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Home , 6th Cavalry Regiment, General of the Armies

Historically Speaking John J. Pershing at 150 eptember 13 marks the 150th birthday By BG John S. Brown After the Spanish-American War, Per- Sof of the Armies John J. Persh- U.S. Army retired shing organized the Office of Customs ing, the highest ranking soldier to have and Insular Affairs within the War De- served in the U.S. Army. He is perhaps best known for lead- partment, which oversaw occupation forces in , Puerto ing the American Expeditionary Forces to victory in World Rico, Guam and the . In 1899, he was assigned to War I. To accomplish that monumental task, he redesigned, the Department of and Jolo while operations to retrained and reequipped a huge Army on the cusp of battle secure the Philippines were heating up. Pershing served in in . Returning from that success, he consolidated several Philippine postings through 1903, fighting against America’s transformation to a mobilization-based Army, lay- the Moros and again being cited for bravery, once for actions ing the groundwork for even more gigantic accomplish- along the Cagayan River and once for fighting near Lake ments in World War II. Pershing cemented the roles of the Lanao. Returning to the , he served briefly as Chief of Staff and the Army General assistant chief of staff to the Southwest Staff, establishing precedents that re- Division before attending the Army main with us today. In 1923, he was ap- War College. He was assigned as mili- pointed to the newly formed American tary attaché to Tokyo and served as a Battle Monuments Commission and military observer during the Russo- was soon elected as its chairman. He Japanese War. served in this capacity until 1948, en- President took a suring that the soldiers he had so ably personal interest in this promising offi- led—and those who followed them— cer, while at the same time railing were properly memorialized. against the strict seniority system with- Pershing was born near Laclede, Mo., out effective retirement that rendered in 1860, and worked on his father’s the Army’s senior leadership too aged farm while growing up and attending and infirm to match his vision of an school. He received an appointment to “Army for empire.” In a move that enter the U.S. Military Academy at West shocked the military establishment, Point in 1882 and graduated as First Roosevelt gained congressional appro- four years later. Assigned to the val for Pershing’s promotion from cap- 6th Regiment, he participated tain to brigadier general, bypassing in the final campaigns of the Indian three ranks and more than 860 senior Wars. He was cited for courage fighting officers. Pershing served as a military

against and the and Army U.S. observer in the Balkans and then com- rode in the operations against the Born in Missouri in 1860, John manded again in the Philippines from Lakota () that climaxed at Wound- Joseph Pershing graduated from 1909 through 1912, including acting as ed Knee. Pershing taught military tac- the U.S. Military Academy in 1886. the governor of the contentious Moro tics at the University of Nebraska from Province. Returning to the United 1891 through 1895, availing himself of the opportunity to States, he assumed command of the 8th Cavalry Regiment. earn a law degree while there. He established and trained a He also suffered a devastating personal tragedy in 1915 celebrated drill team at the University of Nebraska that came when his wife and three daughters perished in a house to be called the , the prototype for similarly fire. Only his six-year-old son, Warren, survived. trained and named drill teams around the country. In 1895, The 8th Cavalry Regiment was posted to , he assumed command of a troop of the 10th Cavalry Regi- Texas, with security responsibilities along the Mexican bor- ment, the famous African-American Buffalo Soldiers. Persh- der. Revolutionary turmoil in bubbled across the ing was cited for gallantry serving alongside these soldiers in border on March 9, 1916, when followers of the fierce battles for Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill in the Span- attacked Columbus, N.M. Troops of the 13th Cavalry Regi- ish-American War. His association with the Buffalo Soldiers ment successfully defended themselves and drove off led to the nickname Black Jack, which was picked up by the Villa’s men with losses, but not before a number of Ameri- press and became popular with soldiers and civilians alike. cans had been killed and much of the town burned down. Pershing served briefly as an instructor at West Point, The United States responded with the Punitive Expedition where he proved unpopular with cadets because of his strict- into Mexico, commanded by BG Pershing. Pershing’s ness as a disciplinarian. columns thrust deep into Mexico, making use of airplanes

