Art. 53. Any person belonging to the armies of the United States, who shall make known the watch-word to any person who is not entitled to receive it, according to the rules and discipline of war, or shall presume to give a parole or watch-word, different from what he received, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be ordered by the sentence of a general court-martial.
Art. 54. All officers and soldiers are to behave themselves orderly in quarters, and on their march; and whosoever shall commit any waste, or spoil, either in walks of trees, parks, warrens, fish ponds, houses, or gardens, corn fields, enclosures of meadows, or shall maliciously destroy any property whatsoever, belonging to the inhabitants of the United States, unless by order of the then commander in chief of the armies of the said states, shall (besides such penalties as they are liable to by law,) be punished according to the nature and degree of the offence, by the judgment of a regimental or general court-martial.
Art. 55. Whosoever, belonging to the armies of the United States, employed in foreign parts, shall force a safe-guard, shall suffer death.
Art. 56. Whosoever shall relieve the enemy with money, victuals, or ammunition, or shall knowingly harbor or protect an enemy, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be ordered by the sentence of a court-martial.
Art. 57. Whosoever shall be convicted of holding correspondence with, or giving intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be ordered by the sentence of a court-martial.
Art. 58. All public stores taken in the enemy’s camp, towns, forts, or magazines, whether of artillery, ammunition, clothing, forage, or provisions, shall be secured for the service of the United States; for the neglect of which the commanding officer is to be answerable.
Art. 59. If any commander of any garrison, fortress or post, shall be compelled, by the officers and soldiers under his command, to give up to the enemy, or to abandon it; the commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, or soldiers, who shall be convicted of having so offended, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be inflicted upon them by the sentence of a court-martial.
Art. 60. All sutlers and retainers to the camp, and all persons whatsoever, serving with the armies of the U. States in the field, though not inlisted soldiers, are to be subject to orders, according to the rules and discipline of war.
Art. 61. Officers having brevets, or commissions, of a prior date to those of the regiment in which they serve, may take place in courts-martial and on detachments, when composed of different corps, according to the ranks given them in their brevets, or dates of their former commissions; but in the regiment, troop, or company, to which such officers belong, they shall do duty and take rank, both in courts-martial and on detachments, which shall be composed only of their own corps, according to the commissions by which they are mustered in the said corps.
Art. 62. If upon marches, guards, or in quarters, different corps of the army shall happen to join, or do duty together, the officer highest in rank of the line of the army, marine corps, or militia, by commission there, on duty, or in quarters, shall command the whole, and give orders for what is needful to the service, unless otherwise specially directed by the president of the U. States, according to the nature of the case.