Guerra

GUARRA, or GUERRE. War, either public or private. Spelman. GUERRILLA PARTY (Span, gu&rra, ■war; guerrilla, a little war).

In military law. Self-constituted sets of arm^d men, in times of war, who form no integrant part of the organized army, do not stand on the regular payroll of the army, or are not paid at all, take up arms and lay them down at intervals, and carry on petty war, chiefly by raids, extortion, destruction, and massacre. Lieber, Guerr. Part. 18. See Halleck, Int. Law, 386; Woolsey, Int. Law, 299. Partisan, free-corps, and guerrilla are terms resembling each other considerably in signification; and, indeed, partisan arid guerrilla are frequently used in the same sense. See Halleck, Int. Law, 386.

GUERRE. War. Spel. Gloss. GUERRILLA TROOPS (Span, gmrra, war; guerrilla^, a little war). Self -constituted bodies of armed men in times of war, who form no integral part of the organized army, do not stand on the regular pay-roll of the army, or are not paid at all, take up arms and lay them down at intervals, and carry on petty war, chiefly by raids, extortion, destruction, and massacre. Liebet, Guerr. Part 18. See Halleck, Int. Law 38G; Wools. Int. Law 299. Partisan, free-corps, and guerrilla are terms resembling each other considei'ubly in signification; and, indeed, partisan and guer-. rilla are frequently used in the same sense. See Halleck, Int. Law 386. Partisan coiqis and free-corps both denote bodies detached from the main army; but the former term refers to the action of the troop, the latter to the composition. The partisan leader commands a corps whose object Is to Injure the enemy by action separate from that of his own main army; the partisan acts chiefly upon the enemy’s lines of connection and communication, and outside of or beyond the lines of operation of his own army, in the rear and on the flanks of the enemy. But he is part and parcel of the army, and, as such, considered entitled to the privileges of the law of war so long as he does not transgress it. Free-corps, on the other hand, are troops not belonging to the regular army, consisting of volunteers generally raised by Individuals authoidzed to do so by the government, used for petty war, and not incorporated with the ordre de bataille. The men composing these corps are entitled to the benefit of the laws of war, under the same limitations as the partisan corps. Guerrilla-men, when captured in fair fight and open warfare, should be treated as the regular partisan is, until special crimes, such as murder, or the killing of prisoners, or the sacking of places, are proved against them. In drawing up the Convention Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, adopted at The Hague in 1899, much difficulty was experienced in securing an agreement upon the status to be attributed to militia and corps of volunteers. It was agreed that such guerrilla troops should come under the laws applying to the regular army, provided they be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates, wear a distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance, carry arms openly, and conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war. Even the population of an invaded territory, which as a body takes up arms on the. approach of the enemy, must be regarded as belligerents, provided they carry

Guarra, Werra. L. Lat. [from Sax. gar, a weapon.] In old English law. War, either public or private. Spelman. In tempore guerra; in time of war. Mag. Chart, c. 30. Si tempore guerrse t Vlata fuerit violentia, stalim post guerram reclamet, &c if the violence was offered in time of war, immediately after the war he may reclaim, &c. Bract, fol. 16 b.