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

Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 60115
2017 by Northern Illinois University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
978-0-87580-754-6 (cloth)
978-1-60909-213-9 (e-book)
Book and cover design by Yuni Dorr

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kastenberg, Joshua E., 1967 author.

Title: 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 / Joshua Kastenberg.

Other titles: Major General Enoch Crowder, the Judge Advocate General's Office and the realignment of civil and military relations in World War I

Description: First edition. | DeKalb, IL : NIU Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017001163 (print) | LCCN 2017004509 (ebook) | ISBN 9780875807546 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781609092139 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Crowder, E. H. (Enoch Herbert), 1859-1932. | Judge AdvocatesUnited StatesBiography. | United States. Army. Office of the Judge Advocate GeneralBiography. | Civil-military relationsUnited StatesHistory20th century. | World War, 1914-1918Law and legislationUnited States.

Classification: LCC KF373.C728 K37 2017 (print) | LCC KF373.C728 (ebook) | DDC 343.73/0143dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017001163

The First World War began over a century ago, among a European populace imbued by nationalism but also shaped by political, social, and economic movements including socialism, anarchism, womens suffrage, and new religious sects. Empires that had lasted for centuries, such as the Habsburg (also called Austria-Hungary), the Ottoman, and Russian were still globally influential even if their power was weakened by the rise of the German Empire and the United States. Of course, Great Britain had maintained its power through the industrial age and the acquisition of vast overseas territories, and although France had been defeated in the 18701871 war against Prussia and its German state allies, it too had wealth and military power. While the United States did not enter the war in 1914, its population encountered the same political and social movements found in Europe. Indeed, in the fifty years prior to the war, European political refugees and revolutionaries came to the United States, as did millions of immigrants from areas such as Italy and Eastern Europe where revolutionary movements had taken root. In 1917, when the US government did declare war on Germany and side with Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, China, and Romania against Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, the United States was not unanimously united in support of the war. And the president who sought a declaration of war from Congress, Woodrow Wilson, only reluctantly did so. But once he did, he assumed the mantle of power with an authority not seen since Abraham Lincolns presidency. Put another way, in 1928 Wilsons predecessor William Howard Taft opined to a British friend, he hated war, and yet he loved the power which the President necessarily must be given in time of war, and he exercised it con amore. Since 1918, but particularly beginning in the late 1950s and accelerating during the Vietnam Conflict, historians have rightfully viewed the period between 1917 and 1920 as a time of vastly diminished individual rights. It was also a period in which the traditional subservience of the military to the three branches of the civilian government came into question.

This book attempts to address the phenomena of how a very small US Army was shaped into a massive and disciplined instrument of war, and it attempts to explain how, in the process, the civil and military construct was altered. But it does so with the approach that the change occurred as a result of the efforts of a diverse grouping of lawyers, some of whom were military professionals before the war, although most were not. Indeed, most were part of the legal fabric of the nation, including professors from Columbias and Harvards law schools, trial judges from Kansas and Nebraska, and prosecuting attorneys from Wisconsin and California. In a sense, this study is premised on the idea that both vast changes in the law and the unprecedented enforcement of the law occurred from the ground up. In this light, I hope that this book contributes to studies of civil and military relations, political science, and legal and military history.

While all of the errors in this book are mine, I recognize that it would not have been written at all but for the support I have had from friends, as well as from the dedicated librarians and archivists at the Library of Congresss manuscript division. I also visited the archives of most of the collections cited in this book. All of the individuals associated with these archives were extremely helpful. I must point out that, Professor Gordon Hylton, Colonels Adam Oler and Kate Oler, Colonel (retired) Fred Borch, Colonel (retired) Don Christensen, Colonel Robert Preston, Colonel Joe Dene, Colonel Mark Allred, and my very good friend (and hopefully future colonel) Erin Lai, also provided insight and the needed encouragement to get this book finished.

By the time this book is in print, I will have been retired from active duty as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force. I served in uniform for twenty-two years, and the last five years I had the privilege of serving as a military trial judge who had the duty to ensure that the due process rights of service-members who were prosecuted for various crimes were assiduously protected. This was a difficult but rewarding duty, and I encountered dozens of diligent and ethical officers who were assigned as prosecutors and defense counsel. I also served alongside some very bright judges. Prior to my judicial tenure, I spent over a year in Iraq, where I advised commanders on the legal constraints of military operations, including intelligence collection and targeting. I also worked with truly exceptional (and indeed, intellectually inspirational) British and Australian service-members and Iraqi judges and prosecutors.

In World War I, men brought into the army as judge advocates tended to be older and already established in the legal profession. In our modern times, women and men in the army, air force, marine corps, navy, and coast guard Judge Advocate Generals Corps enter into active duty at a much younger age. They and their enlisted paralegals are both diverse and extraordinary. I believe it is important to note that there are women and men in critical leadership positions within the US military. This is the way it should be. The military cannot succeed in its mission of defending the nation if it is not fully inclusive not only of gender but of gender identity. That is, the composition of the military has to be diverse, but it also has to embrace its diversity as a moral necessity. As an aside, albeit an important one, inclusivity in the militarys legal arm began in World War I on the insistence of its highest officer, Major General Enoch Crowder.

In the early 1990s I was a graduate student and one of my favorite professors, who taught urban history called discovering the undiscovered history his passion. This effort requires travel and meeting unique and wonderful people along the way. After my two children, this process of discovery is one of my central passions as well. However, I dedicated my first two books to my children and I hope that they will forgive me for dedicating this book to one of my oldest friends, my big brother, Andrew E. Kastenberg. In life, there are unpaid debts and sometimes these debts are not known to the person owed. Andy has protectively been in my corner for almost fifty years, he has supported me in a number of ways, from camping on beaches in the Greek Islands and wandering through historic Turkey to climbing mountains in the Sierra Nevada above the tree line, all the while listening to my rambling and often sophomoric observations about humanity. He has reminded me to believe in myself, and when unfortunate circumstances threaten to suffocate a passion, if the passion was worth anything, to fight for it. This dedication is the best way that I know of to tell him that as his brother and friend, I love him.