marauding in the ranks as his units marched across northern Virginia on the way to Bull Run. He wanted these units assigned the "special and sole duty" of preserving property from depredation and of arresting "all wrong-doers, of whatever regiment or corps they may be." Wrongdoers, he went on to order, "will be reported to headquarters, and the least that will be done to them will be to send them to the Alexandria jail." In those early days of the war, commanders were particularly sensitive to the political implications of interfering with local law enforcement, and McDowell also made it clear that his provosts were not to arrest civilians. His troops were to fight the enemy, "not to judge and punish the unarmed and helpless, however guilty they may be."[1]
In the wake of the Union's defeat at Bull Run, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, reported "with much regret" that large numbers of soldiers stationed in the vicinity of the capital were in the habit of frequenting the streets and hotels of the city. Calling the practice "eminently prejudicial to good order and military discipline," he appointed Col. Andrew Porter provost marshal of Washington and assigned him the duty of keeping the officers and men in camp unless under special pass.[2] He gave Porter some 1,000 officers and men—all the Regulars in the city, including infantry, cavalry, and artillery units—to suppress gambling, marauding, and looting in the capital area and to intercept stragglers and fugitives from nearby Army units. To carry out its mission, the provost guard was allowed to impose curfews on soldiers, all of whom were obliged to carry passes. Eventually, Porter was also empowered to search citizens, seize weapons and contraband, and make arrests.[3] Thus began the gradual extension of the jurisdiction of provost marshals during the Civil War from responsibility for maintaining law and order within the military to include the protection and, to some extent, the control of the civilian population.
Although organized military police units were relatively rare in the Union Army, General McClellan established the Office of Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac and appointed Colonel Porter, lately returned from his duties in Washington, to command the unit. McClellan gave Porter a sizable force to carry out military police functions in his army, including battalions from the 8th and 17th Infantry and the entire 2d Cavalry, as well as several units of Regular artillery. McClellan later enumerated the duties of his provost marshal, which, in addition to those already made familiar by Porter's troops in Washington, included regulation of places of public accommodation and amusement, distribution of passes to civilians for purposes of trade within the lines, and "searches, seizures, and arrests" within the army area.[4]
Porter coordinated, but did not supervise, the activities of the provost units McClellan was also organizing in the separate divisions of the Army of the Potomac. Following Porter's appointment, McClellan ordered each of his division commanders to organize a provost guard within his command. Serving under a divisional provost marshal, again with an enlisted strength of ten men, these units were primarily responsible for protecting civilian property from the sometimes sticky hands of soldiers on the march as well as all other duties associated with the discipline and orderly activities of the army. They
- ↑ GO 18, Dept of Northeastern Virginia, 18 July 1861, reprinted in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880) (hereafter cited as OR), ser. 1, vol. 2, pp. 743–44.
- ↑ GO 2, Division of the Potomac, 30 July 1861, OR, ser. 1, vol. 2, p. 769. See also General Reports no. 1 of Maj Gen George B. McClellan, U.S. Army, of the operations of the Army of the Potomac from 27 July 1861 to 17 March 1862 in OR, ser. 1, vol. 5, p. 30.
- ↑ GO 4, Division of the Potomac, 16 August 1861., OR, ser. 1, vol. 5, pp. 564–65. General McClellan later reported that, thanks to Porter, Washington had become "one of the most quiet cities in the Union." See General Reports no. 1 of MG George B. McClellan, p. 12.
- ↑ General Reports #1 of MG. George B. McClellan, p. 30.
