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Japanese War. Personal and physical ascendency, coupled with solid expert knowledge, had free play.2 28

GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING, COMMANDER OF THE UNITED STATES ARMIES IN FRANCE

In Linn County, Missouri, where he was born fifty-eight years before 1918, John Joseph Pershing, General in command of American troops to France, came to be revered something as the memory of Ulysses S. Grant has been revered in Clermont County, Ohio. No one from Laclede, Pershing's early home, or from any part of Linn County, so far as the Kansas City Star was able to discover, had ever done anything suggesting world fame or even national fame, except John Pershing. Pershing did enough in one and a half years mightily to flatter Laclede, and to prove that a soldier, if not a prophet, was not without honor in his own county. When Pershing took his examination for West Point, competing with others for an appointment by the Congressman from that district, the whole country came near losing him as a soldier, for he was only one point ahead of the next man, who was Higginbotham. A wrong answer to one question would have sent the other man to West Point and Pershing would have gone off in despair to become a lawyer, having had, as second choice, a predisposition for the legal profession. Firmness, discretion, dash, mastery of detail, comprehensive breadth of vision, patience and relentless determination were among the somewhat contradictory qualities accredited to Pershing. From the outset he had a quiet way of acquiring distinction and saying little or nothing about it. He won the highest honor West Point could confer when, twenty-six years old, he was graduated in 1886 as senior cadet captain. No mere "grind" or military athlete could have hoped to gain that honor. It betokened scholarly excellence and soldierly distinction, a sound and well-trained mind, in a body expert in management of arms and horses, and, above all, selfcontrol, suggesting ability to command others. He left the academy for a more rigid training-school in the Southwest, where he plunged into the campaign against Geronimo and his Apaches, as a second lieutenant in the Sixth Cavalry, and in August, 1887, when scarcely a year from school, won special commendation from General Miles for "marching his troop with pack train over rough country, 140 miles in forty-six hours, and bringing in every man and animal in good condition." While at Fort Wingate, in 1889, with ten

28 Adapted from an article compiled by Alexander Harvey for Current Opinion, from the Gaulois and Figaro (Paris), the Tribune and Avanti (Rome), the Carriere (Milan), Truth (London), and from an article by Basil Miles in The World's Work.

troopers he rescued a mixed group of cowboys and horse thieves when besieged by a hundred Zunis, and arrested the horse thieves after he had rescued them, all without firing a shot. By General Carr he was "highly commended for discretion"-not a common quality in a young man with a body as tough and powerful as his horse's and a demonstrated liking for rough-and-tumble work. In the Sioux wars of the early nineties, because of his knowledge of Indian fighting, he commanded scouts, and in the Cree campaign of 1896 again won "special recommendation for judgment and discretion."

Pershing's Western training now ended, but it left him to the end of his days a man of the southwest, silent, with frank, unprying eyes that looked men through, a gentle voice, chary of words, laughing but seldom, smiling a slow, quiet smile more of the eyes than the lips, and gifted with incisive turns of speech. The sobriquet "Black Jack" Pershing by which he was known among the rank and file was the result of his first promotion in 1895 when he was appointed to a colored troop-the Tenth Cavalry-a crack negro command that won fame at San Juan. This nickname stuck to him ever afterward.

Having made a thorough study of tactics, Pershing became known as one of the best strategists in the army. After his Indian campaign he was assigned to West Point as instructor and when war with Spain was declared, applied for and received command of the old Tenth Regiment which was among the first to be sent to Cuba, where he distinguished himself in the field. At El Caney Pershing was promoted for gallantry to the rank of captain. In 1901 he was chosen by General Chaffee, commanding in the Philippines, to cope with the oldest of all the difficulties Spain had left us and one she had always shirked. In the hills of western Mindanao, some thirty miles from the sea, lay Lanao, and around it were fierce, uncivilized Mohammedan 'Malays, industrious, frugal, murderous fanatics, who loved a fight, and whose simple creed made the killing of Christians a virtue. From a distance of several thousand miles the job did not sound big, but a more difficult task had seldom been given to an officer of the regular army. Pershing undertook the work with a smile. He had a picked lot of regulars under him, every man of whom he could trust.

