Hunter Liggett

Hunter Liggett

Hunter Liggett (born March 21, 1857 in Reading , Pennsylvania , † December 30, 1935 in San Francisco , California ) was an American Lieutenant General .

Hunter Liggett, a veteran soldier whose first military experience dating back to the days of the Indian Wars, is one of the most American generals of the First World War . He came to France in 1917 as a division commander, then became a corps commander and, as Pershing's successor, Commander in Chief of the American 1st US Army , with whom he distinguished himself very much. After the peace agreement, he took over the 3rd Army of the American occupation army .

Life

Liggett graduated in 1879 graduated from the US Military Academy in West Point , and entered as a Second Lieutenant ( Lieutenant into the 5th Infantry Regiment). He served in the Montana Territory , in the Dakota Territory , in Texas and in Florida and was in June 1884 First Lieutenant ( Lieutenant ).

On October 19, 1894, he went to Fort McPherson , Georgia with the regimental staff . He served there as a post adjutant and on April 25, 1896 became chief of the D Company. In June 1897 he was promoted to captain and in 1898 to major and adjutant general of a volunteer association intended for service in Cuba . The following year he was sent to the Philippines with the 31st Infantry Volunteers .

In June 1901 he retired from the volunteer service and was promoted to major in the regular army in May 1902. In 1907 he was promoted to battalion commander in the 13th Infantry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth and in June 1909 to Lieutenant Colonel ( lieutenant colonel ). From 1909 to 1910 he graduated from the Army War College and was then first its director (1910-1913), then its president (1913-1914). In 1912 he was promoted to colonel and in 1913 to brigadier general. He then took command of the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division in Texas City , Texas.

In 1916 he returned to the Philippines as Commander of the Provisional Infantry Brigade and Commander of Fort William McKinley and, after being promoted to Major General in March - one of a total of seven officers in this rank - became Commander of the Western Department in April 1917 San Francisco . In August 1917 he took over command of the 41st Infantry Division (called the "Sunset Division" ), which was newly formed from units of the National Guard of the northwestern states in Camp Fremont , California , and was deployed in the French theater of war that same year.

After the division of the division - it was not used as a task force, but to reinforce other divisions - Ligett was on January 20, 1918 commanding general of the 1st American Corps set up on Pershing's orders . The corps took part in the battles at Cantigny and Bois de Belleau (English: Belleau Woods ) and in the second Battle of the Marne in July and August 1918. In October 1918, Liggett von Pershing took over command of the million-strong 1st Army of the AEF and led it in the final phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive .

After the peace treaty in 1919 he switched to the 3rd US Army and stayed with her as commander of the occupation army in Europe. Upon his return to the United States , he commanded the IX. Corps in San Francisco until he retired as major general in March 1921. In June 1930 he was given the rank of lieutenant general by the US Congress , which he had temporarily held during the war. He died in San Francisco on December 10, 1935.

Ligett received the Distinguished Service Medal for his exceptional services ( "exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services" ) as Commanding General of the 1st Corps and Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Army . The Fort Hunter Liggett garrison in Monterey County , California and the USS Hunter Liggett , one of the largest transporters in World War II, are named after LTG Hunter Liggett.

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

• Army Distinguished Service Medal
• Knight of the Belgian Order of Leopold
• Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honor
• Italian Order of Knights of St. Mauritius and Lazarus

Works

• Commanding an American Army: Recollections of the World War. - New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925
• AEF: Ten Years Ago in France. - New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1928