General Cooke's cure for rampant bounty jumping, June 1864

Biographer Otis E. Young references Alson B. Ostrander for the period of 1864-1866 when Philip St George Cooke headed the army recruiting station in New York City.  More remains to be told from Cooke's numerous letters to the Adjutant General's Office which are held by the National Archives and now available online through fold3.

To stop the plague of bounty jumping, General Cooke wrote on June 24, 1864 to recommended more stringent punishment for deserters: hang them by the dozen at the Battery on Fridays.

H[ea]d Q[uarte]rs Gen Rec[ruit]ng Service
New York June 24. '64

To the Adjutant General

U. S. Army

Wash.n City

I cannot ascertain that there are any existing orders for measures toward the detection & apprehension of deserters; such as a report of names & description to the Asst. Pro[vost] Marshall General or the police department here; or the publication of names, &c., in a police Gazette, or otherwise.

The recruiting Service, at present, leads to a system of robbery of the Nation, on a gigantic scale; by a class, thus fostered, of cowardly and perjured swindlers—

Take the last return of the 5^th U. S. Artillery, as a sample: 31 enlisted in City of N. York, & 24 of them deserted, & thus committed a robbery of $7800.

In mercy to the country, and to the Army—where hundreds daily die, or are crippled & need support—this wholesale desertion should be stopped by administering justice: a dozen men shot, or hanged, at the Battery, each friday for about three weeks, might cure the great evil. Thus, in the long run, our country may gain as much by the deaths of 36 deserters & robbers, as it does by the deaths of as many hundreds of its brave soldiers.

Very respectfully

P St Geo Cooke
Brig Gen USA S. R. S. [Superintendent Recruiting Service]

(Letters Received by the Adjutant General, 1861-1870.
1864/C/Cooke, Philip St Geo R429 at fold3)