The surprising ways that British officers were punished during the Napoleonic wars
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- British army officers of the Napoleonic era - we have an image that they were immune to punishment…But can that be true?
Zack White, the expert on Crime and Punishment in the British army of the era recently joined me to explain more.
Zack has just finished his PhD on the subject and is also host of the excellent Napoleonic Wars Podcast.
Stick around to the end of the video to find out how officers also got in trouble for NOT breaking military law - that really is fascinating.
I started off by asking Zack if officers could be flogged.
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After the Action of August 1702 the British Admiral Benbow was so furious about the conduct of the captains in his squadron that held immediate courts marital upon return to harbor. Two officers were sentenced to death (and subsequently shot), two were cashiered and two were suspended (in rank, not...). The enemy Admiral wrote a letter to Benbow saying that he thought he would have had to surrender and added (quoting from memory) "As for he cowardly captains under your commend, hang them, for by God, they deserve it."
A court marital sounds nasty. Denied access to conjugal relations for life would be a bugger.
@@marklawes1859 Depends on the wife...
The Execution of Admiral Byng was in my mind one of the most influential moments in Royal Navy history.
It told the Admiralty that they were not safe and if they wanted to protect their positions they needed to be determined, aggressive, and professional commanders.
This created a culture amongst the RN that can be summed up with Admiral Lord Nelson saying "No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy" (translation: get in close and fuck them up) and Admiral Cunningham saying "The right range for any ship of the Mediterranean Fleet - from a Battleship to a Submarine - to engage the enemy is point blank range." (Translation: get in close and fuck them up)
This is what made the Royal Navy so successful. This culture of supreme professionalism paired with an aggressive determination to succeed.
I know of a few officers in modern times who don't know how fortunate they are that dueling is not permitted.
Challenging a superior officer to a duel was never permitted, it was infact a courts martial offence punishable by death.
I was amused to discover Wellington didn't think much of most of the young officers sent to Spain straight from England.. he BANNED the carrying of umbrellas, a French invention! , that had become popular among young men at the time.
I find this amusing since young men of today would not be caught dead with an umbrella.
This is true for the British Army. The Royal Navy was rather different. While executing officers was always rare, Admiral Byng was only unique in being an Admiral. There were occasional executions of Royal Navy Captains and Lieutenants throughout the 18th century, mostly for cowardice, exceptionally for other extreme forms of dereliction of duty.
Even today, losing a ship is an automatic court martial.
Back in the day, if you could not justify the loss of your vessel there would be consequences. Rank is no shield in the Royal Navy when you lose a vessel.
You couldnt buy your rank in the navy, the officers in the navy were actual officers who had worked their way up
@@davidscoltock3970 - In a sort-of related story, US Navy Regulations had to be changed when the LST was introduced, because until then it was an offense if a Navy ship was run aground.
Beyond executions in the RN, a captain could end up 'on the beach' on half pay with no hope of a new command for any number of very minor reasons. Being a captain of an RN vessel was truely one of the most challenging jobs one could imagine.
@@dougearnest7590lol an LST captain getting court martialed for taht would be hilarious stupid
Gentlemen: what happened to an officer who lost the King's Colours (and what happens now) in a battle - similar to what Sir Henry Simmerson (played brilliantly by Micheal Cochrane) did in the show Sharpe's Eagle?
I remember reading, in a book about the Peninsular War, that an officer called Bell was found to have remained in his tent while the Army was storming Badajoz. I think he was required to resign.
Thanks Chris, still the highlight of whichever week you post, interesting , informative, and engaging.❤
Thanks, Chris.
Fantastic video as always, Chris! Always look forward to your videos. :)
Lovely - really appreciate that comment.
Solid video Colonel Chris
Another great info video Chris, thanks for sharing. Let me share an episode occured in Portugal from more or less the same times.
In 1817, a briliant portuguese General, Gomes Freire de Andrade was hanged. The episode occured, in the following years of the end of the Napoleonic Wars, because there was, in Portugal, a sort of resentment against the british military Government, led by Marshal Beresford, whom was the “the facto” top cat of Portugal in those days, king João VI would only return from Brasil in 1821. General Gomes Freire whom had being since 1808 until 1814 serving Napoleon in the unfortunate Portuguese Legion, was in 1817 being implicated in a conspiracy, with other military officers, agains Beresford and his military Government, General Gomes Freire was then sent to prison, subjected to a mock trial, found guilty was hanged, although he had asked to be shot, appeal that was refused by Beresford. Thus disappeared one one the great portuguese military heros of those conturbated times.
