John Pershing
“You may insist all you please. While our army will fight wherever you may decide, it will not fight except as an independent American Army.”
The commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force in the Great War would become the first officer promoted to the rank of General of the Armies in his lifetime, as well as a popular symbol of the United States in the First World War.
West Point cadets in the late nineteenth century
Born in Laclede, Missouri a year before the United States was torn asunder by civil war, John Joseph Pershing was born to a local businessman, who would serve in the Union Army when John was a toddler. Eventually he would go on to be educated as a teacher before going on to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1882. Here he would show an aptitude for leadership, graduating 30th in his class of 77 cadets in 1886, being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry. He would serve in New Mexico, assigned to various campaigns against the local native tribes in the later stages of the Indian Wars. His unit would later participate on the edges of the operations that led to the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
A Buffalo Soldier on his horse in 1890
After this incident, he was posted for some time commanding a unit of the 10th Cavalry Regiment (the famed Buffalo Soldiers) before being assigned as an instructor first at West Point in 1897. Infamous among the cadets for his harsh discipline, he gained the nickname “Nigger Jack” for his time with the 10th Cavalry. This would later be softened slightly to “Black Jack”, a nickname that would remain with Pershing for the rest of his life.
Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry during the Spanish American War
When the Spanish-American War began in 1898 Pershing was again sent to serve with the 10th Cavalry, and was present for the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba, where Theodor Roosevelt won his fame, among other engagements. He was forced to sit out the end of the war, however, after contracting malaria.
His next posting was to the newly taken Philippines, where he served in Mindanao during the suppression of the Philippine Insurrection, where he would remain until 1903. Some reports, including in his own autobiography, suggest the use of harsh methods to subdue the Moro rebels. After his return to the United States, now-President Theodore Roosevelt personally recommended Pershing for promotion to Colonel, bypassing the ranks of major and Lt. Colonel, but the Army refused. He would instead be posted as US Military Attaché in Tokyo in 1905, the same year he married Helen Warren, the daughter of an influential senator from Wyoming. In his duties in Japan, he also served as an observer to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Afterward, by Act of Congress (at the recommendation of Roosevelt), Captain Pershing was advanced directly to the rank of Brigadier General.
Pershing with Mexican Revolutionary leaders Alvaro Obregon and Pancho Villa. Note Pershing’s adjutant, George S. Patton, on the far right
In his new capacity as a general, Pershing served various postings in the United States from 1906 to 1909, before taking command of the garrison at Fort McKinley near Manila in the Philippines, a post he would hold until 1913. Following this he would return to the US, taking command of a regiment based in California before redeploying with them to Fort Bliss as the situation in Mexico deteriorated following the coup by General Victoriano Huerta. In the course of his duties here he would become aquainted with the local leaders of the Mexican Constitutionalist Forces, notably Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Alvaro Obregon. While posted here tragedy would strike in 1915, when his wife and three daughters died in a fire in California, shortly before they were to be moved to Fort Bliss.
Pershing at Camp Bliss in 1916, during his command of the Punitive Expedition into Mexico
Despite his previous relationship with Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary had become a persona non grata with the United States following the collapse of the Huerta Regime. The US now recognized the government of President Carranza in Mexico City, and desired an end to the fighting south of their border. Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, 1916 proved the impetus for an intervention by US troops in the Mexican Revolution. Pershing was selected to lead a 10,000 man “Punitive Expedition” into Mexico with a mandate to capture Villa. This would prove unsuccessful, as Villa escaped, although it succeeded in destroying Villa’s army. The Expedition was withdrawn in early 1917, as the possibility of American entry into the Great War raging in Europe became increasingly likely.
General Pershing pays respects at the tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette
After the American entry into the First World War following the Zimmerman Telegram in early 1917, Pershing was appointed to command the new American Expeditionary Force after a short interview with President Wilson. He bypassed yet another rank, having been promoted to Major General during the expedition in Mexico, he was promoted to full General in October of 1917.
The task facing Pershing was monumental, as he had not only to command the new AEF, but effectively form it from scratch out of the mostly defensive US Army. One advantage Pershing did enjoy, however, was a being given near free reign from Washington concerning his conduct of the war, as opposed to the short leash the civilian governments generally kept his European counterparts on.
Following his arrival in France in June of 1917, he organized a trip to the tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette, the famed hero of the American Revolution, as a show of the American’s presence. The famed quote “Lafayette, we are here” is often attributed to him here, although in reality it was uttered by his aid.
Pershing and French President Poincare review troops of the AEF in France
The first action by the AEF took place at Hamel, where they were used to reinforce British and Australian units in an offensive action. Pershing was adamantly opposed to this use of his troops, and had ordered most of them to withdraw before the battle began. Pershing intended to ensure that the AEF fought as a full member of the Entente, as an independent force, rather than simply a replacement pool for the British and French. As a result, American force remained out of action longer than expected while their units trained and organized, but when they finally did deploy they would do so as part of an American Army, with their own dedicated sector of the front.
Pershing addresses AEF troops in France
The first large scale action of the AEF took place in July of 1918 at the Second Battle of the Marne, where the German lines being broken there, the Franco-American victory there coinciding with a British victory further north. The result was a massive push by the Entente against the Germans lines along the Western Front, with the AEF being tasked with the Meuse-Argonne Sector. Here criticism of Pershing’s leadership came about: his hopes for a rapid advance by American riflemen had turned out to be a repeat of the Europeans’ mistakes of 1914, leading to heavy casualties despite initially only encountering weaker German forces.
This would result in his relinquishing his personal command of the US First Army, as the drive through the Argonne continued, and Pershing would continue to gain a rocky reputation with his opposite numbers in the Entente, going to far as to send demands to General Foch, Allied Supreme Commander, to refuse any German armistice attempts, a serious overstep of his authority. In his most controversial move, Pershing ordered the AEF to continue their offensive even after the Armistice was signed, only allowing the killing to cease at the moment the armistice went into effect.
During the Great War Pershing was a living symbol of the American Expeditionary Force, and often appeared in propaganda posters issued by the Federal Government in the United States
Pershing, like so many of his men, would be taken ill with the Spanish Flu in late 1918, although he would recover in time to participate in the Allied victory parade. He would, after the war, be promoted to the rank of General of the Armies, in modern parlance a “six star” rank. He would remains the only officer to be promoted to this rank while still alive, the only other being George Washington in 1976. He was a popular symbol of the AEF, appearing often in American posters for the war effort, and named often in patriotic materials, such as the popular song “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France!”.
General Pershing arrives for Armistice Day ceremonies in 1938
In the interwar period, Pershing was considered a possibility for the Presidency in 1920, stating he would accept the position if elected, although he declined to actively campaign. The election went to Warren Harding instead. Pershing was appointed to the post of US Army Chief of Staff, where he notably created a prototype map of a national road network that would eventually evolve into the Interstate Highway System. Pershing retired from the Army in 1924, although his rank of General of the Armies entitled him to full active pay for the rest of his life.
In retirement, Pershing spent much time traveling the country to officiate ceremonies for war memorials, and was active in veteran’s organizations. By the 1930s he had fully retired, but came back to the spotlight when his memoirs were published in 1932, and with another war in Europe by 1939 he became an outspoken advocate of support for the Allies in their fight against Nazi Germany.
Pershing attends a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery
Pershing would live through the Second World War, where many of his former staff officers made their own names, such as Eisenhower, MacArthur and Patton, among others. He would die of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington on July 15, 1948. He was given a state funeral in Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Capitol, being buried among his men from the Great War.
