Hugh L. Scott

Hugh L. Scott (1914)

Hugh Lenox Scott (born September 22, 1853 in Danville , Kentucky , † April 30, 1934 in Washington, DC ) was an American major general and Chief of Staff of the Army from 1914 to September 22, 1917 .

biography

Scott grew up in Princeton and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point , graduating in 1876. After that, he was mainly with the 7th US Cavalry in the American Indian Wars for 20 years . He joined the cavalry after the Battle of Little Bighorn , interviewed participants and was busy digging graves on the battlefield. Over time, he became an expert on Native American languages ​​and culture (for example, he conducted research on Native American sign language for the Smithsonian Institution in 1897 and accompanied an expedition of the United States Geological Survey in 1884 ). He fought against Sioux , Nez Percé and Cheyenne and suppressed the ghost dance movement in the reservations in 1891/92 , where he was also involved in Wounded Knee . From 1892 to 1897 he commanded the last Indian unit in the US Army ( Troop L in the 7th Cavalry from Indians of the Kiowa , Comanche and Apaches ), and he was responsible for guarding Geronimo in Fort Sill ( Oklahoma ). In 1895 he became a captain . From 1898 to 1902 he took part in the Spanish-American War and was Adjutant-General with the rank of major and from 1899 Lieutenant Colonel of the Volunteers in Havana , Cuba , where he served as interim governor during the handover to the Cubans.

In 1903 he was back in the US Army as a major and became military governor of the Sulu Archipelago . From 1906 to 1910 he was Superintendent at West Point with the temporary rank of Colonel . In 1911 he became lieutenant colonel and shortly thereafter colonel again and he commanded the 3rd US Cavalry Regiment in Texas , where he was again involved in Indian affairs. In March 1913, he was Brigadier General (Brigadier-General) and he commanded the 2nd Cavalry Brigade in the American Southwest, where he through diplomatic skills Navajo -Unruhen in Arizona solved. From 1914 to 1917 he was Chief of Staff of the US Army. Here he initially took care of Indians and border disputes with Mexico ; but his tenure also included the first months of the United States' entry into the First World War (April 1917) and he was already involved in preparations for entering the war in 1916, advocating the drafting of conscripts . In April 1915 he was promoted to major general. In September 1917, upon reaching normal retirement age, he retired as chief of staff, but remained on active duty as commander of the 78th division at Camp Dix and Camp Dix, New Jersey, and inspected the front line in France . After his final retirement in the Army in 1919, he served on the Board of Indian Commissioners from 1919 to 1929 and on the New Jersey State Highway Commission from 1923 to 1933 .

Fonts

• Some Memories of a soldier, 1928

Hugh L. Scott

Web links

Commons : Hugh L. Scott  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Biography at Arlington National Cemetery
• Scott Papers
• Biography at the US Army Center of Military History