Crowder, Enoch H. Papers
Major General Enoch H. Crowder was a prominent Missourian involved with implementing and administering the United States Selective Service Act of 1917. Crowder was born in Edinburgh, Missouri in 1859. He began his military service after graduating from West Point in 1881. He participated in the Geronimo and Sitting Bull campaigns, served in the Spanish-American War and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and later served as Cuban Secretary of State and Justice in Cuba. He became Judge Advocate General in 1911 and began expanding the roles of his position. Shortly after the United States entered the war in April 1917, the Selective Service was passed by Congress. This act, devised by Crowder, drafted thousands of American soldiers between the ages of 18-30 into military service.
This collection consists of Crowder’s personal, political, and military correspondence. Material involving the Selective Service Act is also contained within this collection. This material includes anti-war poems, conscription exemptions, letters from draft boards, and letters expressing soldier’s personal opinions concerning the draft.
