Ansell
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SAMUEL TILDEN, an American soldier and lawyer, born in North Carolina in 1875. He studied at the Harvard Law School and at the Law School of the University of North Caro lina. In 1895 he entered West Point, graduating in 1899. He saw service in the Philippines and assisted in the establishment of a civil government in the islands. In 1902 he became instructor of law and history at West Point, in which position he served first for two years and later for four years more. During his service at West Point he was assiduous in bringing about a liberalization of court-martial methods and these efforts continued throughout his military career. It was largely through his efforts that Congress enacted a more liberal military code. In 1912 he became senior assistant in the office of the Judge-Advocate-General. He drafted a large part of all legislation enacted which put the United States on a war footing at the beginning of the World War. In August, 1917, he became head of the office of the Judge-Advocate-General. In October of that year he was promoted to be a Brigadier-General. While he held this office he labored to establish a legal supervision of courtsmartial. During the World War he visited all the Allied armies of Europe in order to observe the administration of military justice. He exerted great influence toward the improvement of business methods of the War Department and the simplification of army organization. At the end of the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of his services as Acting Judge-Advocate of the Army. He resigned on July 21, 1919, and entered upon the practice of law.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote this in 1921 while Samuel Tilden Ansell was still a young man newly returned to private practice, and it politely passes over why he left: as Acting Judge Advocate General he had fought a bitter public battle with General Enoch Crowder over whether court-martial sentences could be reviewed and overturned as a matter of law, and he lost. He went on practising law in Washington and died in the 1950s, but the argument he made survived him. The appellate review and legal safeguards he demanded were largely written into American military law by the Uniform Code of Military Justice of 1950 and extended by the Military Justice Act of 1968, and he is now generally credited as the father of modern military justice reform ly hints at in the phrase "he labored to establish a legal supervision of courts-martial."
Written for this edition, 2026.