Biography
Albert Stangeland was an Industrial Workers of the World member from Chicago imprisoned by the US military during World War I. A prisoner letter published in the December 1919 One Big Union Monthly identifies him among the religious and political opponents of war held at Fort Douglas, Utah. It records his confinement at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, on August 9, 1918, and a court-martial sentence of fifty years for disobedience of orders under Article 64 of the Articles of War, approved September 17, 1918. The sentence was reduced to five years in April 1919. A separate prisoner directory in the March 1920 issue again lists him at Fort Douglas. His eventual release date has not been established. The Swarthmore College Peace Collection lists him under the spelling Albert Strangeland and describes his objections as political and humanitarian.
The Fort Douglas photograph identifies him by surname among nine IWW prisoners, supporting the established military-confinement history. A separate report of J. Bauer’s release concerns alien-enemy internees and does not establish this military conscientious objector’s release date. The two legal custody categories are not conflated.
The One Big Union Monthly, June 1920, vol. 2 no. 6, PDF page 38.
