[John Joseph]. American soldier, born near Laclede, MO, on the 13th of September 1860. He studied at the Kirksville (MO) Normal School (B.A. 1880); graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1886; was commissioned second-lieutenant and immediately assigned to the 6th Cavalry in a campaign against the Apaches in Arizona. His conduct won the praise of General Nelson A. Miles, and in 1890, during an uprising of the Sioux, he was sent to Dakota, in charge of the Indian scouts. In 1891 he was appointed military instructor at the university of Nebraska, remaining there four years. He entered the law school and received the degree of LL.B. in 1893, having been made first-lieutenant the preceding year. In 1897 he was appointed instructor in tactics at the U.S. Military Academy, but on the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (1898) asked to be assigned to active duty. He served in Cuba through the Santiago campaign, was appointed chief of ordnance with the rank of major of volunteers, and in June 1899 assistant adjutant-general. He organized in Cuba the Bureau of Insular Affairs of which he was head for several months. In November 1899 he was sent to the Philippines as adjutant-general of the Department of Mindanao, and in 1901 was honourably discharged from volunteer service. The same year he was made captain in the regular army and later conducted a campaign against the Moros, which he completed with success in 1903. The same year he returned to America and was appointed a member of the General Staff. In 1905 he went to Japan as military attaché to the American embassy, and during the Russo-Japanese War spent several months as military observer with the Japanese army in Manchuria. As a reward for his success in the Philippines President Roosevelt in 1906 finally secured his promotion from captain to brigadier-general, passing htm over 862 senior officers. Soon after he returned to the Philippines as commander of the Department of Mindanao and governor of the Moro Province. Here again he was engaged in quelling the insubordinate Moros until his decisive victory at Bagsag June 12, 1913. He was then placed in command of the 8th Brigade at San Francisco. While he was temporarily absent in 1915 on duty at the Mexican border his wife and three young daughters lost their lives in a disastrous fire, but his son was rescued. In March 1916 he was put in command of the punitive expedition into Mexico against Francisco Villa, and the same year was made major-general. After the death of Maj.-Gen. Funston in 1917 he succeeded him as commander of all the American troops on the Mexican border. This position he held until America’s entrance into the World War, and was then chosen to command the A.E.F. in Europe. With his staff he reached England June 9, 1917, and four days later landed in France to prepare for the coming of the American troops. In October 1917 he was made general, U.S.A. In some quarters it was felt that as the American detachments arrived they should be hastily trained and then distributed among the Allied forces already in the field, but from the start General Pershing insisted upon the integrity of the American army, though willing in cases of emergency to place detached American units in the different Allied armies. He was convinced that the presence of an independent American army would be a serious blow to German moral. In December 1917 he forbade American soldiers the use of alcoholic drinks, excepting light wines and beer, allowing these only in deference to French customs. As Commander-in-Chief of the A.E.F. he planned the American attack at the Marne salient in 1918, as well as American operations at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne. His management of the A.E.F. is clearly described in his succinct Final Report (less than 100 pages), issued by the Government Printing Office, Washington, December 1919. His nomination by President Wilson to the permanent rank of general was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate September 1, 1919, a grade held previously by only four Americans—Washington, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan. In 1921 he was appointed Chief-of-Staff. By King George V. he was given the decoration of G.C.B.
