John Joseph Pershing was a general of the armies of the United States of America, born on September 13, 1860 in Missouri and died on July 15, 1948 at Walter Hospital in Washington DC.
John Pershing was born in the small house of his parents near Laclede (Missouri) on September 13, 1860. The Pershing family was of Alsatian origin, indeed, the first Pershing to come to settle in America was Frederick Pfoerschin, emigrated from Alsace in 1724. The family name then changed to Pershin and then to Pershing.
John's father, John Fletcher Pershing, was a vigorous and ambitious man who emigrated from Pennsylvania in his youth. His mother, originally from Kentucky, was named Ann Elizabeth Thompson. John, one of the nine children in the family, inherited from his parents a robust physique and a character full of self-sacrifice and determination.
Until 1873, John Pershing went to school while working on his father's farm. He also worked very quickly as a teacher in a school for blacks:the salary paid allowed him to join the Normal School Kirksville from where he graduated with an art degree in 1880.
In 1882, an advertisement for a competition to enter the West Point Military Academy caught his attention. Although reluctant to embark on a military career, West Point offered him the chance to benefit from a high quality training.
Supported by his sister, John passed the entrance exam to West Point. He did not shine there with his academic results, but his qualities as a leader led him to be appointed in 1886 to the rank of captain of the cadets, which was the most important distinction at West Point. His qualities as an organizer, combining rigor, discipline and good psychology, made General Merritt, then director of West Point, say that the qualities demonstrated by the young Pershing promised him a great career as an officer.
Despite this, John Pershing still did not see his future in the army.
Military Career
Indian campaigns
John Pershing left West Point with the rank of second lieutenant in the US Army. He was assigned to Troop L of the 6th Cavalry at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, under the command of General Nelson Miles. He is then campaigning against the Apache Indian chief Geronimo. Pershing stayed there for four years. He took part in the battles of Santiago and San Juan Hill and was cited on July 1, 1898 in the Silver Star Medal.
After being transferred in 1887 to Fort Stanton, where Pershing continued to participate in the various campaigns, the 6th Cavalry was sent to Rapid City (South Dakota). She arrived there on December 9, 1890 and during the ensuing winter had to face the last major uprisings of the Sioux Indians (Wounded Knee massacre).
After the Indian campaigns, Lieutenant Pershing was sent, on September 15, 1891, to the University of Nebraska as an instructor in military tactics.
On October 1, 1895, Pershing was ordered to join his regiment at Fort Assiniboine, Montana, and was commissioned a lieutenant in the 10th Cavalry.
June 1897, John Pershing was sent as an instructor to West Point, where his popularity rating among the cadets was at its lowest because of the too strict aspect of his teaching. He left his teaching post in 1898. He joined his regiment in Tampa, where he worked in the administration of the Philippines and Puerto Rico. He was appointed to the rank of major in August of the same year.
Pacific Campaigns
On March 10, 1899, Pershing was placed in charge of a new division created by the War Department to manage the new island possessions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.
On August 17, 1899, Pershing was sent to Manila (Philippines) to pacify the islands of Mindanao and Jolo. These regions, historically Spanish colonies, had never been able to be pacified by the Europeans who had always been confronted with the Moro warriors. After American troops drove the Spaniards out, the Moros continued to fight their "liberators".
Pershing earned his captain's stripes and began to learn the Moro language so he could better converse with his opponents. He took command of Fort Padapatan located on Lake Lanao (Philippines) and attempted a diplomatic approach to the problem. After a failure of the talks, Pershing launched his troops against the Moro and took full control of the Lake Lanao area on September 28, 1901. The organization and conduct of the expeditions against the Moro insurgencies were noticed and appreciated in Washington.
Back to Washington
Captain Pershing was recalled to Washington in June 1903. President Theodore Roosevelt honored him by mentioning his record in a speech to Congress. His return is also marked by his meeting with Helen Warren, daughter of Senator Francis E. Warren of Wyoming. Falling in love immediately, they were married on January 26, 1905 in front of prestigious guests, including the Roosevelt spouses.
