Enoch H. Crowder letter to Frank M. Rumbold - February 1, 1918

Transcript

[War Department letterhead] GSW-JJT. February 1, 1918. Colonel F.M. Rumbold, c/o School of Fire, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. My dear Colonel: 1. In your letter of January 27, you ask if you are entitled to count, under Paragraph 11, Army Regulations, in determining seniority with officers of your grade and same date of commission, the service rendered by yourself as Lieutenant Colonel, 3d Infantry, Missouri national Guard, in the Militia Bureau under the provisions of Section 81 of the National Defense Act, approved June 3, 1916, Special Order No. 87, War Department, April 16, 1917. As a member of the Missouri National Guard you were called into the Federal service in your status as a National Guardsman and the service performed by you under Special Order No. 87, was National Guard or Militia service under the authority of the National Defense Act and while you were performing it you were doing so as an officer in the Missouri National Guard and subject to all of the constitutional limitations as to the use of the Militia. 2. The President by his proclamation of July 3, 1917 drafted into the service of the United States all members of the Missouri National Guard of and from August 5, 1917; discharged them from the Militia of Missouri as of that date, and appointed the officers of the several tactical units of the National Guard to corresponding offices in the Army of the United States. You were therefore by the terms of that proclamation on August 5, 1917, discharged from the National Guard of the State of Missouri and drafted into the Army of the United States and appointed a colonel in the Army of the United States. You commission is of the same date as other National Guard officers included in the draft. The relative rank between yourselves is determined in the manner provided for in Paragraph 11, A.R., and the 119th Article of War. Federal service under Paragraph 22, A.R., does not include service rendered by you in the Militia under the constitutional call of the President, but only includes service by you as a commissioned officer of the United States either in the Regular Army or in the volunteer forces. Very truly your, E.H. Crowder Judge Advocate General.