Samuel Tilden Ansell

Samuel Tilden Ansell (January 1, 1875 – May 27, 1954) was an American Brigadier general active during World War I.

Ansell was born in Coinjock, North Carolina. He graduated number thirty-one of seventy-two from the United States Military Academy in 1899.

Ansell was commissioned to the 11th Infantry and later transferred to the Judge Advocate General's Department. From 1902 to 1904 and again from 1906 to 1910, he was an instructor of law at the United States Military Academy.

He received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of North Carolina in 1904 and became a prosecuting attorney. Ansell was part of the civil government of the Phillippines and during World War I he became acting Judge Advocate General of the army. He started the movement to reform the court-martial system and to rewrite the Articles of War.

Ansell was promoted to Brigadier general on October 5, 1917. He resigned from the military to resume his law practice on July 21, 1919.

Some of the military justice reforms Ansell lobbied for were included in the National Defense Act of 1920.

For his service as acting judge advocate, Ansell received the Army Distinguished Service Medal.

Samuel Tilden Ansell died at the age of seventy-nine on May 27, 1954.