Wow thanks for the info - I didn't know that. A fascinating but tragic story.
Sounds like another day at the office 😒
Not very related but a lot Portuguese live in New England
Excellent content. Thank you.
Thanks for watching 👍🏼
A big misnomer about Duelling was that it was fatal. Duelling between officers was first tackled in the "Newly Modelled Army" (sic) andy were required to restrict the duel to "first blood" unless the quarrel was excessive.. in which case.. second blood only. Cromwell and Fairfax both sentenced men to death for Duelling unto the 3rd blood.
The introduction of pistols into the affair just made it pointless.
People also forget that the rules of challenge also did require the offended party to retract the remark and apologise without loss of honour.
Henry Ireton, as a young man, offended Oliver Cromwell, and by offering an apology, if he had caused offence, earned him the friendship of Cromwell, and marriage to Cromwell's favourite daughter!
Wow! Very INTERESTING subject! All in all, I would rather be an officer, and take my chances with any duels. I am very excited about all your upcoming works. Regards from Canada 🇨🇦
Cheers, Keith
Cochrane offered out the duke of wellington to a duel and he refused bringing a fair bit of shame on himself as Cochrane was a known excellent swordsman
Thank you for another great video. From Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
Great / thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it 👍🏼
Apparently 3 British officers were shot by firing squad during world war 1. One was a naval reserve officer serving as infantry.
Hi. Thanks for that. Possibly a subject for a future video but this one focusng on the Napoleonic era.
One of my uncles, many generations removed, was a Captain James Richards, who served on the American side in the American Revolution. He fought a duel against another American captain, Benjamin Eaves, who cut off Richards' hand. The wound was not immediately fatal, but since James Richards died not long afterward, it seems likely that infection must have set in. Both officers were cashiered for the duel.
I worked on the movie Zulu Dawn in 1979…..studied the history, was on the site, very knowledgeable…..
If you're interested in a quite unique story, the reenactment association (based in France) which im a member of, would happily chat with you about the Chasseurs-Britanniques Regiment that fought in the Peninsular!
I would actually like to do something one day. Please drop me a line - redcoathistory at gmail - thanks
@redcoathistory Could you interview Don n. Hagist about the British army in the American Revolutionary war? He gives great insight into the lives and service of individual British soldiers in the 1770s and 1780s.
Just had to google him (Revolutionary war not one I have focused on...yet) - he looks great, thanks.
Damned good material - some of it new to me, therefore I have some catching up to do!1
Thinking of the movie “The Four Feathers”
It's not a bizarre set of circumstances, it's just typical of the contradictions that have occurred in every single age.
Thank Goodness the Iron Duke did fight that duel with Wichilsea on Battersea Common or King's College London would never have been founded, and I would never have got my B.A. True officerlike behaviour.
I am really surprised you missed this one , General Sir John Cradock of the East India Company , found Guilty of causing the Vellore Mutiny was sacked , sent back home to England , and had to pay his and families passage.
Ah but that's East India Company not British Army. They were mercenaries not King's Soldiers
Edwin Dyett I believe was an officer shot at dawn in the first war. Naval division.
Hi. Thanks for that. Possibly a subject for a future video but this one focusng on the Napoleonic era.
Officers have to be seen to be infallible by the common soldiers, otherwise they might catch mutinous ideas!
I'd be amazed if any army in the world, would actually flog officers (publicly anyway)
_The Code Duello_ was hypocritical at its core. First it was against the law. Everybody involved was as guilty as the duelists themselves. Secondly, If you refused, you lost your honor as a coward. If you fought, you had to lie under oath in court. Also dishonorable.
We had an ensign, Annapolis grad and everything, miss movement. His career ended when we pulled in the mooring lines. He lost all seniority to the point he was behind the graduates of the two classes behind him, and ended up discharged as an ensign when his five years was up.
My DO told him to consider not putting the Navy on his resume.
