up a government of their own.

1292. When humanity induces the adoption of the rules of regular war toward rebels, whether the adoption is partial or entire, it does in no way whatever imply a partial or complete acknowledgment of their government, if they have set up one, or of them, as an independent or sovereign power. Neutrals have no right to make the adoption of the rules of war by the assailed government toward rebels the ground of their own acknowledgment of the revolted people as an independent power.

1293. Treating captured rebels as prisoners of war, exchanging them, concluding of cartels, capitulations, or other warlike agreements with them; addressing officers of a rebel army by the rank they may have in the same; accepting flags of truce; or, on the other hand, proclaiming martial law in their territory, or levying war-taxes or forced loans, or doing any other act sanctioned or demanded by the law and usages of public war between sovereign belligerents, neither proves nor establishes an acknowledgment of the rebellious people, or of the government which they may have erected, as a public or sovereign power. Nor does the adoption of the rules of war toward rebels imply an engagement with them extending beyond the limits of these rules. It is victory in the field that ends the strife and settles the future relations between the contending parties.

1294. Treating, in the field, the rebellious enemy according to the law and usages of war has never prevented the legitimate government from trying the leaders of the rebellion or chief rebels for high treason, and from treating them accordingly, unless they are included in a general amnesty. 1295. All enemies in regular war are divided into two general classes; that is to say, into combatants and non-combatants, or unarmed citizens of the hostile government.

The military commander of the legitimate government, in a war of rebellion, distinguishes between the loyal citizen in the revolted portion of the country and the disloyal citizen. The disloyal citizens may further be classified into those citizens known to sympathize with the rebellion, without positively aiding it, and those who, without taking up arms, give positive aid and comfort to the rebellious enemy, without being bodily forced thereto.

1296. Common justice and plain expediency require that the military commander protect the manifestly loyal citizens, in revolted territories, against the hardships of the war as much as the common misfortune of all war admits.

The commander will throw the burden of the war, as much as lies within his power, on the disloyal citizens of the revolted portion or province, sub

jecting them to a stricter police than the non-combatant enemies have to suffer in regular war; and if he deems it appropriate, or if his government demands of him that every citizen shall, by an oath of allegiance, or by some other manifest act, declare his fidelity to the legitimate government, he may expel, transfer, imprison, or fine the revolted citizens who refuse to pledge themselves anew as citizens obedient to the law and loyal to the government.

Whether it is expedient to do so, and whether reliance can be placed upon such oaths, the commander or his government have the right to decide.

1297. Armed or unarmed resistance by citizens of the United States against the lawful movements of their troops is levying war against the United States, and is therefore treason.28

28 See the Constitution of the United States, Chap. i., Art. III., sec. 3, clause 1.

ADDENDA.

ACTS PASSED AT THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS.1

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT.

1300. THE sixth section of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending June 30, 1870," approved March 3, 1869 [¶ 538], is so far modified as to authorize and permit the President of the United States to nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint one assistant adjutant-general, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a major in the said department.— March 3, 1873.

COMMISSARY SERGEANTS.

1301. That the secretary of war be and he is hereby authorized and empowered to select from the sergeants of the line of the army who shall have faithfully served therein five years, three years of which in the grade of non-commissioned officer, as many commissary sergeants as the service may require, not to exceed one for each military post or place of deposit of subsistence supplies, whose duty it shall be to receive and preserve the subsistence supplies at the posts, under the direction of the proper officers of the subsistence department, and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by the secretary of war. The commissary sergeants hereby authorized shall be subject to the Rules and Articles of War, and shall receive for their services the same pay and allowances as ordnance sergeants.-March 3, 1873.

DISCHARGE CERTIFICATES.

1302. Whenever satisfactory proof shall be furnished to the war department that any non-commissioned officer or private soldier who served in the

1 Such of the acts of this session of Congress as have been accessible to the compiler in an authentic shape are published herewith. Other legislation of importance to the army, happening since this volume went to press, may have been published too late for insertion in this edition.

2 Regulations relative to commissary sergeants are published in G. O. No. 38, A.-G. Ö., 1873.