The Paul T. Minerich Papers document the court cases of draft resisters who were court-martialed in 1944 in Ft. McClellan, Alabama. The resisters, also known as DB Boys (Detention Barracks Boys), were court-martialed and sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay. In 1981 their sentences were overturned. The papers comprise of court-martial documents, correspondences, and notes that were collected by their lawyers, Charles Edmund Zane and Paul T. Minerich.

The Paul T. Minerich papers document the court cases of draft resisters who were court-martialed in 1944 in Ft. McClellan, Alabama. The resisters were court-martialed for refusing to be trained for combat while their families were incarcerated in concentration camps. On March 20, 1944, forty-three infantry trainees were ordered to march to a field house to hear an orientation by their training commander. The group began to march, but soon stopped and refused to continue. A soldier was ordered to take the names of those who had disobeyed orders, but they refused to identify themselves and were placed under arrest. Twenty-one of these men were eventually convicted and tried for violating the 64th Article of War (willfully disobeying a direct order by a superior commissioned officer). The resisters, also known as the DB Boys (Detention Barrack Boys), were sentenced to a dishonorable discharge, a forfeiture of pay, and confinement to hard labor for 5 to 30 years. In November 1945, their sentences were reduced by a special clemency action and in 1946 they were put on parole and released.

1.5 linear feet

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