The Yanks Are Coming! (16 page)

Pershing was insistent that the American Expeditionary Force remain an independent American command, entire and whole, and not be amalgamated piecemeal into the British and French armies. President Wilson's orders to Pershing, via Newton Baker, stated,

           
In military operations against the Imperial German Government you are directed to cooperate with the forces of other countries employed against that enemy; but in doing so the underlying idea must be kept in view that the forces of the United States are a separate and distinct component of the combined forces, the identity of which must be preserved. This fundamental rule is subject to such minor exceptions in particular circumstances as your judgment may approve. . . . You will exercise full discretion in determining the manner of cooperation.
⁶

Just as Field Marshal Haig and Marshal Joffre seemed to epitomize their respective nationalities, Pershing fit the British and French image of what an American officer should be: a fit, confident, firm-jawed, no-nonsense man of military business. Even if his opponents had been heretofore limited to Indians and banditos, Moros and Spaniards, behind him lay the immense promise of America's manpower—if only it could be mobilized, trained, and brought to bear on the Western Front in time.

Pershing was confident, but a realist too. France's armies were demoralized and, as General Pétain warned him, incapable of mounting large offensives. With France now at the breaking point, the
Italians stymied in the South, the British pinned down everywhere from the Middle East to the Western Front, and Russia in chaos since the abdication of the Czar, the doughboys became the repository of the Allies' hopes.

Pershing was convinced that if his troops were to achieve what was expected of them, they needed to be trained in more than the essentials of trench warfare (which he thought defeatist). He wanted emphasis put on marksmanship and bayonet drill, open warfare, a war of maneuver such as British and French commanders might find hopelessly naïve, given the machine guns, artillery, and entrenchments that kept a deadly watch over the Western Front. But Pershing would be vindicated by the spirit that Americans brought to battle, where units cut up and separated in the Ardennes or Belleau Wood relied on rifle power backed with grenades and artillery. He also wanted his men to be trained behind the lines, not in the field of battle. Pershing was jealous of his soldiers' lives and determined, just as he had been in the Philippines, not to waste them.

Aside from trench raids and scuffles, it was more than a year from Pershing's appointment as commander of the American Expeditionary Force to its first major battle, at Cantigny. But once committed, Pershing expected his men to show their tenacity. At Cantigny they did, taking and holding their position at the cost of more than a thousand casualties. A small theater of war, perhaps, but big enough for those who were in it, and big enough for Pershing to prove that the Americans could hold a position that the French had not. In June 1918, the Americans proved their mettle again—this time at Belleau Wood. It was a small patch of hell that cost the Marines five thousand casualties, but once again the Americans showed an offensive spirit that had long abandoned the French and that impressed the Germans. Pershing, visiting a hospital after the battle, received an apology from a wounded
Marine for not saluting. His right arm was gone. Pershing replied, “It is I who should salute you.”
⁷
In July, Pershing's men turned back the German assault at Château-Thierry, with the 3rd Division earning its distinction as “the Rock of the Marne.”

ON TO VICTORY

With Ludendorff's offensives spent, Pershing was for going on the attack. The American Expeditionary Force could now bring, in rough terms, as many fighting men to the Western Front as the British or the French. They were much less experienced, but their
esprit de corp
s was unmatched; indeed, their only real match were the elite units of the German army. Despite the machinations of Marshal Foch, who wanted to subordinate the AEF to the French, Pershing stubbornly insisted on—and with the help of General Pétain succeeded in—keeping his army intact to reduce Saint-Mihiel, which the Americans did before rapidly swinging into action for the final great push in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. If there was any doubt about the AEF's fighting prowess, about its crucial role in ensuring an Allied victory, it was answered here.
⁸
As Pershing later wrote of his audacious plan to defeat the Germans at Saint-Mihiel and then pivot into the giant Meuse-Argonne Offensive, “When viewed as a whole, it is believed that history gives no parallel of such an undertaking with so large an army. . . . It was only my absolute faith in the energy and resourcefulness of our officers of both staff and line and the resolute and aggressive courage of our soldiers that permitted me to accept such a prodigious” task.
⁹
It was Pershing who kept them pressing forward.

