In 1913, John Henry Wigmore became acquainted with General Enoch H. Crowder, the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, when the general initiated a program that would allow officers of the U.S. Army to attend the Northwestern University School of Law. General Crowder, as the head of the legal arm of the American military, remembered Wigmore’s legal expertise and work ethic, and in 1916, he encouraged the dean to apply for a commission.
Wigmore followed Crowder’s behest and was commissioned as a major in the Officer’s Reserve Corps of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps on November 8, 1916, five months before the United States officially entered World War I. He reported for duty in Washington in July 1917, and served in this rank until his promotion early the following year.
This item is generously on loan from the Northwestern University Archives.
