Abraham Lincoln’s Eye for an Eye Order

On July 30, 1863, Abraham Lincoln goes Old Testament in an order titled “Eye for an Eye”.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, we find the phrase eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Basically, this phrase means whatever someone does to someone, they should receive the same. For example, if a bully hits someone, then the bully should also receive a punch. The Lord in the Old Testament gave this way of living to the people of Moses. Therefore, many people use this reason to expect retribution from crimes.

Abraham Lincoln created this order to try and stop the Confederate Military from killing prisoners with black skin. He said that for every prisoner with black skin killed, then a Confederate prisoner would die. He also said that any prisoner sold into slavery would result in a Confederate prisoner being forced to do hard labor. In this manner, he attempted to curb the death of prisoners, as well as intimidate the South.

Unfortunately, not a lot of information about this order is available. I could not find if this order worked or how often they had to use it. Honestly, I doubt it worked very well or there would be more information about how it worked.