Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Cavalry of the Army / of the United States 1917. To be also used by Engineer Companies (Mounted) for Cavalry Instruction and Training

by United States. War Department

(Circular.)

War Department,

Adjutant General's Office,

Washington, November 1, 1887.

By direction of the Secretary of War, the following is published for the information of the Army:

United States Circuit Court, Eastern District of Michigan, August 1, 1887.

THE UNITED STATES V. JAMES CLARK.

The circuit court has jurisdiction of a homicide committed by one soldier upon another within a military reservation of the United States.

If a homicide be committed by a military guard without malice and in the performance of his supposed duty as a soldier, such homicide is excusable, unless it was manifestly beyond the scope of his authority or was such that a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know that it was illegal.

It seems that the sergeant of the guard has a right to shoot a military convict if there be no other possible means of preventing his escape.