It was Pershing too who pressed for an armistice on the basis of unconditional surrender—until he was told by Colonel House that peace terms were a political matter. In Pershing's own view, the
Germans had to be convinced they were utterly beaten. He foresaw that anything short of unconditional surrender would leave the impression among some in Germany that they had not lost the war, only the peace; and revanchist sentiment, like that which had waxed in France after the Franco-Prussian War, would wax in Germany. He might have been right about that—circumstances are hard to judge in retrospect—but when he was told to keep his nose out of the political settlement, he did. In the meantime, he helped win the war.

Pershing did, however, have a flicker of political ambition; on his return stateside he let it be known that he might consider a presidential run in 1920. When it became clear that this was a quixotic hope, he swiftly withdrew. Congress, meanwhile, rewarded him with the highest rank ever given to a military officer, General of the Armies. The only other American general to hold that rank is George Washington, who achieved the distinction posthumously in 1976. In 1921, Pershing took up his last post, as the Army's chief of staff. He tried—and largely failed—to save the Army from Congress's swingeing budget cuts. But he also tried—and largely succeeded—in maintaining the morale of the officer corps, improving their training and education, and creating a general staff ready for any military challenge. He retired in 1924.

Pershing's days as chief of staff, dismantling the Army he had created, had been unhappy. His nights were no happier; he disliked Washington social life. In retirement, he turned to writing his memoirs (another noisome task, though they won a Pulitzer Prize); leading the American Battle Monuments Commission
¹⁰
(less bothersome, in part because he was aided by a highly efficient major named Dwight David Eisenhower); and making the argument for military preparedness. The Second World War did not surprise him. He had no direct role in the war (at that point he was living in the Walter Reed Army Hospital) but played an indirect role through the generals he had helped train,
especially George Marshall (whom he admired), George S. Patton (whom he liked), and Douglas MacArthur (whom he tolerated)—and the Moros, who still remembered him and killed Japanese on his behalf. He died in 1948. Of few generals can it be said that they never lost a battle. It can be said of Pershing.

CHAPTER NINE

PEYTON C. MARCH (1864–1955)

I
f not exactly a child prodigy, Peyton C. March, who became chief of staff of the Army during the Great War, passed the entrance examination into Lafayette College when he was not quite sixteen. A lanky scholar-athlete, tall, thin, and studious, his youth didn't stop him from becoming class president, captain of the baseball team, a starter on the football team, a record-setting member of the track team (scoring the school's best time in the half mile), and graduating with honors in classics. His father was a distinguished, easygoing, well-liked professor at the school. Peyton was impressed by his father, but did not follow in his footsteps. While many Lafayette graduates went on to advanced degrees, Peyton wanted to be a soldier. His
father approved, and in due course Peyton entered the Military Academy at West Point. Lafayette had provided Peyton March with a fine education, but West Point was even more rigorous. March, dedicated to his studies, finished tenth in his class—fewer than half of whom made it to graduation. Two years ahead of him was cadet president of the class of 1886, John J. Pershing.

March's first posting after graduation was with the 3rd Artillery Regiment in Washington, DC. The 3rd Artillery's name was perhaps a slight misnomer. The unit's duties involved very little artillery practice—they were ceremonial troops in the nation's capital—and to fill the time March studied French and other topics suitable for an officer and a gentleman. Like Pershing, he had little interest in boozing or card playing; but unlike Pershing he married while still in his twenties (age twenty-six), to a captain's daughter.