Military observer in Tokyo
After his marriage the young captain was assigned to the United States Embassy in Tokyo as a military attaché. Japan was then at war with Russia over a dispute over Manchuria's zone of influence. Pershing accompanied, as an observer, the army of General Kuroki during its victorious march on Manchuria. During this Japanese experience, Pershing was decorated by the very hands of the Mikado of the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
New return to Washington
Pershing returned home in 1906 and his first child, Helen Elizabeth, was born. This experience in Japan had allowed the captain to meet many other European military observers, colonels or general officers when he, now over 40, was still only a captain. Until now, the appointment to the rank of general which Pershing had requested and which President Roosevelt, in his address to Congress three years earlier, had expressed the wish to see him granted, had only been obtained under the seniority. Granting this rank to Captain Pershing, even with the service record he had had in the Philippines, bothered many officers.
On September 15, 1906, President Roosevelt sent the Senate his decision to appoint Captain Pershing to the rank of brigadier general. 862 senior officers (lieutenants, majors and colonels) were then awaiting the same title. A real clap of thunder shook the military institutions. Critics abound and there are rumors about the privileged status occupied by Pershing, son-in-law of Senator Francis E. Warren, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs.
Responding to these criticisms, Roosevelt declared that “to promote a man because he married the daughter of a senator would be an infamy, to refuse this promotion for the same reason would also be an infamy. »
Philippines
After his promotion, General Pershing asked to be assigned to the Philippines. He obtained command of Fort McKinley, near Manila. On March 24, 1908, Anne was born, the second child of the Pershing couple.
The fall of 1908 seemed to herald an imminent war in the Balkans. Pershing was asked to go to Paris and, in case war broke out, to act as a military observer. The Pershings settled in Paris for two months and then returned to the United States as the situation in the Balkans calmed down.
During his absence, the situation with the Moro of Mindanao and in the Sulu islands had again become turbulent. The governor of the Philippines, Smith, demanded the emergency return of General Pershing, but the latter was suffering from complications resulting from malaria.
On June 24, 1909, Pershing's only son, Francis Warren, was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In October of that same year, General Pershing was cured of his illness. He was able to return to the Philippines to take over the province of Moro, as military governor. The Moros were disarmed gently when possible, and by force when necessary. Pershing once again restores order and calm in the region.
Mexico
The fourth and last child, Mary Margaret, was born on May 20, 1912. In 1913, General Huerta betrayed Mexican President Madero and took power. The United States refused to recognize the new government and diplomatic relations quickly fell apart. In the event of a conflict, General Pershing was ordered to join the 8th Brigade in San Francisco.
While Pershing and the 8th Brigade were operating on the Mexican border, tragedy struck:on August 27, 1915, a fire destroyed General Pershing's home. His wife and three daughters died in the accident. Only his son, Warren, survived. After the burials at Cheyenne, Pershing returned to his fort with his son Warren and sister Mae to resume his command. Working hard, he managed to regain courage and serenity.
After Huerta took power, an uprising took place partly under the orders of Pancho Villa. The latter turned out to be the author of murders that killed eight American soldiers. President Wilson could not accept it. He asked Pershing to mount a punitive expedition to capture Villa. The Mexican government in Carranza denied American troops permission to use the railroad tracks. Pershing led 10,000 men into Mexican territory, despite insufficient logistical preparation.
The AEF in France
Despite all efforts, Villa was not captured. At the beginning of 1917, the expedition was stopped. At the same time, events were changing. Pershing was promoted to the rank of major general and the United States declared war on April 6, 1917 against the German Empire of William II.
The American regular army did not exist to speak of. It had only about 250,000 men. Worse, General Frederick Funston, commander of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force), died on February 19, 1917. There was an urgent need to designate a new command and to initiate a structuring of the army just as quickly.
