Head quarters,
Department of Pennsylvania,
Baltimore, Md., October
1,1861.
Colonel A. Morse, Commanding, Annapolis:
colonel,—The private
who, while, on post as a sentinel, shot a corporal who refused to halt when
ordered to do so, cannot be tried by a court-martial on the charge sent to me.
It is a charge of murder
— killing with malice aforethought — and must be tried, if at all, by a civil
court.
I have just heard of a similar case in your regiment near
Annapolis Junction, in which a commissioned officer was shot. If the sentinel
is sustained in one case he should be in the other. I learn that in the latter
the officer acknowledged that the sentinel was right. This acknowledgment does
not change the principle. The post of a sentinel cannot be forced. His command
must be obeyed. It matters not whether the party to whom it is addressed is
known to him or not.
I was stopped, with two of my staff, some ten days ago, by a
sentinel for nearly a quarter of an hour. I announced myself as the commanding
general of the department, and he acknowledged that he knew me to be so, but
that I must halt. I did so, and sustained him in the execution of his duty. If
I had advanced and he had shot me, he would have done right. I fear your
officers do not correctly appreciate the duties and responsibilities of
sentries. It is time they should.
I am, very
respectfully, yours,
John A. Dix, Major-general commanding.
SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix,
Volume 2, p. 37
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