Sharp does not say officers will not be punished. He says they will never be flogged!
time to demand honour from the traitors in Westminster
And in Ottawa, Canada!
It’s called an election.
I would call them out!
As Admiral Byng was bought up, the Navy had the punishment for officers of 'Watch and Watch' basicly, no rest. For senior officers you could be sent to be governor or a nightmare province.
or australia which was basically the equivalent of being sent to alsaka during the cold war. the middle of nowhere with out any real prospects for gloryor future advancement.
In the British Army in WWI, an enlisted man who allegedly showed "cowardice" (sometimes was really PTSD) in the face of the enemy, he was likely to be shot. If an officer...didn't happen... some famous cases re even Field Grade officers who totally "funked it" simply being sent back to England "for a rest..." YP
Incorrect.
Of the 200,000 or so men court-martialed during the First World War, 20,000 were found guilty of offences carrying the death penalty.
Of those 20,000, 3080 actually received it, (89% being reprieved by the C in C and given a different sentence).
Of those 3080 death sentences passed, 346 were carried out.
Of those 346, many were for offences (such as murder) which would have carried the death penalty in civilian life anyway.
In total, only 18 were executed for the offence of cowardice.
Therefore, an enlisted man who allegedly showed "cowardice" was VERY unlikely to be executed.
Of those 18, one was an officer, a ratio of 1-17.
The ratio of officers to men in an infantry regiment was roughly 1-30. Statistically, therefore, an officer was more likely to be shot for cowardice than an enlisted man.
In addition, shell-shock (PTSD nowadays) was quite well understood and, indeed, nineteen hospitals were set up specifically to deal with such cases. Not a single man who was diagnosed as suffering from shell shock, received the death sentence. That's not to say, of course, that with advances in medical science, some may be so diagnosed today, but courts in WW1 could only go by the medical knowledge available at that time.
There was Admiral Caraccilo, who was hung (not even shot) by Admiral Nelson at Naples in 1799.
The hanging (illegal, bcz he had asked for a firing squad), wasn't for cowardice or incompetence, Caracciolo had sided with the republican, pro-french, revolutionary gvt, so he had been charged for treason.
Years ago I did an promotion course for Corporal and part of the course was Military Law. I remember that an officer could be charged with Conduct Unbecoming to an Officer. There was another charge which was Conduct unbecoming to the good order and discipline of the Army. As our instructor pointed out if you could not find a charge suitable you could use the last one as it covered just about anything. I dont know if that is still on the books.
Thanks a lot for sharing. Was that British or US army?
@@redcoathistory It was the Australian Army I assume that the British Army would have had similar laws and regulations
It's article 134 of the ucmj for the US military.
@@imperfectlump6070 I think it was regulation 113 of the Australian Military Regulations(AMRs). Not sure what it is covered under now as the AMRs have been removed and now is all Australian Military Law (AML)
@@redcoathistorySection 69 of the Army Act 1955 was conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline - likes others have commented it could be made to fit any apparent indiscretion! Repealed in the new Armed Forces Act
The talk about the duel remembered me of a fact that happened in the last yrs of Hapsburg reign, a young officer, given that the duel was forbidden either by the law AND the church, refused a duel. Well, also if he was backed by a Crown Prince and the pubblic opinion, he was expelled by the army ...for cowardice!
Depends if they have a cousin at Horse Guards or friends at court! 😆
Wellesley: "A man who loses the King's Colours loses the King's friendship."
Cousin at Horse Guards: "Actually, the code is more what you call 'guideline'."
Sharpe:"The Code is law."
History is scary stuff, indeed.
Will people in the future look back on us with dread as well?
They needed good ol soldiering by Richard Sharpe!
In 1968 movie charge of light brigade... cardigan says to nolan
We dont flog officers
Maybe Zack does not understand
that the thinking processes of circa 1800 officers
is derived directly
from the structures of feudalism
establish post 1066.
/
A few thoughts.
If you have wealth and hold land,
you have clear duties under the law,
first,
as part of parish and hundred administation,
and
secondly,
as part of the military resources of the country,
with each holding supplying
a knight(s), men-at-arms, and archers.
Training fighting men,
and making and maintaining their kit,
is always expensive,
and Kings of England made sure
that it was NOT their responsiblity,
but that of the landowners.
