Fox Conner
Fox Conner (born November 2, 1874 in Slate Springs , Calhoun County , Mississippi , † October 13, 1951 in Washington, DC ) was an American officer in the United States Army , most recently major general , who served as chief of operations during the First World War served in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and is best known today as mentor Dwight D. Eisenhower .
Life
Conner was born to a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War who lost his sight in the Battle of Shiloh . He received his education at a poor village school. A maternal uncle with ties to MP Hernando Money enabled him to enter the West Point Military Academy in 1894 , where one of his instructors was John J. Pershing . He graduated in 1898 as 17th in a class of 51 students and was one of only three later generals to emerge from that class. Assigned to the 6th Field Artillery Regiment , Conner served in Rhode Island for a few months before being transferred to Cuba as part of the occupation forces after the Spanish-American War . Here he served on General Fitzhugh Lee's staff in Havana until August 1900 . In Cuba he met his future wife Virginia Brandreth.
On his return to the United States, he served temporarily in the Washington Barracks , DC, and in 1901 became captain chief of a Coast Artillery company in Fort Hamilton , New York. From 1905 to 1906 he attended the US Army Staff College at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas, and was then an adjutant at Fort Riley . In 1907 he was assigned to the General Staff and attended Army War College . From October 1911 he was attached to the French 22nd Artillery Regiment in Versailles for a year and improved his knowledge of the French language. Back in the United States, he served in Fort Riley, Laredo and Fort Sill , Oklahoma, where he taught at the Artillery School until 1916. After the outbreak of the First World War, he was temporarily used as an observer in the French army. Promoted to major , Conner then worked in the Washington office of the Army Inspector General until May 1917.
After the USA entered the war, General Pershing selected him as a member of his staff. He was assigned to the Operations Department and was from November 1917 in the temporary rank of Colonel Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations (G-3) of the AEF. Among his subordinates at the time was George C. Marshall . As the head of the operations department of the AEF, Conner was instrumental in the planning of all major operations of the AEF during the First World War. In August 1917 he was promoted to temporary Brigadier General .
Back in the United States, Conner served on the General Staff and taught at Army War College until he was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone in 1921 . He was in command of a brigade until 1924 and asked the then Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he had met in 1920, to be his assistant. He also sponsored Eisenhower's career in later years and secured him admission to Army Staff College. Eisenhower later described him as the "outstanding soldier of my time" and a father figure.
From 1924 to 1926 Conner served as Acting Chief of Staff, G-4 (responsible for logistics) on the General Staff in Washington and in 1925 was promoted to the then highest peace rank of Major General. From March 1926 he served for one year as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army under Generals John L. Hines and Charles P. Summerall . In May 1927 he took over the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Hamilton for a few months before he was transferred to Honolulu in early 1928 as commander of the Hawaiian Department . He stayed in this post until August 1930. He was retired General Pershing's favorite in 1930 as the new Chief of Staff of the Army , but the younger Douglas MacArthur was preferred to him. From 1930 until his retirement in 1938, Conner was then in command of the I Corps Area , headquartered in Boston , Massachusetts. From 1936 he was also Commander in Chief of the First Army .
Conner died in 1951 at the age of 76 in the Walter Reed Military Hospital . His ashes were scattered in Brandreth Park, New York. A cenotaph in Dale Cemetery in Ossining, New York, commemorates him.
literature
- James J. Cooke: Pershing and His Generals: Command and Staff in the AEF. Praeger, 1997.
- George Washington Cullum etc. (Ed.): Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, since its establishment in 1802. 1891 ff.
- Steven Rabalais: General Fox Conner: Pershing's Chief of Operations and Eisenhower's Mentor. Casemate, 2016, ISBN 978-1-61200-397-9 .
Web links
- Fox Conner in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Lt. General Sidney B. Berry, US Army (Ret.): Noteworthy Mississippian of World War I Era: Major General Fox Conner
- Russ Stayanoff: Major General Fox Conner: Soldier, Mentor, Enigma, Operations Chief (G-3) of the AEF on worldwar1.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Conner, Fox |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Connor, Fox (misspelling) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American major general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 2, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Slate Springs , Calhoun County , Mississippi |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 13, 1951 |
| Place of death | Washington, DC |