Generals of the Army

by James H. Willbanks

  Because of the glacial rate of promotion in the peacetime Army, many students were middle-aged by the time they attended. Of the 258 graduates in the class of 1925, almost 90 percent held the rank of major, and the class averaged over forty years of age. During the 1930s, many students were only captains.11

  Between the two world wars, Leavenworth graduated a total of 3,677 officers, of whom 2,602 completed the one-year course and 1,075 attended for two years. Most of these graduates were U.S. Army officers of the Infantry, Cavalry, or Field or Coast Artillery. Strict quotas limited the numbers of students from other branches, such as Engineers, Signal Corps, Air Corps, and Quartermaster. Still, this Leavenworth experience provided some leavening throughout the interwar Army. In addition, forty-five Marines and eighteen foreign officers attended, but the classes were far more homogeneous than those of the current era.12 After the last peacetime class graduated on an accelerated schedule in February 1940, the post shifted to shorter wartime courses, often three months in length, to produce additional temporary staff officers for wartime duty or to train division headquarters staffs as a group.

  The large interwar classes did more than provide a quantity of key personnel for the huge Army of World War II. They also ensured that these graduates had a common vocabulary and approach to problems, and in many instances actually had known each other as students even when they came from disparate branches of the service. These common approaches and personal relationships were essential when the tiny interwar officer corps—fewer than 15,000 men, including Air Corps officers, in 1939—had to lead a wartime ground force of 8.5 million men. Thus, the class of 1934 included the future head of the Selective Service, Lewis B. Hershey, as well as two men who went on to be division commanders and three who later commanded corps in combat. Of the thirty-four U.S. corps commanders during the war, only one had not attended Leavenworth. Thirty-two were graduates of the regular one- or two-year courses, and Raymond McClain, the only National Guard officer to command a corps during World War II, attended the three-month short course in 1938.13

  World War II mobilization class for staff officers. (U.S. Army, courtesy of the Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas)

  For all its shortcomings, the interwar Command and General Staff School provided the essential glue of concepts and staff procedures that held the U.S. Army and Army Air Force together during the massive expansion that began in 1940 and accelerated after the Pearl Harbor attack. Even more than in the previous world conflict, the Leavenworth schools were an essential component of victory, playing a key role in the education of many of the senior leaders like Generals Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Arnold, and Bradley, who would guide the nation’s armed forces to victory.

  Notes

  1. Timothy Nenninger, The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army: Education, Professionalism, and the Officer Corps of the United States Army, 1881–1918 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978), 21–24; Todd R. Brereton, Educating the U.S. Army: Arthur L. Wagner and Reform, 1875–1905 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 12–14; Boyd L. Dastrup, The U.S. Army Command and General Staff College: A Centennial History (Manhattan, Kans.: Sunflower University Press, 1982), 13–15.

  2. Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army (New York: Macmillan, 1967), 568. Although Congress authorized the Army expansion in 1901, it took seven more years to implement this growth completely.

  3. Philip C. Jessup, Elihu Root, vol. 1, 1845–1909 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1938), 48–49, 215–76.

  4. William H. Carter, “Personal Narrative of the General Staff System of the American Army,” U.S. Senate publication (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924), esp. 11–14.

  5. Nenninger, The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army, 68–79, 122–24.

  6. Weigley, History of the United States Army, 568.

  7. This assessment of the role of Leavenworth graduates in the American Expeditionary Forces is based on Nenninger, The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army, 135–42, and Peter J. Schifferle, America’s School for War: Fort Leavenworth, Officer Education, and Victory in World War II (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010), esp. 9–17.

  8. This discussion of the four interwar periods at CGSS is based on Philip C. Cockrell, “Brown Shoes and Mortar Boards: U.S. Army Officer Professional Education at the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1919–1940” (Ph.D. diss., University of South Carolina, 1991), 75–78.

  9. This summary of the curriculum comes from ibid., 80–90, Schifferle, America’s School for War, esp. 68–78, and Timothy Nenninger, “Leavenworth and Its Critics: The U.S. Army Command and General Staff School, 1920–1940,” Journal of Military History 58.2 (April 1994): 199–231.

  10. Gary C. Cox, Beyond the Battle Line: U.S. Air Attack Theory and Doctrine, 1919–1941 (Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.: U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Aerospace Studies, 1996).

  11. Schifferle, America’s School for War, 124–25.

  12. Nenninger, “Leavenworth and Its Critics,” 201.

  13. The class of 1934 is described in Schifferle, America’s School for War, 132–33; Charles H. Gerhardt commanded the 29th Division and Eugene M. Landrum commanded the 90th. The three corps commanders in the class were J. Lawton Collins (VII Corps), Frank M. Milburn (XII Corps), and Ernest N. Harmon (XXII Corps). For higher commanders who attended Leavenworth, see Robert H. Berlin, U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders: A Composite Biography (Fort Leavenworth, Kans.: Combat Studies Institute, 1989).

  References

  Berlin, Robert H. U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders: A Composite Biography (Fort Leavenworth, Kans.: Combat Studies Institute, 1989.