/
Officers
came from the landowning class for centuries,
building a mindset
that generally served Britain reasonably well.
Standing armies
were not popular with the taxed people,
so getting an army 'on the cheap'
made most people happy.
Army officers
even had to buy their commissions
( barring the Corps ),
and their expenses
were always far in excess of their salary.
/
An officer who failed in some way
stood a high chance of being cashiered,
losing the value of his commission -
a good reason not to fail.
/
And landowners at that time
had large numbers of people employed
in their houses and on the land,
so from the earliest age,
boys would be seeing their fathers deal with men
in ways not dissimilar
to that of an army unit.
The Left
love to ridicule the old officer class,
but it has stood the test of time.
/
My own cousin
served a lifetime in the Grenadier Guards,
retiring as a full Colonel,
and still serves the Crown
as Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall -
for which no salary is paid.
The late Queen,
in Cornwall for the G7,
was asked to cut a cake
at an event at the Eden Project.
Unimpressed
with the cake knife on offer,
HMQ looked to her Lord-Lieutenant,
who duly provided his sword.
As HMQ said herself,
"it was more unusual!"
/
It is that easy relationship
between Crown and commoner
that is the basis for a great trust.
And trust
is a very useful thing on a battlefield.
.
People who are raised in a certain way
tend to act in reasonably predictable ways,
and if you speak a common language,
and think reasonably similarly,
opportunities for confusion are reduced.
/
Edward's father, Simon Bolitho,
himself a pre-WW2 Grenadier,
and a 3rd Battalion company commander
in North Africa and Italy ( MC ),
was discussing the war with me.
The Bolithos live at Madron, Penzance,
while my family home was near Ivybridge, South Devon.
He mentioned that one of the Bastard family,
who live at Kitley, Yealmpton
( where I have myself lived 8 years,
and knew him ),
was one of his officers in the company.
I asked what was he like,
and he said something
that has stuck in my mind for 40 years.
"A tiger in battle -
and a trial out!"
/
Officers like Colonel Frost,
at Arnhem with his hunting horn,
and one of his officers,
the splendidly named Major Digby Tatham Warter,
who went into battle with an umbrella,
sum up for me
the best of the best.
Today's egalitarian professionalism
with all it's rigid marxist box-ticking
lacks a certain something!
.
I would like to discuss a few points here in as few words as ppssible.
Getting an army on the cheap did keep some taxpayers happy at the time. But I would argue this: where did they find competent and reliable troops?
The old officer class stood the test of time, you say. The officers who bought their commissions, had no competence and did not even develop any afterwards, were rightly replaced by others, duly trained. These ones could be said to have indeed stood the test of time.
Egalitarian professionalism? Just professionalism.
Would you not far prefer to have your fellow countrymen and countrywomen led to battle by competent professionals of the job, high-born and commoners alike, who would have a better chance at victory? "Lacking a certain something" means little to nothing in a war zone, when the shots are fired.
Frost and the umbrella-carrying officer had some sense of unsual flamboyance, indeed. But more importantly, they had the competence and training to fill their positions. And that made their "quirks" acceptable.
P.S.: you were truly blessed to have known and extensively spoken to 2nd WW veterans.
I do confess I envy you on that point.
@@Briselance
Hello Briselance,
Once purchase of commissions was abolished,
and Sandhurst got going,
standards rose,
and things like the staff college
certainly made a difference.
/
A commanding officer,
new to the stresses of war,
can easily make mistakes.
Most are then written off.
This case demonstrates
that given the right motivation,
miracles can be achieved.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ford_Elkington
And note
that Monty was one of Elkington's subalterns,
and critical of him,
yet went to the opening ceremony
for the stained glass window
after Elkington's death.
/
What concerns me,
is the Marxists
driving everyone
who does not think as they do,
out of organisations.
This is happening
in education,
medecine,
the armed forces,
police.
And across the globe.
Clearly a top-down imposed policy
that our 'leaders' / quislings
carry out as instructions.
/
Look at the police.
The incident this week,
where SIX officers
seized an autistic girl from her home,
based on a law
that cannot be enforced in the home,
as there is no offence at law.
In other words,
the diversity aggression,
and total lack of CommonZense,
define
what government is ramming down our throats,
in preparation
for the removal of all private property
by the bankrupt global superstate.
