WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, Chicago, Ills., i892-’93. WAR DEPARTMENT EXHIBIT, MEDICAL DEPARTMENT UNITED STATES ARMY, No. 7. The Personal Identity of the Soldier, BY Lieut.-Col, CHARLES R. GREENLEAF, U. S. A., DEPUTY SURGEON GENERAL. DIRECTION OF THE SURGEON-GENERAL, U. S. A, LOUIS A. LA GARDE, ASSISTANT SURGEON U. S. ARMY, IN CHARGE OF MEDICAL SECTION, CHICAGO, ILLS. i892-’93. WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, Chicago, Ills., iBc)2-’c>^. WAR DEPARTMENT EXHIBIT. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT UNITED STATES ARMY, No. 7. The Personal Identity of the Soldier, BY Lieut.-Col. CHARLES R. GREENLEAF, U. S. A., DEPUTY SURGEON GENERAL. DIRECTION OF THE SURGEON-GENERAL, U. S. A ASSISTANT SURGEON U. S. ARMY, IN CHARGE OF MEDICAL SECTION. LOUIS A. LA GARDE, CHICAGO, ILLS. 1892-93. WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, Chicago, Illlinois, 1892-93. The Personal Identity of the Soldier, BY Lieut.-Col. CHARLES R. GREENLEAF, U. S. A.. Deputy Surgeon-General. This subject, with the methods that may be used in establishing identity, has an ever-present interest not only to the medical but to every other officer of the Army; to the medical officer, in drawing his attention to the physical peculiarities that the necessarily painstaking examination may develop, and in fixing the habit of minute search for surface indications of diseased action, or of defects in person that might otherwise readily escape notice in an ordinary inspection ; to other officers in the facility afforded for recognizing men who, having previously served in the Army during portions or for full terms of duty, seek readmission, but conceal, for reasons of their own, the fact of a previous service—in other words, who attempt a fraudulent enlistment. This class is made up of deserters, of men who have been discharged by sentence of military courts or by order of the Department “for cause” or for disability, or those who have served a term of imprison- ment as military convicts—an undesirable class, whose members are to be kept out of the Army by any means that can be devised for the purpose. Except for the identification of deserters, who, when convicted, could be legally punished for their crime, there seemed but little profit in applying any such test to the remainder of the class, because the im- perfection of the law was such that, if discovered, there could be no punishment for them other than by dishonorable discharge, which really gave the offender an opportunity to repeat his infamous practice ; a sufficient number, however, remained undiscovered until their desire to repeat their fraud led them to desert, and the increase thus made in 4 the percentage of this crime, together with its demoralizing effect upon the Army, led the authorities to seek a reliable system by which this portion of the class at least might be eliminated from the service. After careful observations and a discussion of the many methods pre- sented, the system devised by the writer was finally adopted and has been attended with a success in its application that has given universal satisfaction. The passage by Congress of an act making fraudulent enlistment a military offence and punishable by court-martial under the 62d article of war now extends the usefulness of the system and enables it to be of practical effect in dealing with the entire class. In the discussion of the subject, four methods were proposed, viz: Ist. By tattooing at a designated spot the person of every recruit. 2d. By photographing each recruit. 3d. By application of M. Bertillon’s system of bodily measurements. 4th. By a systematic record of bodily markings and peculiarities. The first method, which was suggested and urged by many, among whom were officers of rank and influence, was met by legal objections and by the probability of specific or septic infection of the recruit in the operation; it was accordingly promptly laid aside. To the second, objection was made that the presence or absence of the hair and beard, the facial expression, the physical condition of the individual, the dress, the pose, the light in which the pictures might be taken, would present such differences between the present and the past photographs that recognition would be very difficult, if not almost im- possible, and this, added to the other difficulty in systematizing or arranging the pictures for easy and rapid comparison, demonstrated its impracticability. To the third or so-called “Bertillon method” of bodily measurements, there was the ethical objection that it was devised and solely used for the identification of criminals. “The citizen who desires to enter the army of the United States does so under the belief that he is engaging in an honorable profession, and the code which is presented to him, both in the language of his enlistment contract, in the Articles of War, and in the Regulations of the Army, is drawn with a view to sustain and strengthen this belief. The effect of meeting him at the threshold of his enlistment with a system of identification which is stamped with criminal associations, and presupposes an intent on his part to violate his contract, cannot but be fatal to his honorable purpose, and result either in driving him in disgust from the recruiting rendezvous, or in suggesting a future escape from a service into which present necessity has forced him.” While excellent results are said to have been obtained by this method, there was