bounty jumper

A person who enlists for a cash bounty and then deserts. The term became popular late in the Civil War, although the practice had existed for several centuries.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Bounty Jumper, a Civil War deserter. The system of military bounties paid during the Civil War to encourage enlistment in the U.S. military produced bounty jumpers. Aided and abetted by bounty brokers, a man would enlist, collect the bounty, desert, and then reenlist elsewhere. He would repeat this process until authorities finally caught him. One especially devious deserter received a sentence of four years in prison after confessing to jumping bounties thirty-two times. The large initial bounty payments were a major cause of desertion from the ranks of the Union army. More than 268,000 soldiers deserted from the Union forces during the Civil War.

Bibliography

Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865: Organization and Operations. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

—Fred A. Shannon/A. E.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)