Roll Call of Confederate Soldiers and Officials Executed for Treason

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One Confederate civilian, William Bruce Mumford, was executed in an action so arbitrary it really is the exception proving (finding the extreme limits of) the rule. In 1862 he was one of a group of rabble who pulled down a USA flag that US military had raised over the mint in New Orleans. A military tribunal found him guilty of some stuff, including treason, and hung him.

This seems the ultimate example of a bad judge having a bad day. (Because almost anyone in the south could have been just as properly strung up by a passing military tribunal for treason just as easily, but as a matter of policy they were not.) Reminds me of the guy in SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE executed for looting the ridiculous souvenir clock while an entire city is being reduced to ashes.

And that was it for treason executions for the Civil War, even though millions of Americans were involved in a no doubt about it war against the United States.

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After the war was over, Lincoln was assassinated and Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt, all hanged on July 7, 1865 for treason and conspiracy for the Lincoln assassination and conspiracy - by military tribunal.

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Major Henry Wirz, commandant of the infamous confederate Andersonville POW camp was executed for war crimes, though not for treason.

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TREASON is a word, and also a crime. As a word I guess one can throw it around however one wants. It joins theft and rape and fraud and a lot of other stuff as bootstrapped rhetorical crimes that are often used to describe bad actions that do not have the elements of the crimes being claimed.

As a crime, however, Treason is an infraction with elements and conditions and such and is a very limited kind of thing.