[Enoch Herbert]. American soldier, born in Missouri on the 11th of April 1859. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1881 and while detailed as commandant at the university of Missouri won in 1886 the degree of LL.B. in the law school. He was appointed major judge-advocate in 1895. He served in the Philippine Islands (1898–1901), was observer with the Japanese army in Manchuria (1904–05), and was in Cuba as Secretary of State and Justice (1906–08). He was provost-marshal general from May 1917 to July 1919, and as such had full control of the U.S. machinery of conscription in the World War, which he conducted witty much success. He was reappointed judge-advocate general in 1919, and the same year invited by the Government of Cuba to advise in connection with changes in the election legislation there. General Crowder was recognized as an exceptionally authoritative legal adviser in military affairs. In his book The Spirit of the Selective Service (1920), he described the method whereby within eighteen months after America had entered the World War 2,000,000 men were in France, almost as many more were in cantonments, and altogether no fewer than 24,000,000 had been registered and classified.
