Warrant for Arrest?

[Private Glover]

Hello

I've been trying to locate a blank copy of an arrest warrant for an upcoming LH event. I've looked through Silas's excellent list and did a search on this website, but have been unable to locate such a document. I'm hoping to find a printed version with spaces to fill in showing the crime, perpetrator, date, location, arresting authority and officer, etc.

Do any of you know where I might find a usable copy?

[Che]

I think your best bet would be to take the verbiage from an historic arrest warrant and using some of the fonts/typefaces that are now standard in MS Word, create one yourself. If you need words, here's an arrest warrant from Mississippi dated 1834:

Arrest Warrant

[Mint Julep]

That isnt an arrest warrant. It reads like a collection against a debt.

[Private Glover]

I found an image of General Hurlbutt's arrest warrant for Colonel Murphy. I took the layout for the special order as a template and filled in my own wording.

[hanktrent]

That isnt an arrest warrant. It reads like a collection against a debt.

I agree. It sounds like Person A got a judgment against Person B in court, and this authorizes the sheriff to go collect it. Person B has already shown up in court (or failed to appear) and lost his case, and now he's going to have something repossessed.

Was reading a court case in Virginia recently where it got to a similar point, when somebody lost a debt case to a slave trader. The sheriff went out to collect the property, and the person's excuse boiled down to: "not my slave anymore; I had to sign him over to my neighbor and good friend Thomas W. Trent to pay another debt *wink wink*." Suddenly out of nowhere, one of my collateral ancestors had walked into the picture!

But anyway, here's an example from the 1870s that ought to work:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~judfan/docs/albert_gibson/1876-05-27%20Warrant%20for%20Arrest%20Varner%20Caldwell%20 Giles.jpg

You'd need to change it to whatever court he was supposed to appear before. Also, I'm assuming the man being arrested is a civilian. If he's in the military, I have no idea what sort of authority the civilian courts would have over him.

Edited to add: We were posting at the same time. Looks like you wanted a military arrest warrant anyway! So ignore the above; sounds like you found something better.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Pvt Schnapps]

Here's an 1855 manual on the duties of sheriffs and coroners which will also give you the form of your bond (assuming you're the sheriff carrying the warrant), the clerk's certificate of your qualifications, and a few dozen other things you may find useful: http://books.google.com/books?id=lKY...page&q&f=false
Here's an introductory law book from 1869 with a form you can use on p. 680, but much other information besides: http://books.google.com/books?id=Jvp...est%22&f=false
One of the questions that may arise is, arrest for what? In some places it seems to make a difference in the form.
Bear in mind that even in the military not all "forms" are pre-printed. If the county you're working for doesn't arrest a lot of people for murder or rape, for example, the "form" will likely be written out from an example in a law book. Search around a little on Google Books (their date parameters function seems to be fixed now) and you'll soon have more than you need to work with. Good luck!

[Private Glover]

Yep fellas, it's an arrest warrant against a soldier.

I'd like to say more but it's going to be a surprise. Don't want to tip off the perp that the long arm of the law is about to reach out and snatch him back to justice!

[Jim of the SRR]

I am not a military justice expert, but I am not sure that the military even used arrest warrants. A warrant implies that a judge would have likely signed it. I don't think military justice needed to go thru that step. I think they just arrested you and brought you up on charges. Minor offenses dealt with by battalion officers and more severe offenses by a military provost. Again, I am not an expert on this, just thinking as to why no such document could be found.

Jim Butler

[Mint Julep]

I agree with Jim.

[Private Glover]

Here's the template that I used: http://www.southreporter.com/2011/wk...documents.html

Murphy was arrested and later cashiered by Grant for total failure to protect Holly Springs. What I'm wanting to arrest a guy for is by no means that dire, but it's still worse than stealing a couple of chickens. Soldiers convicted of this offense were often executed (up there with desertion and bounty jumping).

I'd really like to find out more about CW military justice but it seems to me that in this case it's more than just the simple punishments typified by lesser crimes, where a soldier was tied up by his thumbs or made to ride the horse. Any idea of resources where I can look?