Holmes recounts a soldier who enlisted in regiment after regiment, took each bounty, and then deserted. After sixteen repetitions he was caught at Portsmouth, tried by general court-martial, and sentenced to be shot. Rifleman Harris joined a firing party assembled from four regiments, with the execution intended as a warning to young soldiers. The episode connects recruitment incentives to military justice: the bounty system created opportunities for fraud, while the army answered repeated desertion with lethal exemplary punishment.
Notable Point · 16:46-17:18
Bounty fraud and military discipline in Redcoat
Richard Holmes uses a serial bounty deserter's court-martial and execution to show how recruitment fraud met exemplary military punishment.