September 2010 I ARMY 93 pation in . President selected Pershing to command the American Expeditionary Forces in France and dispatched him to determine the size of the force that would be required. After consulting with the Allies, sur- veying the posture of British and French forces, and refining strategic objectives, Pershing returned with his thoughtful General Organization Project in July, requiring more than a million men in France by December 1918. Even this number proved too small in light of Allied failures in 1917, German successes in 1917 and 1918, and the withdrawal of Russia from the war in November 1917. Over time, Pershing revised his figures upwards to a requirement for 3 million men by May 1919, of whom about 2 million had actually arrived by the time of the Armistice in November 1918.

he task of organizing and training this massive Army Twith so few experienced cadre to draw upon was daunting, and much of it fell to Pershing. Congress passed a Selective Service Act in May 1917, but it took several months to get the system up and running. Officers’ train- ing camps churned out 80,000 newly commissioned offi- cers as “90-day wonders,” and these joined several hun- dred experienced soldiers in each of the new divisions of the National Army. The Regular Army and National Guard were only somewhat better off, and their organization into

DoD/William Fox DoD/William divisions from regiments was improvised. Divisions aver- In 1916, then-BG Pershing, with his aide outside aged four to six months of training before arriving in the headquarters of the American forces in Colo- France, much of it basic and devoid of the artillery and nia Dublan, Mexico, led the Punitive Expedition other heavy equipment required on the Western Front. All in search of revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. of the tanks, virtually all of the heavy artillery and most of the planes used in combat were provided by the British for scouting, wireless telegraphs for communications and and French. Pershing established elaborate unit-training automobiles for transportation. Although most movement facilities in France to bring newly arriving divisions up to was by horse or on foot, this experimentation with modern the standards required, and supplemented these with technology proved useful preparation for events to come. schools for various individual specialties. Allied veterans Pershing’s men killed or captured scores of Villa’s men participated as training cadre, and the cycle ideally in- and a few of Villa’s lieutenants, but Villa himself eluded cluded the commitment of constituent units to quiet sec- capture through hundreds of miles of pursuit. Pershing’s tors of the front. The 1st Division, for example, hastily cob- freedom of action was limited by diplomatic considera- bled together from four infantry regiments and the first to tions, and the approaching American involvement in World arrive in France, trained from July 1917 through January War I dictated a withdrawal of American forces before Pan- 1918 before taking over its own sector of the front. During cho Villa could finally be run to ground. His followers had that time, it drilled progressively at Gondrecourt, incorpo- been decimated, however, and his standing among factions rated artillery and other heavy equipment, rotated battal- vying for control in Mexico was irreversibly compromised. ions under French supervision on a quiet sector of the In 1914, the active U.S. Army numbered less than 100,000. front, and reconsolidated at Gondrecourt to retrain in light By the time the United States declared war on in of its practical experiences. Given the press of events, not April 1917, it had doubled—in part because of the difficulties all divisions received such comprehensive in-theater train- with Mexico—but was still far too small for serious partici- ing, but enough training occurred to convert the American Expeditionary Forces from an untrained mass to a capable BG John S. Brown, USA Ret., was chief of military history at the combat organization. U.S. Army Center of Military History from December 1998 to As famous as Pershing should be for training his Army, he October 2005. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 66th Armor, is best known for winning with it. From the outset, Pershing in and during the and returned to was determined that the American Expeditionary Forces Kuwait as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Divi- would fight as a whole. He came under considerable pres- sion, in 1995. He has a doctorate in history from Indiana Uni- sure from the British and French to allow Americans to be versity. His book, Kevlar Legions: Army Transformation used as individual or small-unit replacements to reinforce 1989–2005, is forthcoming. their depleted divisions. Beyond seasoning for training pur-

