"I have never seen any laws or orders directing the execution of certain whites because they were leading unarmed, non-military black working parties or workers in support of Union forces or Northern interest."

David

I will agree with Bryan in one variation of his argument. At the Battle of Marks Mill, Arkansas, (April 1864) unarmed black soldiers, who were working as Pioneers, body servants and appearently the whites over them were executed after that battle. The key here is that these blacks were Wearing Uniforms.

As such these black and their supervisors fell under this resolution and were considered as run away slaves in rebellion, and therefore executed as Traitors to the south, and the whites as their leaders.

While we find this distasteful today it is the same legal standard of punishment, which were applied to the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia, and John Brown's treason at Harpers Ferry prior to the War