Bounty jumpers were men who enlisted in the
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''U ...
or Confederate army during the
American Civil War only to collect a
bounty and then leave. The
Enrollment Act
The Enrollment Act of 1863 (, enacted March 3, 1863) also known as the Civil War Military Draft Act, was an Act passed by the United States Congress during the American Civil War to provide fresh manpower for the Union Army. The Act was the firs ...
of 1863 instituted
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
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
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12–13, 1861) was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia. It ended with the surrender by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War.
Follo ...
the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
passed a law allowing for bounties up to $300. The Confederate government did likewise, starting at $50 and then later in the war increased the bounty to $100. As the US dollar was worth more than the
Confederate dollar ever was, regardless of the $200 disparity, the Northern government had greater luck with bounties, and was more likely to have to deal with bounty jumpers. With state and local governments also adding to bounties, the total could amount to $1000, a considerable amount.
[Heidler p.257] As the typical Northern private was paid $13 a month, the bonuses were considerable.
[Amedeo p.258]
Typically, the bounty jumper would desert his unit before arriving on the front lines, traveling to a new area to gain another bounty.
[ One bounty jumper collected at least 32 bounties. Another bounty jumper, John Larney aka "Mollie Matches", claimed to have enlisted and deserted from 93 regiments for bounties.
]
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.
Not all bounty jumpers successfully left their new unit. During the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th-century spelling Spottsylvania), was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's 18 ...
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.
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 brothel.[Spann p.183] Toward the end of the war, detective Lafayette Baker captured 183 bounty jumpers in a single day by having an infamous broker named Theodore Allen help him use a fake recruitment office; however, Allen eventually ran off to Canada with $50,000 that was used for the purpose of capturing the bounty jumpers.[Smith p.159]
One bounty jumper became particularly famous. Adam Worth
Adam Worth (18448 January 1902) was a crime boss and fraudster. His career in crime, stretching from the United States to Europe and South Africa, included the infamous theft of Gainsborough's celebrated Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devon ...
became an international thief, with the theft of Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...
's painting ''Duchess'' being his most famous crime. He would become known as the "Napoleon of Crime", a label Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
would borrow when creating the character Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and criminal mastermind created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a formidable enemy for the author's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. He was created primarily as a device by which Doyle could ...
, whom Doyle loosely based on Worth.[Smith p.162] According to William Pinkerton
William Pinkerton (1810–1893) was an early English settler in South Australia. He became a major rancher and landowner. He was known for violent retaliation in 1848 against a band of Nauo Aboriginals on his land who had killed one of his shepher ...
, Worth did actually fight once, for the Union in the Battle of the Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5–7, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of Lieutenant general (United States), Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against General (C ...
, 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.[
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.
]
Punishment
Bounty jumping could be a capital offense
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. The most notable execution of bounty jumpers in the Union Army took place at Beverly Ford, Virginia on August 29, 1863. Five bounty jumpers had been recaptured after deserting from the 118th Pennsylvania "Corn Exchange" Regiment and sentenced to death. Appeals were sent all the way to President Lincoln, who decided that the desertion of bounty jumpers was becoming too severe a problem and denied the appeal. The execution of the five deserters took place with the entire V Corps (to which the 118th Pennsylvania belonged) assembled to witness the shooting. In 1864 three bounty jumpers were executed on the parade grounds of Camp Morton
Camp Morton was a military training ground and a Union prisoner-of-war camp in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the American Civil War. It was named for Indiana governor Oliver Morton. Prior to the war, the site served as the fairgrounds for the I ...
in Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
. At Governor's Island
Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park S ...
in early 1865, bounty jumper James Develin was executed; he had been turned in by his wife after she caught him with another woman. Bounty jumpers were more likely to receive death sentences than those deserters who left due to homesickness, or to help the family farm, or simply as a lark against authority.[Smith p.150] In another incident, a bounty jumper attempting to escape his captors was shot when one of them overtook him, placing the pistol directly to the back of the man's head while both were running.[Smith p.167]
Not all punishments were capital. When a man who bounty jumped 32 times was caught, he was sentenced to four years in prison. The infamous Andersonville prison held hundreds of bounty jumpers.[
Bounty jumpers also faced torture. One method to torture bounty jumpers was by use of thumbscrews.][
]
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bounty Jumper
Military history of the American Civil War
United States military law