Enoch Crowder
Enoch Herbert Crowder | |
---|---|
Arlington, Virginia | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Army |
Years of service | 1881–1923 |
Rank | Major General |
Service number | 0-10 |
Commands held | Judge Advocate General |
Battles/wars | American Indian Wars Spanish–American War Russo-Japanese War World War I |
Awards | Distinguished Service Medal |
Major General Enoch Herbert Crowder, USA (April 11, 1859 – May 7, 1932) was an American Army lawyer who served as the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army from 1911 to 1923. Crowder is most noted for implementing and administering the United States Selective Service Act of 1917, under which thousands of American men were drafted into military service during World War I.
Early life and education
Enoch Crowder was born in
In 1885, Lieutenant Crowder was assigned Professor of
Judge Advocate General
Upon completion of this detail, Lieutenant Crowder returned to the 8th Cavalry at Fort Yates, Dakota Territory, where he participated in the final campaign against Sitting Bull. In 1891, upon his promotion to captain he accepted a position as the acting
The beginning of the Spanish–American War marked his promotion to lieutenant colonel. From 1898 to 1901, while in the
Impressed with the ability Crowder had demonstrated in the Philippines, Judge Advocate General Davis in 1901 called him to Washington to serve as deputy judge advocate general. In this capacity, Crowder assisted in the prosecution of the then noteworthy Deming case[1] in 1902, became a member of the general staff, and attained the rank of colonel. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 he was senior American observer with the Japanese Army. From 1906 to 1909, while serving on the staff of the provisional governors in Cuba, he oversaw the Cuban elections in 1908, and later helped draft a body of laws for Cuba.
In 1910, he represented the United States at the Fourth Pan American Conference in Buenos Aires and in that capacity made official visits to Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. On February 11, 1911, after studying the military justice and penal systems of France and England on a European tour, he returned to Washington to be promoted to
As Judge Advocate General, General Crowder initiated a number of innovations, including the regular publication of Judge Advocate General opinions; the issuance of a new digest (published in 1912) of all JAG opinions issued since 1862; and a program for the legal education of line officers at government expense. He additionally supervised the revision of the Articles of War for the first time since 1874, revised the Manual for Courts-Martial and took an active part in prison reform in the army.
Selective Service Act
On April 6, 1917, the
The officers who served under General Crowder during this period are legion. Among these are the following: Major Hugh S. Johnson, Major Cassius Dowell, Lieutenant Colonel Allen W. Gullion, Major John H. Wigmore, Major Charles B. Warren, Captain M. C. Cramer, and Lieutenant Colonel E. A. Kreger. Although offered a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general in 1918, General Crowder, mindful of public and Congressional opposition to “swivel chair” generals, refused the promotion, seeking instead a field command.
In October 1917, Crowder was promoted to major general. As Judge Advocate General, he supervised the administration of military justice in the army during the period when the number of general courts-martial rose from 6,200 in 1917 to over 20,000 in 1918. In 1918, the offices of Secretary of War Newton D. Baker issued the "work or fight" order, and Crowder became in charge of executing the order which mandated that virtually every activity in the country support the war effort. Crowder was also instrumental in ensuring that the United States applied the laws of war to German prisoners of war, and he sought to limit military jurisdiction to uniformed personnel.[6]
On September 26, 1918, in response to newspaper reports of
He wrote a book entitled The Spirit of Selective Service.[8]
Post–World War I
After the war, General Crowder found himself, along with the entire military justice system, the center of a storm of controversy, stemming from charges that the military justice system was "un-American." Crowder, a perceptive critic of the system who had already commenced work on needed reform, now accelerated his efforts. The specific recommendations he submitted to Congress, most of which were subsequently adopted, included greater safeguards for the accused, changes in the composition and powers of special courts-martial, and the addition of an authority in the President to reverse or alter any court-martial sentence found to have been adjudged erroneously.
Ambassador to Cuba
In the spring of 1919, at the invitation of Cuban President
Retirement and death
From 1927 until his death in 1932, General Crowder was engaged in the private practice of law in Chicago. Crowder died in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 1932. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[8]
Awards and honors
Among his honors and decorations were the
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Major General Enoch Herbert Crowder, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, as Provost Marshal General in the preparation and operation of the draft laws of the Nation during the war.
Legacy
Perhaps the most apt description of the service to his country by Enoch H. Crowder is contained in the words of the late Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State in the cabinet of President Herbert Hoover and Secretary of War in the cabinets of Presidents William Howard Taft and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said of General Crowder:
His record as Judge Advocate General and his later record as Provost Marshal General have constituted a page in the history of our Army upon which we can all look with deep satisfaction and admiration.[2]
His name is memorialized in his home state of Missouri through the naming of a state park in his honor and through the designation of the World War II training center at
See also
- Fort Crowder (a.k.a. Camp Crowder)
- Crowder College (established on the grounds of the fort)
- Crowder State Park
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-8131-0955-8.
- Davis, Henry Blaine Jr. (1998). Generals in Khaki. OCLC 40298151.
- Kastenberg, Joshua E. (2017). To Raise and Discipline an Army: Major General Enoch Crowder, the Judge Advocate General's Office, and the Realignment of Civil and Military Relations in World War I. ISBN 978-0875807546.
- Lockmiller, David Alexander (1955). Enoch H. Crowder: Soldier, Lawyer, and Statesman. ISBN 978-0826205384.
- Venzon, Anne Cipriano (2013). The United States in the First World War: an Encyclopedia. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis. OCLC 865332376.
References
- ^ Harper, Kimberly (n.d.). "Enoch Crowder". Historic Missourians. The State Historical Society of Missouri. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
- ^ a b c Department of the Army Pamphlet: Military Law Review, vol. 32, April 1966
- ^ "Provost Marshall General Enoch H. Crowder (1859-1932)". American College of Surgeons. August 28, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
- ^ a b "The Military and Mizzou: 1861-1946". Muarchives.missouri.edu. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
- ^ "The Beta Theta Pi". Google.com/books. 1917.
- ^ a b Joshua Kastenberg, To Raise and Discipline an Army: Major General Enoch Crowder, the Judge Advocate General's Office, and the Realignment of Civil and Military Relations in World War I. DeKalb : Northern Illinois University Press, [2017]
- ^ Morgan, George G. (June 17, 2005). "Societal Events Influenced Our Ancestors' Lives". Ancestry Daily News. Archived from the original on October 22, 2006.
- ^ a b c Davis 1998, p. 89.
- ^ "Crowder to Advise Cuba" (PDF). New York Times. March 1, 1919. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ISBN 9780822932253.
- ^ "Valor awards for Enoch Herbert Crowder".
- ^ Lockmiller, David A. (1955). Enoch H. Crowder Soldier, Lawyer Statesman. Columbia, Missouri: Curators of the University of Missouri.
External links
- E. H. Crowder letters, MSS SC 349 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University