Mutiny
Mutiny, a revolt against constituted authority in the armed forces, or aboard any ship at sea. (An insurrection against civil authority is called sedition.) A conspiracy to disobey orders is also mutiny. To join a mutiny, to incite one, or to withhold aid in suppressing one are included in the crime. Mutiny is punishable by death.
Mutiny was defined in Great Britain in the Mutiny Act of 1689. A mutiny act, dealing with desertion and other offenses against discipline, was passed annually until its provisions were included in the Army Act of 1881. The Mutiny Act of 1765 included provisions for the quartering of troops in the colonies, and was one of the causes of the American Revolution.
Famous MutiniesIn a mutiny on HMS Bountyin 1789, Captain William Bligh and 18 members of his crew were put in an open boat, which they sailed to Timor Island. Some of the mutineers were captured; others settled on Pitcairn Island.
The Indian Mutiny of 1857–58 was a rebellion of Sepoy troops in India.
During the American Revolution two Connecticut regiments mutinied in 1780, and the entire Pennsylvania Line, six regiments, mutinied at Morristown, New Jersey, in 1781. When three New Jersey regiments mutinied the same month, two of their ringleaders were hanged.
In the War of 1812 the 23rd U.S. Infantry mutinied at Manlius, New York; the 5 th Infantry at Utica; and a company of volunteers at Buffalo. The hanging of six mutineers of the Tennessee militia in 1814, with the approval of Major General Andrew Jackson, was made a campaign issue when he ran for President.
A mutiny aboard the U.S. Navy brig Somersin 1842 resulted in the hanging of Midshipman Philip Spencer, son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, and two sailors.
In World War I the Russian Imperial Guard sent to quell riots in St. Petersburg mutinied on March 11, 1917. The mutiny spread to other troops and helped launch the Russian Revolution. In France after a disastrous offensive, April 9 to May 15, 1917, ordered by General Robert Georges Nivelle, there were numerous mutinies in the French army in which troops refused to obey orders to move to the front. Nivelle was relieved of command.