94 ARMY I September 2010 poses, Pershing stoutly resisted. He relented somewhat in the face of the sledgehammer blows of the German spring 1918 offensives. Americans rushed divisions and even smaller units to plug holes while serving under French and British command. Most famously, the 3rd Division proved to be the “Rock of the Marne,” and the 2nd Division, including marines, proved its mettle at Belleau Wood. Even as these battles were hotly contested, Pershing sustained the momen- tum toward an independent American Army. In July and August, several American corps fought as wholes during the Aisne-Marne Campaign. In September, the newly formed American First Army, with Pershing in command, smashed the St. Mihiel salient. In October, the American Second Army stood up alongside the First Army during the fierce battle for the Meuse-Argonne. The American Expeditionary Forces was now an army group responsible for about a quarter of the Allied front. The Meuse-Argonne offensive ground on re- lentlessly until the Germans gave up with the Armistice of November 11, 1918. American forces had arrived in time to turn the tide on the Western Front—and in World War I. They had, in fact, fielded an Army capable of achieving vic- tory in modern warfare against a first-class European oppo- nent, and Pershing was largely responsible.

eturning to the United States in September 1919, Persh-

Ring lent his counsel and support to the landmark Na- Library of Congress tional Defense Act of 1920. Because of the difficulties and After World War I, GEN Pershing, here arriving in shortcomings of the World War I mobilization, the act ad- , D.C., in 1919, was appointed Gen- dressed responsibilities for recruiting and conscription, orga- eral of the Armies of the United States, the high- est rank held by any soldier in U.S. Army history. nization, training and industrial mobilization. It envisioned the Regular Army as immediately deployable, the National Guard as a readily accessible reserve, and new divisions rates the service, achievements and sacrifice of U.S. armed trained through a rigorous extended training program by forces where they have served overseas since 1917. Pershing seasoned cadre as the Army’s ultimate mass. It upgraded the was elected chairman of the commission in its first year and Organized Reserve, expanded the footprint of the Reserve served in that capacity until his death in 1948. He oversaw Officers’ Training Corps in colleges and other institutions, the consolidation of American World War I burials in France and refined programs for training individuals prior to their into magnificent cemeteries worthy of the soldiers they assignment to units. Taken as a whole, it was a far-reaching memorialized. These grew with the sacrifices of World War and sensible response to the lessons of 1917–18. Pershing en- II. Today the American Battle Monuments Commission man- thused that now the Army would be “organized in time of ages 24 cemeteries overseas and 25 memorials, monuments peace instead of being extemporized, as in the past, after and markers. The cemeteries are final resting places for danger has actually come.” Interwar congressional parsi- 125,000 honored dead, and 94,000 more are memorialized on mony degraded much of the readiness that the act intended, their Tablets of the Missing. Pershing’s intent was that “time but it nevertheless provided a firm foundation for the extra- will not dim the glory of their deeds.” These words remain ordinarily successful mobilization for World War II. Persh- an inspiration to the commission. They also remind us of ing’s service as Army Chief of Staff from 1921 through 1924 own obligation to this remarkable American soldier. ( bolstered this foundation, particularly with respect to the role of the Army General Staff. Until then, the General Staff Recommended Reading: had been largely managerial, but Pershing drove it towards Coffman, Edward M., The War to End All Wars: The intimate involvement with operations as well. He instituted American Military Experience in World War I (Lexing- the War Plans Board, providing a capability to envision and ton, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1998) coordinate operations in diverse and far-flung theaters. Per- shing’s protégé, GEN George C. Marshall, exploited this ca- Pershing, John J., My Experiences in the World War pability with telling effect during World War II. (: Stokes, 1931) Pershing was ever mindful of the sacrifices soldiers serv- Smythe, Donald, Pershing: General of the Armies ing with him had made. In 1923, Congress established the (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1986) American Battle Monuments Commission that commemo-

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