/
Look
at how they are setting out to reduce fasming.
Look
at how the medical intervention 2020 onwards,
now gives us
around 9 percent EXCESS deaths,
long after cessation of the orchestrated 'emergency'.
/
What we are seeing,
is the deliberate destruction of our country,
and of freedom.
As simple as that.
.
Interesting, thank you.
I remember watching a Hornblower film once where a Midshipman was flogged by the Bosun (not with a cat o' nine tails, with a small wooden rod.) Obviously Zack was speaking about the Army here, but have you information about that Chris?
Hi mate - I’ll be honest it’s not an area I know too much about - especially the navy
When I watched that movie my first impression was: "Inspired by true events". My interpretation goes that the erratic actions of the captain in the opening scenes are based on Hugh Pigot, commanding officer on His Majesty`s frigate Hermione (32 guns), a ship operating 1797 in the West Indies where sailors were in fact abused and threatened with "the last one back on deck from the rigging will be flogged", where sailors, who fell from the yards to their death, were simply thrown overboard while the captain cursed them, and a both well-liked and competent midshipman named David O`Brien Casey (some 17 years old) was flogged because he had to tie a loose reefpoint before returning down from the yard.
In the end the crew started a mutiny and killed the officers. They then turned the ship over to the Spanish authorities (re-named Santa Cecilia) and the Royal Navy spent some ten years hunting them down, after a boarding party from HMS Surprise (28 guns) re-captured the frigate in a somewhat daring raid on the harbour of Porto Cabello.
Dudley Pope`s "The Black Ship" is a great and well-researched read if you want to learn more (ISBN 184415893-4). Would make a phenomenal movie as well if created on the level of "Master and Commander".
Best regards from Germany!
very helpful, cheers@@stefanbeckhaus
Interesting.
Tragic!
The ethos of an officer class gets up my nose!!
Will the phrase "pour encouragez les autres" come up in this video? I just hit play.
It did, I'm surprised that no army officers are recorded as having being executed. I've also read that the execution of Admiral Byng was a mistake, the politicians did not expect that any high officer could be caught up by the law which was used to shoot him. The law was changed after the event.
Subleton punishment books are still used and most of their history extends back to the Peninsular war. Ive had the pleasure of being an officers mess steward as part of my duties. I recomend the wonderful bbc documentary "In the Highest Tradition"
Thanks - I will look that up.
Not sure about the British Army, but the only way an officer in the British Navy could be flogged was if he were somehow disrated and returned "before the mast". I know of no instance of this happening after passing for Lieutenant, but returning a midshipman to the rates was a common punishment
No idea ,but perhaps is should have been so!!!
Wonder if they were every 'fragged' by their troops?
interesting.
I wonder how many bad officers in the time of the redcoats were dealt with by their own men ? Are there any recorded examples of fragging going on ? to use the modern term
Considering how close the officers were to the men?
Unlikely in volley firing the offiers were behind the men on the other hand in a bayonet charge and melee on a smokey battlefireld then im sure there were incidents of friendly stab!
Less common as the British solider was a professional (these things usually happen when men have very low moral and discipline) and due to the class system (they weren't typically resentful of being ordered around or having superiors, it was part and parcel of civil life as well) but undoubtedly there would have been cases, though the fact that fragging wasn't really a concept and many cases would have been hushed up means that it probably would have taken quite a lot for someone to think of it and more for them to convince anyone else. More officers likely got accidentally shot and the vast majority of actual violence against officers would have been during drunken sacking of captured settlements when officers tried to rein them in. Even then it would have been unthinkable to a large portion, especially as the established hierarchy had a religious component (this was very explicit in the soldiers attitude to the King, which was strong enough that parliament was always extremely wary of the army).
And for those seen ‘hanging on the old barbed wire’ a different mead of justice: This…control strategy was used in in the First World War by British Generals. The records show that a number of men, shot at dawn for supposed cowardice or a minor infringement of army rules or orders during an engagement with the enemy, were ‘used as an example’. They were shot by a squad of their own countrymen in an effort in an effort to engender fear into the troops and keep them in line.
Kevin L Gest ‘The secrets of Solomon’s Temple p.194)
This is where the term "Corporal punishment" came from.
