The outcome of the war showed that concerns about identification were valid, and the practice of making identification disks caught on. To bring that into perspective, consider this: Of the more than 17,000 troops buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery, the largest Union cemetery in the U.S., nearly 13,000 of those graves are marked as unknown. Historical resources show that in 1862, a New Yorker named John Kennedy offered to make thousands of engraved disks for soldiers, but the War Department declined.īy the end of the Civil War, more than 40% of the Union Army’s dead were unidentified. Those who could afford it bought engraved metal tags from nongovernment sellers and sutlers - vendors who followed the armies during the war. According to the Marine Corps, some men carved their names into chunks of wood strung around their necks.
Others used old coins or bits of round lead or copper. Some marked their clothing with stencils or pinned-on paper tags. They were terrified of being buried in unmarked graves, so they found various ways to prevent that. Unofficially, identification tags came about during the Civil War because soldiers were afraid no one would be able to identify them if they died. Regardless of where the nickname started, the concept of an identification tag originated long before that. Another rumor said it was because the tags looked similar to the metal tag on a dog's collar. Other rumored origins of the nickname include World War II draftees calling them dog tags because they claimed they were treated like dogs. According to the SSA, Hearst referred to them as "dog tags" similar to those used in the military.
He had heard the newly formed Social Security Administration was considering giving out nameplates for personal identification. In 1936, Hearst wanted to undermine support for President Franklin D.
VIRIN: 190829-F-DD647-1004B Origins of the "Dog Tag" NicknameĪccording to the Army Historical Foundation, the term "dog tag" was first coined by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
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