Guerrilla Parties

Book excerpt: "Published a year before Lieber's code, this pamphlet contains several ideas that were incorporated into that work. Halleck's commission resonates with our current debates concerning the definition of 'enemy combatants' and prisoners of war. In the letter to Lieber that is reproduced as a preface Halleck states: 'The rebel authorities claim the right to send men, in the garb of peaceful citizens, to waylay and attack our troops, to burn bridges and houses, and to destroy property and persons within our lines. They demand such persons be treated as ordinary belligerents, and that when captured they have extended to them the same rights as other prisoners of war; they also threaten that if such persons be punished as marauders and spies, they will retaliate by executing our prisoners of war in their possession. I particularly request your view on these questions.'"--Lawbook Exchange.