I hope that's a joke as in this case, the 'translation' is more like bodily punishment/punishment of the body.
@@markhatfield5621 It's not a joke, this literally where the term "Corporal punishment" came from.
@@nicholasmaude6906 Latin 'Corpus'.
Admiral Byng was well shafted.
Read up on it. He was NOT justifiably executed.
FFS, unless they were pukka psychos they were ALL suffering from PTSD. It was just a case of if you could hide it or not. Wine helped.
Did provoke the question of the origin of the phrase "being cashiered"
Although the supposed origin of the word exactly is basically Latin, French, & Flemish for "dismiss" or "revoked", although when you take into account that being a Officer (Even to this day to some degree) in the Armed Forces was a deep investment not just in the commission having monetary value, but also your responsible for the payment and issuing of your own uniform & gear and how it's maintained, you can see the term of "Cashiered" basically meaning the branch itself cashing in your commission back to itself without paying you a dime for the effort you put in before then, even sometimes outright breaking the property you brought to server as an officer in-front of a formation.
Sharp got hanged. And court martialed twice.
Promoted and sent to a far off duty station.
The Officers were holders of the King's or Queen's commission!
You don't flog the representative of sovereign!!
Exactly.
People simply do not understand
the link
between the Crown
and those commissioned by the Crown.
Don't flog them. Deal with them... in another way.
04:45 I already knew as a historian not specialised in that period that you don't flog a gentleman. Flogging was a working class punishment, obviously. That's our class system and it should not be surprising, although other nations felt the same way about treatment of gentlemen.
So is the answer to the officer’s dilemma to accept the duel, visibly fire your pistol into the air, and hope like hell your opponent does the same? That way you have shown moral courage by accepting the duel, but haven’t actually “fought a duel”.
No. The codes that covered duels specifically disallowed such conduct. For instance, the 1777 Code Duello has this to say:
"No dumb shooting or firing in the air is admissible in any case. The challenger ought not to have challenged without receiving offense; and the challenged ought, if he gave offense, to have made an apology before he came on the ground; therefore, children's play must be dishonorable on one side or the other, and is accordingly prohibited."
@@robertstallard7836 Interesting. Thanks for posting. 👍
@@andrewmcalister3462 Glad you said that, otherwise I'd have had to challenge you to a duel for impugning my honour!
@@robertstallard7836
Could they still purposefully fire to miss, though? Or, well, just present an apology and avoid spilling blood?
@@Briselance They could certainly present an apology and, indeed, it was part of the Seconds' job to try and resolve the matter amicably and avoid the duel having to take place at all - right up to the last moment.
However, as stated above, it was deemed VERY bad form not to take a duel seriously.
It would be considered similar to cheating (firing before the signal etc.).
You would be universally despised. No-one who cared about their reputation would have any dealings with you. If you were in some sort of profession, such as law or medicine, you'd be pushed out of your post, cast out forever from 'respectable’ society, find difficulty finding a husband for your daughters or employment for your sons etc.
It was all about honour - In one duel, the seconds, believing that the subject of the duel was ridiculous, conspired to load the guns with powder, but without ball. The combatants fired away without result but someone let slip that the guns were not loaded. Outraged by the deception, one duellist then challenged and killed his own second in a subsequent duel!
The British Officers were “punished” in battle, they were very aware of random “friendly fire” in battle. There are records of Officers almost begging their men not to shoot them in a forthcoming battle, to little avail. Being “cashiered” was probably the most draconian Officer punishment, which cost them the price of their Commission.
Fragging/friendly fire of incompetent officers and even troops has been a thing since time immemorial. Still a thing today. As is Wall-to-Wall Counseling
*promosm* 💕
Bring it back. Let the flogger be a private.
Lmao of coarse officer’s were punished fun fact one British officer would have expected to be drawn,hung and quartered his name was Lt Col G Washington for treason the simple fact is s officer’s who screwed up were expected to put a bullet in there brain to not be disgraced the navy had vast amounts of money to think about (prizes ie ship’s were valuable) so they thought against there charges were as officers in the army were usually second or third son so very little investment the exception to the rule Arthur Wellesley who relied on his big brother Richard for political and financial patronage
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Phillips another example of an officer being executed