further objection to it because of the irn- 5 practicability of securing properly instructed men to use the required instruments of precision, and because of the expense in procuring these instruments. Recruiting in this country is carried on not alone at fixed stations in cities, but by peripatetic parties in the rural districts, as well as at all military posts. The personnel of the recruiting service is constantly changing with ever-shifting military exigencies, and neither the oppor- tunity to instruct nor the men to be instructed in anthropometry are obtainable. All recruits are promptly assigned, after enlistment, to military stations, where their thorough physical examination is made by the officers of the Medical Department on duty thereat, and the op- portunity is thus presented of securing, through responsible and relia- ble officers, professional accuracy in determining the existence of bodily markings; this being done, moreover, with the least offence to the sen- sibility of the recruit, who naturally and willingly submits to complete exposure of his person in the anticipated examination of his physical fitness for military duty. To the fourth method there was no apparent objection, and its basis had the favorable opinion of M. Bertillon, who says that ‘‘they (per- manent bodily marks) offer a greater guarantee for identification than measurements, and that they would take their place altogether if it were possible to use them as a basis for classification.” Upon its adop- tion the following order was issued by the War Department placing it in operation : “ Hereafter, a record of such indelible or personal marks as may be found upon the person of an accepted recruit will be made upon an outline figure-card, as illustrated upon accompanying pages of this order, and forwarded promptly, on completion, to the Surgeon-General of the Army. No letter of transmittal is required. The outline-cards will be furnished by the Adjutant-General. “ The examination and record of marks of recruits belonging to the general service will be made by the medical officer at a depot; of recruits enlisted at military posts, by the post or attending surgeon; and of recruits enlisted at other places, where the service of a post or attend- ing surgeon cannot be obtained, by the enlisting officer. In the cases referred to in section 1, the record of marks will be made at the second examination. “The object of this record is to obtain evidence for the identification of men who have had previous service in the army, and its successful accomplishment depends upon a rigorous precision in noting on the card all personal markings or peculiarities. The following directions should therefore be strictly observed: 6 “ Directions eor Recording the Personal Markings on Accepted Recruits. “ Make a careful search of the body, front and rear, on each side of the median line, separately, commencing- at the scalp and ending at the foot, for any scars, moles, tattoo marks, etc., that may exist, indicating their position on the body by a dot, made with pen and ink, at a cor- responding point on the figure-card ; on its blank fly-leaf note the general inclination, whether vertical, oblique, or horizontal; the form, recti- lineal, curved (inward or outward), oval, circular, undulated, or oblong ; the character, if scar, whether recent, permanent, or transient; if mole, hairy, or otherwise, etc.; and the distance of the mark from some fixed anatomical point, for example : ‘ Scar, from burn, inches above and 1 inch to the right of left nipple, oblique, curved inwards.’ “When numerous small scars are found on the back, from pimples, or on the fingers, from cuts, note them as ‘numerous scars,’ or describe the principal one and add the words ‘and many others;’ describe briefly tattoo marks and distortions of the finger and toe nails, i. e., the striated or split nail of the finger, or the hypertrophied nail of the great toe. “ If, after careful search, no personal marking is found, the fact should be noted on the figure-card. “Bor the purpose of securing uniformity in the description of color of eyes and hair, observe the following: Color of Eyes. To be described as— ( light. Blue dark. ( slate. f light (or hazel). Brown •< dark. ‘ Slate blue ’ takes the place in description of gray, which is inexact and vague. Black is seldom found except in negroes; the so-called black eye is, properly speaking, a dark brown. Malformations of or abnormal discoloration in the iris and marked differences in color between the eyes should be noted. Black. To be described as— Color of Hair. flight, and sometimes flax-colored, deep. Brown < ( dark. Raven black. r brick. Red ) sandy. ( auburn. (^ra | mixed (iron). White. 