  Cockrell, Philip C. “Brown Shoes and Mortar Boards: U.S. Army Officer Professional Education at the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1919–1940.” Ph.D. diss., University of South Carolina, 1991.

  Dastrup, Boyd L. The U.S. Army Command and General Staff College: A Centennial History. Manhattan, Kans.: Sunflower University Press, 1982.

  Jessup, Philip C. Elihu Root, vol. 1, 1845–1909. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1938.

  Nenninger, Timothy. “Leavenworth and Its Critics: The U.S. Army Command and General Staff School, 1920–1940,” Journal of Military History 58.2 (April 1994): 199–231.

  ———. The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army: Education, Professionalism, and the Officer Corps of the United States Army, 1881–1918. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978.

  Schifferle, Peter J. America’s School for War: Fort Leavenworth, Officer Education, and Victory in World War II. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010.

  2

  George Catlett Marshall

  Christopher R. Gabel

  Among those individuals who have risen to the top of the military profession, George C. Marshall stands out as one of the most remarkable. As the leader of the U.S. Army and Army Air Forces in World War II, a senior military adviser to the president, and the chief American representative in the Allied coalition, he was perhaps the most powerful and influential soldier in American history. After the war Marshall stepped directly from military service into the highest echelons of government, serving as both secretary of State and secretary of Defense. The European Recovery Program that bore his name had an effect on global affairs equivalent to that of his military accomplishments. Marshall was the embodiment of the model professional officer and servant of the state.

  Born on December 31, 1880, Marshall was the son of Laura Bradford Marshall and George Catlett Marshall Sr. Both his parents were from Kentucky, where the Bradfords and the Marshalls were families of prominence, tracing their roots back to the aristocracy of old Virginia. Chief Justice John Marshall was a distant relative. George Jr. was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on the western slopes of the Allegheny Mountains, where his father had established residence in pursuit of business interests. George was the youngest of four children—a brother, William, had died in infancy, and a brother, Stuart
, and sister, Marie, were five and four years older than George, respectively. Owing perhaps to the greater age of his siblings and to his father’s austere, reserved character, young George was most closely attached to his vivacious mother, whom he described as having a wonderful sense of humor.

  Affairs in the Marshall household took a turn for the worse when young George was ten years old. His father, an entrepreneur in the coke business, was wiped out in the financial crash of 1890. Although the family was able to subsist without considerable hardship, much of the gentility went out of George’s life. As the family learned to economize, George came to recognize that he could not rely on social status or family tradition—he would have to make his own way in the world and stand on his own merits. Illustrious ancestors were all well and good, but “it was time for somebody to swim for the family again.”1

  Marshall’s hometown environment was wholesome and democratic. The Marshall house was literally the last residence on the edge of town, so that the woods and countryside of rural Pennsylvania were as much a part of George’s childhood as the town itself. George and his friends played in field and stream and dabbled in various youthful business enterprises, most notably horticulture. This spawned a lifelong interest in gardening—in later years, Marshall’s greatest desire was to retire to the seclusion of his garden. In one respect, Uniontown left something to be desired. By his own admission, Marshall’s education was mediocre at best. An indifferent student, young George was embarrassed by his poor academic performance even at the time. Nonetheless, in later years he asserted that every boy in a democracy should attend a public school, if not for the education received, then for the preparation for life acquired by associating with a cross section of society.2

  As he neared maturity, Marshall developed the rather strange ambition to embark on a military career. There was no strong martial tradition in his family. The elder Marshall had served briefly with Union militia forces in Kentucky during the Civil War, but his only noteworthy experience consisted of being captured and paroled by Confederate cavalry raiders. Nor was service in the sleepy constabulary Army of the 1890s much to be desired. Perhaps young George’s military ambitions stemmed from his interest in history, which was one of the few academic endeavors in which he displayed much aptitude. In any event, Marshall’s chances of ever becoming an Army officer appeared to be vanishingly small. To win a commission meant to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Marshall’s mediocre academic record, coupled with the fact that his father was a Democrat in a Republican district, effectively precluded his nomination to the academy.

  Instead, young Marshall elected to attend the Virginia Military Institute, from which his older brother, Stuart, had recently graduated. But even this choice met with familial resistance. He overheard his brother telling their father that if George attended VMI, he would disgrace the family. Understandably, this bit of eavesdropping only stiffened George’s resolve. “It had quite a psychological effect on my career,” he later observed.3

  George C. Marshall in dress blues. (Courtesy of the Virginia Military Institute Archives)

  In September 1897 Marshall arrived at VMI, a gangly, rather awkward, poorly educated boy with a northern accent in one of the bastions of southern heritage. Despite his unlikely prospects, he was determined to succeed. Quickly he discerned the qualities that it would take to excel at VMI, and it is perhaps fortunate that academic performance was not at the top of the list. Instead, the qualities looked for in a cadet were performance in drill, military bearing, obedience, and leadership. With these criteria in mind, Marshall set out to make himself the model cadet. The challenges were considerable. Doubtless he came in for more than his fair share of hazing because of his accent. Shortly after his arrival a hazing episode resulted in an injury that could have been quite serious, yet Marshall kept silent rather than betray his tormenters. Thus he began to earn the grudging respect of his peers. Gradually, the natural shyness and reserve of the boy metamorphosed into the austere, disciplined, and rather distant character of the cadet. Eventually entrusted with leadership positions within the corps of cadets, Marshall excelled, demonstrating that he possessed what his foremost biographer called “the power to command.”4 By acclamation he was selected to the top post of first captain in his senior year.