In 1894 he was sent to the 5th Artillery Regiment in San Francisco, where, as usual, he was judged “zealous, capable, and efficient in the discharge of duty.”
¹
Not quite two years later, he was sent on a nearly two-year course at the Artillery School at Fort Monroe, where the curriculum covered everything from ballistics to photography. If nothing else, American officers were kept broadly educated, because truth be told, with Indians no longer on the warpath, there was not that much for them to do.

“WARLIKE SKILL AND GOOD JUDGMENT”

That changed in April 1898 when Spain declared war on the United States—and for March it changed in dramatic style. He was given twenty-four hours to decide whether he would accept command of a volunteer light artillery unit donated—that is, underwritten—by John Jacob Astor. March replied, “I don't want twenty-four
seconds . . . I accept the detail at once.”
²
It was up to March to assemble the unit from scratch. He bought uniforms from a private firm in New York, imported guns from France, and recruited a strong contingent of collegians admixed with mule drivers, policemen, a couple of West Pointers, and adventurers who had soldiered in the British Empire. He gave them a crash course in artillery work, transported them to San Francisco, and then embarked with them for the Philippines. The battery saw action at the invasion of Manila, where General Arthur MacArthur asked for a volunteer to lead a charge against the Spanish. March sprang up, pistol in hand, shouting out, “Come on, men!” and sprinted directly into Spanish rifle fire, which finally forced March and his men to take cover. He nevertheless reported on the Spanish dispositions to MacArthur, rolled his artillery into position to blast the enemy, and then volunteered to lead a reconnaissance to judge the effect—which was that the Spanish had fled. MacArthur wrote, “The brilliant manner in which Lieutenant March accepted and discharged the responsible and dangerous duties of the day . . . was an exceptional display of warlike skill and good judgment, indicating the existence of many of the best qualifications for high command in battle.”
³
He recommended March for a Medal of Honor, but it was denied. In fact, on 12 August, the day before the Astor artillery went into combat, President McKinley had ordered an end to the fighting, though the word had not reached the Philippines. When it did, the Astor artillery took part in four months' worth of occupation duties before returning home in December.

In February, a new war broke out between the United States and the Filipino rebels. MacArthur offered March a job as a staff officer. The War Department approved, and by May 1899 March was back in the Philippines doing a bit of everything MacArthur needed done, including leading men in combat. In July, he was assigned to the 33rd
Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He led it into action against Filipino
insurrectos
and captured rebel commander Emilio Aguinaldo's chief of staff. Before he left the Philippines in 1901, March had, in addition, served as military governor of two provinces and, in Manila, overseen the treatment of captured
insurrectos
. His colonial experience was thus usefully varied—from staff officer to judge advocate to combat officer to military governor—and he earned high marks from General MacArthur as one of the outstanding officers of the war.

March returned to take command of an artillery battery at Fort Riley, Kansas. In 1903, he was selected to join the new General Staff Corps created by Secretary of War Elihu Root, an appointment that marked him as an officer of special promise. In 1904, he served as a military observer of the Russo-Japanese War—an experience he relished, but that was marked with tragedy. During the assignment he received news that his wife had died. She had borne him six children, whom he now raised with the help of a cousin and later his sister.

Returning home, he briefed President Theodore Roosevelt on the war. March had seen that while Japanese government officials maintained the diplomatic niceties, in the field Japanese soldiers had watched him beady-eyed and even chanted, “Down with the Americans!” March was convinced, as he told students at the Army War College, that “if Japan wins this war, nothing less than predominance in the Pacific will satisfy her. The slightest study of the strategic weakness of our situation in the Philippines should show us that possibly the time may come when we shall have to play a hand ourselves.”
⁴

He resumed his duties at the War Department until 1907, when, as per his wishes, he returned to Fort Riley as commander of a battalion of field artillery. Though he was a terrific administrator and
paper pusher, March enjoyed service in the field, and he stayed at Fort Riley until April 1911, after which he was recalled to administrative duties. In 1913, he was assigned to the office of the adjutant general in Washington, DC, where he supervised Army recruiting.