World War I A World War I German army dog tag indicating Name, place of birth, battalion, unit and serial number They were nicknamed Hundemarken (the German equivalent of 'dog tags') and compared to a similar identification system instituted by the dog licence fee, adding tags to collars of those dogs whose owners paid the fee, in the Prussian capital city of Berlin at around the same time period. The Prussian Army issued identification tags for its troops at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. With the Prussian Instruktion über das Sanitätswesen der Armee im Felde (i.e., instruction on the medical corps organisation of the army afield) issued on 29 April 1869 identification tags (then called Erkennungsmarke literally 'recognition mark') were to be handed out to each soldier before deployment afield. With the formation of the North German Confederation in 1867 Prussian military regulations became binding for the militaries of all North German member states. So until eight months after the Battle of Königgrätz, with almost 8,900 Prussian casualties, only 429 of them could be identified. However, many rejected dog tags as a bad omen for their lives. On a volunteer basis Prussian soldiers had decided to wear identification tags in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The other side had the soldier's name and unit, and sometimes a list of battles in which he had participated. Machine-stamped tags were also made of brass or lead with a hole and usually had (on one side) an eagle or shield, and such phrases as 'War for the Union' or 'Liberty, Union, and Equality'. Their pins were usually shaped to suggest a branch of service, and engraved with the soldier's name and unit. Manufacturers of identification badges recognized a market and began advertising in periodicals. Henry Correll 2nd Vermont Volunteer Infantry Other soldiers stenciled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of their army belt buckles. American Civil War ĭuring the American Civil War from 1861–1865, some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and home address to the backs of their coats. During the Taiping revolt (1851–66), both the Imperialists (i.e., the Chinese Imperial Army regular servicemen) and those Taiping rebels wearing a uniform wore wooden dog tags at the belt, bearing the soldier's name, age, birthplace, unit, and date of enlistment. In more recent times, dog tags were provided to Chinese soldiers as early as the mid-19th century. The recruit obtained the military status only after the oath of allegiance ('sacramentum') at the end of 'probatio', meaning that from a legal point of view the 'signaculum' was given to a subject who was no longer a civilian, but not yet in the military. This procedure, together with enrollment in the list of recruits, was made at the beginning of a four-month probatory period ('probatio'). The legionary 'signaculum' was a lead disk with a leather string, worn around the neck, with the name of the recruit and the indication of the legion of which the recruit was part. A type of dog tag (' signaculum') was given to the Roman legionary at the moment of enrollment. The earliest mention of an identification tag for soldiers comes in Polyaenus ( Stratagems 1.17) where the Spartans wrote their names on sticks tied to their left wrists.

The term arose and became popular because of the tags' resemblance to animal registration tags. This purposeful duplication allows one tag, or half-tag, to be collected from an individual's dead body for notification, while the duplicate remains with the corpse if the conditions of battle prevent it from being immediately recovered. They commonly contain two copies of the information, either in the form of a single tag that can be broken in half, or as two identical tags on the same chain. They often indicate a religious preference as well.ĭog tags are usually fabricated from a corrosion-resistant metal. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties they have information about the individual written on them, including identification and essential basic medical information such as blood type and history of inoculations. For other uses, see Dog tag (disambiguation).Ī pair of blank dog tags on one ball chainĭog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel.

For the version worn by pets, see pet tag. This article is about identification tags worn by military personnel.

Dog tag necklace army