The knight’s code of chivalry, established in the medieval period, set forth the “proper” way for knights to behave on and off the battlefield. It was built on principles like honor, honesty, valor, and loyalty.^[1] By the eighteenth century, an extremely comprehensive set of rules and principles were established in the Western world that informed and directed soldiers on how to fight like gentlemen.

The point, of course, was to win your battle and defeat your enemy, but that didn’t mean you needed to be a “ruffian” about it. These widely accepted rules of engagement are almost comical today.^[2] They included rules like: