Biography
William C. Sandberg was a conscientious objector imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Douglas. Sentenced to 25 years in prison - reduced to 3 years. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: sentenced to 25 years in prison - reduced to 3 years; imprisoned in Ft. Douglas War Prison Barracks; a member of I.W.W.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly roster, printed as SANDBERG, W., reports: Arrested Minneapolis , July , 1917 , for failure to register . Sentenced October to 11 months Crowc Wing county jail . Released on bail pending appeal . Rearrested April 4, 1918 , same charge . Bound over to October term. Released on bail. Rearrested May 20 by military authorities . Court martialed for technical desertion . Sentenced to 20 years and reduced to 3 years April , 1919. Ft. Douglas , Utah . The roster is a contemporary labor-defense account. Its indictment, bail and imposed-term information is kept distinct from actual admission/release and complete time served; no missing gate date is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=18
Custody record
The cited World War I archival record does not establish a one-day imprisonment. The imposed sentence and the period actually spent in custody are different; no exact duration is recorded here unless supported by custody records.
Sources: Source 1.
The Fort Douglas prisoner letter prints W. Sandberg of Minneapolis. It reports arrest July 20, 1917 for failure to register; an eleven-month Crow Wing County Jail sentence on October 10; appeal bail October 20; rearrest April 4, 1918 for failure to return a questionnaire, bail April 24, and military rearrest May 20. It reports a twenty-year technical-desertion sentence approved July 15, 1918, reduced to three years in April 1919. This contemporary twenty-year account differs from the existing twenty-five-year summary; no imposed term is treated as actual service, and the bail intervals are preserved.
