Biography
Thomas Shotkin was a conscientious objector physically confined at the Camp Funston Military Police Guard House in Kansas during World War I. A signed report covering September–October 1918 records his arrival there on September 27, 1918 and individually describes his treatment in custody. The facility receipt does not independently establish his first arrest or original jail-entry date. His release date is not stated.
Primary report and evidence limits
The October 7 account names Shotkin helping Morris Franklin back to bed after a forced shower. The October 9 entry describes Shotkin being struck with a riding crop, denied medical care and forced to exercise despite injury.
The report individually establishes actual U.S. military guardhouse confinement and resistance to military orders as a conscientious objector. It does not establish the initial admission date, exact discharge, formal charge, court-martial sentence, birth or death dates. The Funston transfer date is preserved as an institutional movement, not substituted for the beginning of all custody; no time served is calculated from a sentence or a hunger-strike interval.
A military investigation reproduced in the Congressional Record on February 12, 1919 independently records mistreatment of conscientious objectors confined in the Camp Funston guardhouse. Its findings identify Thomas Shotkin and Julius R. Greenberg as men whom Colonel John W. Barnes struck on the feet and legs with a riding crop on October 9, 1918. The investigator concluded that Barnes was not justified under law, that the act violated the 96th Article of War, and recommended trial. This is an investigation finding and recommendation, not evidence that Barnes was subsequently convicted. It adds official corroboration to the prisoners’ contemporary account without changing their custody endpoints.
Congressional Record, February 12, 1919, printed pages 3239–3240 (PDF 63–64).