7 “Note name and organization, age in years and months, and height in inches and quarters thereof. Care should be taken, in measuring for height, that the occiput, the sacrum, and the heels touch the vertical rod.” To ensure accuracy of description in the color of the eye, two cards are issued bearing lithographic plates of the various shades of blue and brown colors that are found in the human eye, each plate being designated by a numeral that may be used for notation on the figure- card. Further instructions from the War Department require all officers concerned to transmit to the Surgeon-General, within twenty-four hours after the fact, a brief report of the name, company, and regiment of every soldier who deserts or is discharged the service for cause. The figure-cards of recruits are filed immediately upon receipt in the Bureau of Classification, in suitable boxes that are arranged alphabet- ically, and when the reports of men who have been eliminated from the service are received they are sent to the same place, where the work of comparison is carried on as follows: A study of the figure-cards showed that the work could be most satisfactorily performed by using the colors of the eye, of which there are practically but two, as the initial division into sections for compari- son, and that the other divisions could be best used when grouped upon a printed form in a register which consists of two volumes, one for the blue-eyed, the other for the brown-eyed men, and is divided, according to height, as follows : 64 inches and under, 65, 66, 67, 67-|, 68, 69, 69£, 70, 7l, and over. Each register is ruled in columns for the various regions of the body, as “anterior, posterior, right, and left,” for the general divisions, with head, neck, shoulder, thorax, abdomen, groin, hip, thigh, knee, leg, ankle, foot, toes, etc., for the specific locality. As a primary step, the report of discharge or desertion (which it should be remembered contains only the name, company, and regiment of the individual, and the date of dischai’ge or desertion) is completed by taking from its place in the file-box the figure-card that was made at the time of enlistment, and from the completed report a transcript is made on the register, the selection of volume to be used being deter- mined by the color of eye. Immediately upon arrival of a morning’s mail, such figure-cards of re- cent enlistment as may have been received are compared with the register after this manner. The color of eye indicates the volume of the register, and the height indicates the page in which search has to be made; in this latter item, an inch below and a half inch above the 8 height recorded on the figure-card is allowed for variation or defective measurement. Each section of height is again divided, and men hav- ing tattoos are entered apart from those having no tattoos, for a deserter having tattoos is very likely to have the same when re-entering the service, and a recruit coming in without tattoos is not likely to be found among those with tattoos; recruits coming in with tattoos are, however, exam- ined over those deserters who did not have such marks, as these dif- ferent devices might have been put on while at liberty. The abbreviations used in entering descriptions of deserters are almost self-explaining, as: V. = vaccination; S. = scar; T. = tattoo; B. = birthmark; M. = mole; S. P. = small-pox; C. P. = chicken-pox, etc. The first comparison is for name, after which it is continued for tattoo marks, and if their peculiar design or locality gives suspicion of iden- tity an inspection of the sectional form on the opposite page of the register is made by glancing from left to right along the line bearing the record of the individual who has the suspicious tattoo for any further mark of identity; if there is a sufficient number of similarly located and described marks to increase the suspicion of identity, the form of physical examination and the enlistment papers are brought into requisi- tion for comparison of signature of the recruit and for his general history, and should this be enough to justify moral certainty of iden- tity the case is reported to the Adjutant-General for further action. Should there, however, not be any tattoos recorded on the figure- card that has been received, note is taken of the next prominent mark, which may be a birthmark, a hairy mole, a scar from burn, etc., or a small permanent scar in an unusual location—such as in the popliteal space—finding which, a further and more careful search is made for other marks that may be confirmatory of identity ; failing in this, any other mark or peculiarity of person is examined, such as abnormal nasal septum ; prominence or not of ear ; or, if nothing is found, iden- tity fails, and the papers are placed in the files of the Bureau. The time consumed in making one of the examinations averages fifteen minutes, although in plain cases but a few minutes are required. At the date of this paper 31,138 outline figure-cards have been received, and the number of cases reported as having left the service for cause is 5,765; of whom 4,096 were deserters and 1,669 delinquents from other causes. Three hundred and twenty-eight cases of identity have been reported since the introduction of the outline-card system, and 7 cases were re- ported as probably identical. The following is the result of the inves- tigation made in the cases: 9 a. Identity established and final action reported by military tribu- nal 198 b. Reported identity and accepted by the War Department 115 c. The suspect deserted before investigation 5 cl. Ex-convict; had permission to re-enlist ... 1 e. Insane soldier; discharged for insanity before investigation... 