That would fall under a court-martial. Article 15 would give the commander a right to punish the Soldier themselves. A commander could recommend him for a court-martial. A court-martial would probably give him a dishonorable discharge plus a fine and reduction to E-1 and even the chance for jail time.
I would, as a commander, give him an Field Grade Article 15. Assuming he was a Specialist or below, I would reduce his rank to E-1 (private), restriction for 60 days (meaning he could only go to his normally place of duty, barracks, place of worship, mess hall, and medical facilities), forfeit 50% of pay for two months and 45 days extra duty. These are the maximum punishment for a Soldier with a field grade Article 15.
More than likely, he's get medically discharged from this, depending on the commander. Of course, I'm a hard ass officer and I wouldn't do that.
Oh. So he could get a court martial if his commanding officer wanted to. I think the way you would want to go is how they should go about punishing him. Court martial seems like the easy way out. Thanks for the info!!
In the CW soldiers that did that were either jailed or put into the invalid corps (guards, laborers, etc).
Ah. So basically, any soldier who shot himself could expect to be scrubbing latrines for the rest of his enlistment.
I never knew such a thing like "invalid corps" existed. But hey, you're the Civil War expert around here.