  Marshall in his VMI senior picture. (Courtesy of the Virginia Military Institute Archives)

  Upon his graduation from VMI in 1901, Marshall accepted the position of commandant at the Danville Military Institute in Virginia. This foray into academia would be short-lived, for Marshall’s old dream of gaining an Army commission had suddenly come within his grasp. While he was a student at VMI the United States had waged a war with Spain and acquired an empire. Almost overnight the sleepy frontier Army had been transformed into an overseas constabulary force, its units posted from the Caribbean to the Philippines. The resultant expansion of the Army led to a sudden demand for officers that the U.S. Military Academy could not meet. Accordingly, in 1901 the War Department administered a competitive exam for non–West Point graduates who desired a commission. Competition simply to be allowed to take the exam was intense. Marshall brought to bear all of the influence that he could muster to gain admission to the exam. His father lobbied intensively among Pennsylvania politicians, while Marshall himself traveled to Washington, D.C., buttonholing any person of influence who might further his cause. He even barged uninvited into the White House, gaining a brief audience with President William McKinley. Marshall won a seat in the exam, which proved to be a trying three-day ordeal. He emerged with one of the top scores, earning perfect ratings in “Physique” and “Moral character and antecedents,” though his grades in academic subjects were rather lower—Marshall was still no scholar.5

  In January 1902 Marshall was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry. A month later he married Elizabeth C. “Lily” Coles, whom he had met in Lexington, Virginia, while at VMI. The nuptials represented a double triumph, for Marshall had not only won the hand of the girl he loved, but also gained a small victory over his older brother—Stuart Marshall had dated Lily when he was a cadet at VMI and George was still in public school.

  In May 1902 Lieutenant Marshall departed for his first assignment—the 30th Infantry Regiment on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines. There Marshall received a thorough and none-too-gentle education in the profession he had chosen for himself. He joined an Army steeped in the traditions of frontier service, thrust into the role of an army of occupation thousands of miles from home. A cholera epidemic swept through town and garrison shortly after his arrival. Once past this crisis, the green lieutenant had to deal with bored soldiers and often uninterested superiors. He earned the respect of his men and began to establish a reputation among his peers. Sent off to a small garrison in the depths of the jungle, Marshall found himself serving as acting company commander and governor of the province for a number of weeks.6 This was the first, and not the last, time Marshall excelled in duties far in excess of his rank.

  In 1903 Marshall returned to the United States with an assignment to Fort Reno, Oklahoma, where he commanded Company G, 30th Infantry. His duties included a mapping expedition across the Southwest, which he later recalled as the most onerous work he ever did. While at Fort Reno he also took advantage of the garrison schools there, which constituted his introduction to formal military education. He later remarked that these schools “didn’t amount to very much.”7 His attitude toward education, however, was about to change dramatically.

  In August 1906 Marshall reported to the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The commandant was Brigadier General Charles B. Hall, who replaced Brigadier General J. Franklin Bell the same month Marshall arrived. The selection process for attendance at the school, at least in Marshall’s case, was far from rigorous—no other officer from his post wanted to go. There existed a large contingent of officers within the Army who disparaged formal education and were particularly critical of
the Leavenworth schools.8 Marshall, however, recognized that in the new Army of the twentieth century, the path to the top ranks of the organization ran through Leavenworth and the Army War College in Washington. Hence, he volunteered to attend the Infantry and Cavalry School even though his previous academic endeavors had been less than stellar. His arrival at Leavenworth in some ways resembled his inauspicious arrival at VMI—many of his classmates were far better prepared than he. Some of them had actually been studying the tactical problems in the Leavenworth curriculum well in advance of their arrival. Some had been coached by past graduates, and many had competed vigorously for the privilege of attending. When one of his new classmates asked Marshall what he thought about a particular tactical problem, Marshall had to confess that he did not even know what a “tactical problem” was.9

  As had been the case at VMI, Marshall quickly discerned what it would take to excel at the Infantry and Cavalry School (soon to be renamed the School of the Line). At VMI it had been discipline, bearing, and leadership. At Leavenworth it was hard studying and outstanding performance in the tactical problems. Competition was intense, for the stakes were selection to attend the second-year Staff College and ultimately to earn a shot at the War College and designation as a General Staff officer. “If you were going to compete you had to be near perfection,” Marshall later observed.10 The work itself was not particularly difficult, but the competition made it so. Although he may not have realized it at the time, the intensity of the competition itself was beneficial, for it forced students to do careful, thorough work under stress and in a limited period. The same qualities would be essential in combat.11