1 f. Doubtful cases, reported as probably identical 7 g. Failures, identity not established by military tribunal 4 h. Recent cases, investigation pending , 4 Total ‘ 335 a. This group of cases includes all in which identity was claimed without reservation because of the similarity of record on the figure- cards, and was subsequently established by the proper military tribunals. h. This group embraces cases in which the evidence of identity was conclusive; but, as the suspects were out of the service, the cases were reported for connection of the enlistment papers. The Adjutant-General has accepted the identity in all of the cases. c. These cases were reported as identical, but no investigation could be made, because the man in each case deserted a short period (in some cases a day or two only) before or after identity was reported. After several of this class had thus succeeded in escaping, the telegraph was made use of in ordering arrests; as may be surmised, they occurred only among the earliest cases of identity. f These cases were reported as probably identical; although more or less prominent points of resemblance were present, the discrepancies were such that no positive statements were justified, the evidence being submitted for what it was worth. In only one case the identity was absolutely disproved; in 4 the negative statement of the officer con- ducting the inquiry was accepted without further inquiry, and in the 6th case inquiry was dropped, the officer charged with it reporting that he had no funds to secure a desired photograph. g. Two of these cases were submitted with class “a” through error ; the card record did not present sufficient evidence to warrant complete identity, and they should have been submitted with class “f; ” they were failures; one case was identified by the examining surgeon, but was acquitted by the court, and one case was a failure, doubtless due to erroneous entry on the card by the recording officer. The following is a synopsis of an interesting and somewhat compli- cated case: There was submitted to the Department, October 28, 1890, a set of 10 figure-cards indicating that one George Howie, who was enlisted October 10, 1890, was probably identical with George Harrison, who deserted August 6, 1889. Howie positively denied his identity with the deserter Harrison; his company commander, who conducted the investigation, although admitting that there was “a remarkable similarity in the two outline-cards,” reported that in his opinion the two persons were not identical, supporting his views with an enumeration of the discrepan- cies presented by the two cards. Under date of November 12, 1890, a re-statement of the case was made, with recommendation that the “sus- pect” should be confronted with some of his former comrades, and a non-commissioned officer, who was supposed to be acquainted with Harrison, was accordingly selected for the purpose, but failed to recog- nize Harrison in the alleged Howie; tracings of the signature of Howie and Harrison were then made, and as they were strikingly similar, they were added to the evidence previously submitted, which was again re- ferred to Howie’s commaxiding officei’, reqxxesting further comparison: he replied: “I agree with the Surgeon General that there can be bxxt little doubt as to the identity of these (seemingly) two men. But still there is a doubt in my mind as to the identity.” He points out the failure of the non-commissioned officer to identify the man, and remarks, with reference to the striking similarity in the tattooing, that he does not attach as much importance to it as it seems to warrant, from the fact that he has seen on a number of occasions as many as four mexx “ tattooed exactly alike, as far as the location and shape of the figure was con- cerned.” He admits that the coincidences are remarkable, and were it not for the fact that “ Sergeant Cook failed to identify the man,” he would have had him arrested and tried for desertion. The ai’guments of the company commander were met, and final request was made to confront Howie with several witnesses who had known Harrison, but this was declined by the War authorities, with the following final statement: “ The best evidence that this case is a case of mistaken identity is the fact that the soldier, knowing that he was not only under suspicion but under investigation, has remained with his company and performed his duty up to last muster, February 28, 1891.” This “ best evidence ” was overthrown within a few days, by Howie’s desertion, after ascertaining that additional evidence had been sub- mitted connecting him with a dishonorable dismissal by sentence of a court-martial in 1887. Name; John Smith. Organization : G. S. Recruit. Age : 22 years 4 months. Height ; 64% inches. Color of Hair ; Bed. Colob of Eyes ; Slate blue. Place of Enlistment ; Cleveland, Ohio. Date of Enlistment ; April 5, 1890. Any Prior U. S. Service? No. Scar. , 2 inches below eye. Hairy mole. - Cupping scars % inch above and to left of nipple. ~Scar, •••, from car- buncle. Crown and an- chor, tattooed. ~ “ Sun burst,” tat- tooed. _ Hairy mole. C - Scar, (, of bubo. Birth-mark. Scar, A, 3d pha- lanx. -Slight varicose veins Scar two inches long, from burn. b,Ar^ION': Columbus Barracks, Ohio. TE ■' April 10, 1892. Hyper trophied nail, great toe. [OVER.] Surgeon, If. S. Army. DESERTERS = Bine Eyes, ANTERIOR. Right. O Left No. Name. Head. Neck. Shoulder. Thorax. Abdomen. Groin. Thigh. Knee. cr. ri ght upper, to let. fac- sim He of J Riyl it S ide of J “ifc gix er.’ 0 inches hio •h. POSTERIOR. Left. Rig lit. TRUNK. TRUNK. Head. Neck Upper. Middle. Lower. Hip. Thigh. \ Knee. ti O) Hi Foot. oJ o r-j 5o Arm. ' Elbow. Forearm Wrist. Hand. Fingers. Head. •T09N CD p Ph P Middle. Lower. Hip. Thigh. Knee. Leg. Foot. Shouldei Arm. Elbow. Forearm Wrist. Hand. Fingers. MISCELLANEOUS. ( Below this line is represented the Left Side of the “Eegiste r.”J DESERTERS = Blue Eyes, inches high. DESCRIPTION OF TATTOOS AND DISCOLORATIONS. ANTERIOR. POSTERIOR. No. RIGHT. LEFT. LEFT. RIGHT. No.