Four weeks after the United States entered the war, Pershing received a telegram from his father-in-law, Senator Warren, asking him how he spoke French. John replied that he spoke it fluently. A few days later he received a letter from the senator. He informed him that the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, had consulted him about the general who should be sent to France. A new telegram from Major General Hugh L. Scott summoned Pershing to Washington where Pershing learned of his appointment to command the AEF.
Once again, this decision caused great animosity in the army. Pershing was not, a priori, part of the list of generals predestined for this position, as were theoretically more experienced generals such as James Franklin Bell, Thomas H. Barry, Hugh Lenox Scott, Tasker Howard Bliss or Leonard Wood. .
Full freedom had been given to Pershing for the conduct of American troops on French soil. The only constraint mentioned by President Wilson was that the United States should retain complete freedom of action over its men and above all not put itself in a position of dependence vis-à-vis the Allies. General Pershing and a few men sailed secretly from New York on May 28, 1917, and arrived in Liverpool on June 8. Pershing was received by King George V at Buckingham.
A first contingent of the AEF, which now numbered around 1,500,000 men, arrived in France and received a standing ovation from the French people. The great difficulty for Pershing was to compose between the total lack of preparation of an army still in the embryonic state and the significant pressure from France and Great Britain, which were not waiting for an operational American army as such, but rather of troops.
For months, Pershing had to struggle with the French and the British to solve simple problems of supply depots, buildings or telephone lines so that the first American troops could finally begin to arrive in France. The American First Division was trained by France. The latter thought that these numbers could be incorporated into their troops. This was not at all in the intentions of Pershing, who strongly opposed this idea. Pershing obtained that the United States be associated with the Supreme Command, which then formed France and Great Britain.
This controversy came to a halt in March 1918. A German counter-attack seriously endangered the Allied front line and even risked causing their defeat. Pershing, noting all the danger of the situation, took the decision to place the American troops under the responsibility of the supreme commander of the allied forces, Marshal Foch. Winston Churchill commented that this decision was commensurate with the gravity of the situation and that it simply repelled Ludendorff's offensive.
Saint-Mihiel
Later, in July, when American divisions were helping to push back the German forces, Foch told Pershing that the time had come to bring together all of his forces, currently scattered among the French and English armies, to form an independent army under his own command. Preparations then began to prepare for the first American offensive. This was to take place in September with the aim of reducing the Saint-Mihiel salient (Meuse).
As planned, on September 12, 1918, Pershing, at the head of 300,000 AEF men and supported by 110,000 Frenchmen, launched the offensive. He won the battle of the Saint-Mihiel salient on September 16. Planned and executed to perfection, this episode marked the first military victory for the US Army in a totally US-led operation.
Argonne
Immediately after Saint-Mihiel, 400,000 men had to join the Argonne to take part in an offensive programmed by Foch for September 26. The leading role once again fell to Pershing's American troops.
This battle was the most important for the troops of the AEF. 345 tanks and 480 American planes took part in the offensive led by Pershing. The progress of the allies was very difficult and extremely slow, to the point that it was stopped on September 30 to resume on October 4. The Germans resisted until the 4th before undertaking a retreat.
The allies had advanced 32 km when the armistice was signed on November 11 in Compiègne.
Return to the United States
After the armistice, Pershing continued his project of structuring the army. In 1919, Congress awarded him the title of General of the Armies of the United States. He remains to this day the highest-ranking officer who has ever served in the United States Army. His only predecessor at this rank is Washington, who obtained it posthumously.
He was offered to run for president but Pershing refused the offer:he was only interested in the army. In 1924, aged 64, he retired from active service. Held in esteem by his colleagues, Pershing, despite his retirement, continued to be consulted on military matters.
In 1944, when he was twilight in his life, General Pershing remained the highest ranking officer in the army. The five-star Army General title, created by Congress in December 1944 and bestowed upon Generals George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Henry Arnold, remained lower than Pershing's.
John J. Pershing died on July 15, 1948 at Walter Hospital in Washington DC. He rests in Arlington National Cemetery.
After his death
A battle tank, the M26 Pershing, and a ballistic missile, the Pershing MGM-31, have been named by the US military in his honor.