Biography
Richard A. Carlson was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, reduced to 2 years. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: did not register for the draft; assigned to Company I, 351st Infantry, Headquarters 88th Division, Camp Dodge (IA), March 7, 1918 (may not have been his first assignment); interviewed by Bd. in July 1918 at Leavenworth; charged with disobedience of orders; …
Douglas distinguishes civilian draft cases from the subsequent military confinement: the St. Paul resisters’ civilian sentences were reduced to time served on January 28, 1918, and the men were transferred to Fort Snelling before Camp Dodge. The March 11 court-martial terms and subsequent Leavenworth transfers do not establish that those nominal terms were actually served. William R. Douglas, The Germans Would Court-Martial Me, Too: St. Paul’s World War I Socialist Draft Resisters, Minnesota History 55(7), Fall1997 pp286–301, original PDF page 3. Source: https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/55/v55i07p286-301.pdf#page=3
The Revolutionary Age of August 9, 1919 prints a letter received by the National Left Wing Conference on June 21, 1919 from political prisoners confined in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It lists Richard Carlson among Socialist Party members, endorsing the letter's support for the Left Wing and its political aims. June 21 is the conference's receipt date, not an admission or release date; no individual charge or measured custody total is supplied.