The Naval War Code

Abstract

The code of "Instructions for the government of the armies of the United States in the field," drawn up by Professor Lieber and issued as General Order 100, in 1863, in some sense marked an epoch in the history of the rules of land warfare. It was a set of rules, humane and enlightened for the times, covering the ground broadly, expressed clearly and in codified form, while the rules of other powers lacked this definiteness and depended too much upon the impulse of the commander. Upon this code as a basis, it is not too much to say that all subsequent codes have been built up, whether official or unofficial, adopted or rejected, the work of a single writer, of a commission of publicists or of a conference of the powers.