In the last post in this series we saw that, beginning in late 1917, the Selective Service required all men potentially eligible to be drafted to complete a questionnaire so that draft boards could assign them to one of five classes. The classes determined the order in which men would be called up: those in class 1, which included mostly single, nonessential workers, would be the first to be drafted; men in classes 2 and 3 would follow when class 1 was depleted; class 4 registrants could follow after that but were not expected to be called up, unless the war went on longer than anticipated; class 5 men were permanently exempt and would never be drafted.
On paper, the classification system was simple and straightforward; however, putting even a simple policy into action rarely goes exactly as planned. This post will explore several aspects of the implementation of the classification system, again with an emphasis on how this affected several Bullers in York County.
By June of 2018, Selective Service authorities realized that they did not have enough men assigned to class 1 to meet their expected manpower demands. Instead of simply moving on to draft men assigned to classes 2 and 3, they first reconsidered the classifications already made to those classes to identify men who should have been, so it was claimed, assigned to class 1 in the first place. A brief note in the 20 June 1918 York Republican (right) explains:
Sheriff Miller, County Clerk Beck, Dr. McKinley and T. W. Smith are this week engaged in going over all the questionnaires canvassed during the winter for the purpose of advancing from deferred classes to class number one about 168 or 169 men. The government needs the men, and it has been found that there is a large number of men placed in deferred classes by the state board through exemption claims of varied kinds who will be compelled to go up higher. Many of these had been originally placed by the local board in class one but were overruled when the questionnaires went to the state board. Now comes the necessity for more men from York county for class one, hence the reconsideration and revision of the questionnaires by the local board, under orders from higher authority.
The announcement carefully absolves the local authorities from responsibility, as it claims that many misclassifications were the fault of the state board and notes that the York County officials are reclassifying men now “under orders from higher authority.” Of course, the announcement also admits at the outset the real motivation for the reclassification: “The government needs the men.” The 168 or 169 additional men from York County would form part of a larger group of 4,000 men called up from Nebraska, which itself was part of a nationwide call-up of 220,000 soldiers (“Four Thousand from Nebraaska,” The York Republican, 27 June 1918, p. 8).
Several weeks after the initial announcement, the local board reported the reclassification of seventy-one men from classes 2, 3, and 4 to class 1 (The York Republican, 11 July 1918, p. 1). The board also noted that ninety-two men had appealed their reclassifications to the district board that oversaw York County and a number of other local boards.* One week later the paper reported the disposition of seventy-seven of these appeals (what happened with the other fifteen is unknown at this point): seventy-three of the men were assigned to class 1, which implies to me that their appeals did not lead to the desired outcome.
Among this group of seventy-seven was one Henry B. Buller, son of Benjamin and grandson of David and Helena Zielke Buller (thus a nephew of Peter D and a cousin to Peter P). As shown in the extract to the right, Henry’s classification was changed from an original 2-C to a 1-I. These more specific designations (a number plus a letter) reflect the categories of the questionnaire that all the first registrants had completed in late 1917 and early 1918.
Comparing Henry’s reclassification with the questionnaire, we discover that his original 2-C label designated him a “necessary skilled farm laborer in [a] necessary agricultural enterprise.” However, his new classification, 1-I, indicated that Henry, the registrant, was “not deferred and not included in any of above divisions” (i.e., the specific situations listed above). In short, Henry, along with the other York County men who were reclassified to one or another of the class 1 designations, was moved to the front of the line for the anticipated call-up.
From one perspective, this reclassification was warranted: Henry was a single man who worked for John Goossen; he was not, in other words, indispensable to a family farming operation or even to the support of his family. However, it is difficult to understand why Henry was assigned to 2-C in the first place. His draft registration card states explicitly that he claimed a religious exemption from the draft due to his “Mennonite conviction.” We saw earlier that Frank D. Buller, likewise a single man who worked for someone else (his brother), was assigned to class 5 and given a permanent exemption. Why did Henry not receive the same classification?
I cannot answer that question but wonder if the two men completed their questionnaires differently, which produced their different outcomes. Without seeing the documents themselves, we have no way of knowing with certainty, but I wonder if Frank claimed the exemption on his questionnaire, while Henry, for whatever reason, claimed to be an essential farm worker and did not claim a religious exemption on the questionnaire. If the local and district boards looked only at the questionnaires, not the registration cards, they would have had no reason to grant a religious exemption to those who claimed it on the registration card but not on the questionnaire.
In any event, we read in the 10 October 1918 York Republican (p. 1) that Henry was among a group of 102 men called up to service. The announcement reads:
Called to Colors
——————
Group of 102 Eligibles Called to Service
They will report for entrainment for Fort Kearney, Linda Vista, Cal., between October 21 and 25 being part of Nebraska’s October quota of 6,000 men.
Henry was not the only Buller called up in the second half of 1918. Since the previous post (here), I have discovered that Andrew Buller was also called up. The 5 September 1918 York Republican (p. 1) reports that Andrew was among a group of call-ups in early September.
Camp Grant at Rockford, Ill., is the destination of twenty-four stalwart sons of York county who leave tomorrow (Friday [= 6 September]) to enter upon their service for the government. They will leave on train No. 40 in the afternoon over the Burlington.
With this final piece of information in hand, we can summarize the experiences of the five Bullers of York County who were part of the first (5 June 1917) registration of potential draftees.
- Andrew Buller: claimed religious exemption on his registration card; classification unknown; called up to service in September 1918
- David Adam Buller: claimed religious exemption on his registration card; assigned to class 4 (due to support of wife and three children); not called up
- Frank D. Buller: claimed exemption due to operations; classification unknown; called up to service in May 1918
- Frank P. Buller: claimed religious exemption on his registration card; assigned to class 5 (permanent exemption); not called up
- Henry B. Buller: claimed religious exemption on his registration card; assigned first to class 2-C, then reclassified as 1-I; called up to service in October 1918
Of the five Bullers who were part of the first registration, four initially claimed a religious exemption, but only one (Frank P.) was permanently exempted. Two (Andrew, Henry B.) who claimed an exemption were assigned to class 1 and called up in September–October 1918. The one Buller who did not claim a religious exemption (Frank D.) was the first to be called up.
In the end, it appears that a claim of religious exemption on a registration card counted for little. The real determinative factor was, I think, how a registrant completed the questionnaire. Although we cannot say for certain, it seems that those who made a clear claim of religious exemption on the questionnaire (e.g., presumably Frank P.) had it granted, while those who sought exemption on some other grounds (e.g., Henry B. and Frank D.) faced the very real danger of having all exemption denied and being moved to the front of the mobilization line.
* The Selective Service system within each state had three levels: (1) the local (generally county) boards registered potential draftees, processed their questionnaires, issued call-up orders for individuals, and oversaw the transport of draftees to their training camps; (2) district boards had charge of, on average, thirty local boards and reviewed their decisions; (3) the state headquarters, operating under the authority and oversight of the governor, coordinated the work of the various boards within the state, including the apportionment of call-up quotas. For further details, see Center of Military History 1937, 370–72.
Work Cited
Center of Military History. 1937. Zone of the Interior: Organization and Activities of the War Department. Vol. 3.1 of Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army. Reprint, 1988. Available online here.
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