James Lawton Collins

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James Lawton Collins (born December 10, 1882 in New Orleans , Louisiana , † June 30, 1963 in Washington, DC ) was a major general in the US Army . He was also John J. Pershing's adjutant in the Philippines during the punitive expedition to Mexico and during the First World War .

Military career

Lt. Collins (right) with General Pershing in Mexico, 1916

James Lawton Collins was born in New Orleans in 1882. His father, Jeremiah Bernard Collins, an Irish immigrant and veteran of the Union Army , owned a grocery store in Algiers . His mother was Catherine Lawton. His brother, later General Joseph Lawton Collins , was born in 1896.

After successfully graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1907, he received a patent as an officer in the 8th US Cavalry Regiment in Fort Robinson , Nebraska , with whom he went to the Philippines in December 1910 . There he led various commands against the insurgent Moros on the island of Jolo , before he was adjutant to the commander in the Mindanao sector, Brigadier General John J. Pershing , in 1912 . He remained in this post during the punitive expedition against Pancho Villa in 1916/17 and during the First World War . This use was only interrupted by his time as an observer with the French 1st Army , where he gained important experience about trench warfare , attending the field artillery school in Saumur from July to December 1917 - after he switched to this branch of service - and a position as commander an artillery battalion during the final weeks of the war. After the armistice in November 1918, he became Lieutenant Colonel of the National Army , Secretary of the General Staff ( SGS ) of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF ) and returned to the United States in August 1919 .

Downgraded to the rank of major in the regular army , he attended the US Army War College from 1919 to 1920 and then rose steadily over the next 20 years in various staff positions at home and abroad and as a commander in the field artillery:

In 1940 he was appointed temporary major general in command of the 2nd US Infantry Division at Fort Sam Houston , Texas, and in April 1941 of the Puerto Rico Department . From May to September 1943 he was department director for the administration and supply forces ( Army Service Forces ) in the War Department and was then, until February 1946, commander of the 5th Service Command , in Columbus , Ohio .

Collins retired to the final rank of major general in August 1946. He last lived in Alexandria , Virginia . Collins died in Washington on June 30, 1963 and was buried on July 3 in Arlington National Cemetery , Virginia.

marriage and family

Collins married Virginia Caroline Stewart in 1915 and had four children with her. James Lawton Collins junior (1917-2002) was also a general and military historian . Michael Collins (* 1930) became an officer in the US Air Force and an astronaut and flew to the moon with Apollo 11 in 1969 .

Works

  • The Battle of Bud Bagsak and the Part Played by the Mountain Guns Therein. In: Field Artillery Journal , November / December 1925, pp. 559-70

literature

  • John Kennedy Ohl: Collins, James Lawton . In: American National Biography Online , February 2000.
  • John E. Jessup, Robert W. Coakley, James Lawton Collins: A Guide to the Study and Use of Military History , University Press of the Pacific 2000 ISBN 089875058X

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Collins, James Lawton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American major general
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH New Orleans , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1963
Place of death Washington, DC