The first case growing out of the acts of military officers during
the war, which attracted general attention and created throughout the
North an uneasy feeling, was the Milligan case, which was before the
Court on habeas corpus. In October, 1864, Milligan, a citizen of the
United States and a resident of Indiana, had been arrested by order
of the military commander of the district and confined in a military
prison near the capital of the State. He was subsequently, on the 21st
of the same month, put on trial before a military commission convened at
Indianapolis, in that State, upon charges of: 1st. Conspiring against
the government of the United States; 2d. Affording aid and comfort to
the rebels against the authority of the United States; 3d. Inciting
insurrection; 4th. Disloyal practices; and 5th. Violations of the laws
of war; and was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. He had
never been in the military service; there was no rebellion in Indiana;
and the civil courts were open in that State and in the undisturbed
exercise of their jurisdiction. The sentence of the military
commission was affirmed by the President, who directed that it should
be carried into immediate execution. The condemned thereupon presented
a petition to the Circuit Court of the United States in Indiana for a
writ of habeas corpus, praying to be discharged from custody, alleging
the illegality of his arrest and of the proceedings of the military
commission. The judges of the Circuit Court were divided in opinion
upon the question whether the writ should be issued and the prisoner
be discharged, which, of course, involved the jurisdiction of the
military commission to try the petitioner. Upon a certificate of the
division the case was brought to the Supreme Court at the December
term of 1865. The case has become historical in the jurisprudence of
the country, and it is unnecessary to state the proceedings at length.
Suffice it to say that it was argued with great ability by eminent