Replies

Still waiting for you to name me just one that was ever convicted.......

There were 60-odd confederate leaders who were indicted for treason or related charges. They were never tried because in the view of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Salmon Chase, the passage of the 14th Amendment provided punishment for those who supported the rebellion. Trying and convicting them again on treason charges would have violated their 5th Amendment protections against double jeopardy. Absent the 14th Amendment, Jefferson Davis and dozens of others might have spent their remaining years in a jail cell.

There were 60-odd confederate leaders who were indicted for treason or related charges....

We may differ on why Chief Justice Chase refused to try those who were indicted but I was just pointing out WP's penchant for conviently forgetting the "innocent until proven guilty" clause of the Constitution. I have something else you may be interested in. During the war, there was at least one military tribunal for treason in Maryland:

Another interesting military commission was one held for Samuel C. Betts, a citizen of Maryland, accused of treason. Betts was taken prisoner while in uniform in the ranks of the Confederate army near Rappahanock Ford on February 25, 1863. The commission met on March 3, 1863, at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac located at camp near Falmouth, Virginia. The commission was headed by Brig. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, who in three months' time, while commanding III Corps at Gettysburg would receive a wound that cost him his right leg. Betts was found guilty and sentenced "to be hung with a rope by the neck until dead." The Judge Advocate General noted that the sentence could not be enforced since the record shows the individual was a prisoner of war having been captured in uniform in the rebel ranks. The President agreed, writing, "Disapproved. The record showing clearly that the accused is a prisoner of war & should be treated as and exchanged."

13. File MM148, entry 15, Court-Martial Case Files, RG 153, NARA.