Seeking information about flogging in US Army

Dear Mr. Duane,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched online and located A Treatise on the Military Law of the United States: Together with the Practice and Procedure of Courts-martial and Other Military Tribunals by George Breckenridge Davis (1899),  Military Law and Precedents by William Winthrop (1920), and The Oxford Companion to American Military History by John Whiteclay Chambers (2000). All of these sources state that flogging in the United States Army was banned in 1812, reinstated as a punishment for desertion in 1833, and finally abolished in 1861. None of these sources mention flogging being reinstated in 1814. The first source cites an act passed on May 16, 1812 as the authority for the initial ban. We also located “Military Punishments in the War of 1812” by John S. Hare, published in The Journal of the American Military Institute, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Winter, 1940), pp. 225-239, which claims that flogging was only prohibited for two years. It references an act passed April 10, 1812 that automatically expired at the end of two years. However, John Hare appears to have overlooked the act passed on May 16, 1812 as well as the fact that Congress felt it necessary to reauthorize flogging in 1833.

We also searched the Library of Congress's online collection of Statutes at Large, 1789-1875 and located Volume II covering 1799-1813. This volume contains “An Act to authorize a detachment from the Militia of the United States” passed April 10, 1812. Section 5 bans whipping (which which include flogging) of non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates belonging to “the aforesaid detachment of militia, which shall be ordered into actual service by the President of the United States” and Section 9 states that the act expires after 2 years. Both of these sections are on page 707. The volume also contains “An act making further provision for the Army of the United States” passed May 16, 1812. Section 7 repeals sections of a previous law governing military discipline that permits corporal punishment “by stripes or lashes.” Unlike the act passed on April 10, 1812, this act has no expiration date.

Please note that even though flogging was banned, other forms of punishment that could cause extreme physical discomfort were not banned. There also may have been instances where officers ordered flogging in spite of it the law. For example, The Old Army: A portrait of the American Army in peacetime, 1784-1898 by Edward M. Offman (1986) states that Colonel William King of the Fourth Infantry authorized flogging in his regiment in 1818-1819.

The Navy was not covered under these acts. Please see the Naval History and Heritage Command’s “Brief History of Punishment by Flogging in the US Navy” for more information.

We hope this information is helpful.