Biography
William Breidert was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Douglas. Sentenced to 30 years in prison - reduced to 2 years. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for the draft on June 5, 1917 as a CO, at age 24; taken to Ft. Jay, transferred to Camp Upton; classified as a 3, later as a 7; refused to wear uniform; interviewed by the Special Bd. …
1920s remaining-entry review: Swarthmore archivist Anne Yoder's person-specific record identifies the Brooklyn machinist and court-martial file 119861 (RG 153, box 5938). May 26, 1918 is expressly his draft date, not a prison-admission date. The record describes his August 21, 1918 court-martial and later imprisonment, but its release field is blank. The inherited May 26, 1920 endpoint is unsupported by the cited record and must not be inferred by adding the reduced two-year sentence to his draft date. Both unsupported exact custody endpoints are withdrawn pending the original admission/discharge records; military induction, conviction and confinement are distinct events. His existing portrait is retained.
