Enoch Herbert Crowder

Biography

Enoch Herbert Crowder built his reputation as a thoughtful lawyer in the Army, earning assignments that brought him to Washington and into the heart of military governance. As the Judge Advocate General beginning in 1911, he guided the Army's legal affairs through a period of expansion, focusing on fairness in courts-martial and on better habits of documentation.

When the United States entered the Great War he was asked to organize the new Selective Service System, applying his legal mind to ensure that drafts were conducted with order and that soldiers and communities experienced the process as impartially as possible. After the war he continued to serve his country as an ambassador, representing American interests in Cuba before retiring from public life.