Pershing found the Moros had mobilized in the crater of an extinct volcano called Bud Dajo, on the island of Jolo. To drive them out had been a task which the army had long contemplated. Pershing told his men the Moros would have to come out of the crater, if it took ten years to accomplish the job. There were 600 of them— every one a Mohammedan fanatic. Without Bud Dajo securely in

[graphic]

PART OF PERSHING'S ARMY HALTING ON THE MOSELLE AFTER LEAVING TREVES
On the hillside are seen some of the many vineyards for which the Moselle is famous. At Trèves
Pershing established his headquarters

American control, the Moro problem could not be solved. With a thousand men, half of them Pershing's trusted troopers and the others picked Filipino scouts, the campaign began. Troops and scouts had to proceed through miles of dense jungle, opposed at every yard by Moros. But Pershing kept on, and finally fought his way to the foot of the mountain. His jungle-fighters then cut a trail around the mountain, and, fortifying themselves from attack from above, began the siege. Having formed a cordon around the mountain, they watched for the first sign of Moros leaving the crater. In their retreat to the crater the Moros had been so hotly pursued that they were unable to take with them supplies for a long stand. Pershing knew this and so he waited. After a time small detachments of Moros tried to gain the open by dashes through the American cordon, but every dash was frustrated, the fanatics rushing forth to certain death. On Christmas day, 1911, the 400 Moros who still held the crater did something a Moro seldom had done; they marched down the mountainside and surrendered. A few, however, got into the jungle, but regulars pursued them, and in the end they paid the penalty of their daring. Pershing then set about the task of completing the subjugation of the other Moros, and accomplished it when he won the battle of Bagsag, where they made a last stand.

Pershing now returned to Washington to serve in that city for awhile on the General Staff. He afterward went to Tokio as military attaché, first at the embassy and afterward with the army of Kuroki during the Russo-Japanese War. On September 26, 1906, he had a spectacular promotion which jumped him over 862 officers to the rank of Brigadier-General, and was again sent to the Philippines to command the department of Mindanao and Jolo. Later he served as Governor of the Moros and after eight years went to the Presidio in San Francisco where he took command of the Eighth Brigade. Four months later he was transferred with his troops to the Mexican border, where he had two years of routine patrol duty-time far from wasted, however, as was shown when as commander of the punitive expedition against Villa he marched into Mexico. The story of that march told why Pershing, in inside circles, came to be spoken of sometimes as the American Kitchener, the organizer and administrator, and why his later success as commander of the American forces in France gave occasion for no surprize in army circles where he was best known. What the battle-front in France might hold for him was at first a sealed book; but those who knew him best said he would come back either a national hero or with his body wrapt in the national flag.

How Pershing was recalled from Mexico soon after the United

States entered the World War, how he arrived in Washington to seat himself unnoticed at a desk in the War Department, and how he sailed away with a small force unknown to the public until he landed in England, unfolds the immediate steps to Pershing's entry into the great conflict in northern France. Colonel Roosevelt on one occasion when President addrest Congress on promotions in the Army and Navy. Promotions usually went by seniority and the army caste was jealous of the tradition. Roosevelt wanted the seniority rule abridged, and specifically mentioned Pershing as a gallant officer who had been held back by a tradition that worked him harm, as it often did to men who should have been advanced. In the gallery during the reading of this message was Frances Warren, daughter of United States Senator Warren of Wyoming. She followed the message closely, and when leaving the Capitol declared she would like to meet the officer who had merited such commendation. Less than two years afterward the soldier and the senator's daughter were married. Grim tragedy afterward entered into Pershing's married life when his wife and three children were burned to death in their home. Only one, Warren, his five-year-old son, was rescued. Lean but rugged, six feet and better, Pershing typified the ideal cavalry officer. He had been hardened by field service physically and broadened in executive work by service on difficult posts. He cared little for swivel-chairs and desks, but doted on boots and saddles.29

HENRI PHILIPPE PÉTAIN, MARSHAL OF FRANCE

By promoting Pétain after the armistice to the rank of Marshal of France, which had already been conferred on Joffre and Foch, the French Government merely performed a duty which, not performed, would have awakened surprize, and even criticism, in the whole Entente world. The defender of Verdun had earned the right to a distinction already bestowed upon the victors of the first and second Marne. Foch, Joffre, and Pétain were the French soldiers who became most preeminent in this war. Before Verdun, Pétain had earned a solid military reputation. His offensive in the Champagne in 1915 was the first considerable victory of the Allies after the initiative had passed to them. It had only local results and was in no sense decisive, but it yielded more than 25,000 prisoners, more than a hundred guns and brought to Paris and London the first sense of victory. Verdun, however, had been the great achievement of Pétain. A situation as critical as that which confronted Foch

29 Adapted from a compilation by Alexander Harvey in Current Opinion, based on articles in The Star (Kansas City), The World (New York), and The Public Ledger (Philadelphia).

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