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
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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.
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Bounty jumpers were men who enlisted in the Union or Confederate army during the American Civil War only to collect a bounty and then leave. The draft of 1863 allowed individuals to pay a bounty to someone else to fight in their place rather than be drafted. 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 United State Congress 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 more likely to have to deal with bounty jumpers.[1] With state and local governments also adding to bounties, the total could amount to $1000, a considerable amount.[2] As the typical Northern private was paid $13 a month, the bonuses were considerable.[3]
Typically, the bounty jumper would desert their unit before arriving on the front lines, traveling to a new area to gain another bounty.[2] One bounty jumper collected at least 32 bounties.[4]
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.[5]
Not all bounty jumpers successfully left their new unit. During the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864, one bounty jumper who was a member of the 35th Massachusetts Regiment shouted "Retreat!" causing the entire unit to panic back to their earthworks.[6]
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.[7] Toward the end of the war, detective Lafayette Baker captured 183 bounty jumpers in a single day having an infamous broker named Theodore Allen to 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.[8]
One bounty jumper became particularly famous. Adam Worth became an international thief, with the theft of Thomas Gainsborough's painting Duchess being his most famous crime. He would become known as the "Napoleon of Crime", a label Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would borrow when creating the character Professor Moriarty, whom Doyle loosely based on Worth.[9] According to William Pinkerton, Worth did actually fight once, for the Union in the Battle of the Wilderness, 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.[9]
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.[10]
Punishment
Bounty jumping could be a capital offense. In 1864 three bounty jumpers were executed on the parade grounds of Camp Morton in Indianapolis, Indiana.[11] At Governor's Island in early 1865, bounty jumper James Develin was executed; he had been turned in by his wife after she caught him with another woman.[7] 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. [12] 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.[13]
Not all punishments were capital. When the man who bounty jumped 32 times was caught, he was sentenced to four years in prison.[3] The infamous Andersonville prison held hundreds of bounty jumpers.[8]
Bounty jumpers also faced torture. One method to torture bounty jumpers was by use of thumbscrews.[13]
Notes
References
- Amedeo, Michael (2007), Civil War: Untold stories of the Blue and the Gray, West Side Publications, ISBN 1412714184
- Bodenhamer, David (1994), The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253312221
- Farwell, Byron (2001), The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393047709
- Griffith, Paddy (2001), Battle Tactics of the Civil War, Yale University Press, ISBN 0300084617
- Heidler, David (2002), Encyclopedia Of The American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 039304758X
- Smith, Michael (June 2005), The Most Desperate Scoundrels Unhung, American Nineteenth Century History
- Spann, Edward (2002), Gotham at War: New York City, 1860–1865, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0842050574
- Wert, Jeffry (Oct 2006), CONFEDERATE CONSCRIPTION WOES, Civil War Times
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