Portal:Military of the United States/Selected biography
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Portal:Military of the United States/Selected biography/1
William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, educator and author. He served as a general in the United States Army during the American Civil War (1861–65), receiving both recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy, and criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies he implemented in conducting total war against the enemy.
Sherman served under General Ulysses S. Grant in 1862 and 1863 during the campaigns that led to the fall of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River and culminated with the routing of the Confederate armies in the state of Tennessee. In 1864, Sherman succeeded Grant as the Union commander in the western theater of the war.
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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), was an American politician who served as the 16th President of the United States, and the first president from the Republican Party. Today, he is best known for ending slavery and preserving the Union by overseeing the war effort during the American Civil War. He selected the generals and approved their strategy; selected senior civilian officials; supervised diplomacy, patronage and party operations; and rallied public opinion through messages and speeches. His influence has been magnified by his powerful oratory; his Gettysburg Address had a lasting impact on American values.
After Union troops at Fort Sumter were fired upon and forced to surrender in April 1861, Lincoln called on governors of every state to send 75,000 troops to recapture forts, protect the capital, and "preserve the Union," which in his view still existed intact despite the actions of the seceding states.
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Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), was the 26th President of the United States. At age 42, he became President after the assassination of President William McKinley. As Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy he prepared for and advocated war with Spain in 1898. He organized and helped command the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the "Rough Riders", during the Spanish–American War. Returning to New York as a war hero he was elected Republican governor in 1898. He was a professional historian, naturalist and explorer of the Amazon basin.
Roosevelt understood the strategic significance of the Panama Canal, and negotiated for the U.S. to take control of its construction in 1904. It was completed in 1914, after he left office. He was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize, winning its Peace Prize in 1906, for negotiating peace between Russia and Japan.
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General Colin Luther Powell, United States Army (Ret.) (born April 5, 1937) was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving from January 20, 2001 to January 23, 2005 under President George W. Bush. Powell became the fourth highest ranking non-Caucasian government official in the history of the United States, behind President Barack Obama and Supreme Court justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. As a general in the United States Army, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993).
Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years, during which time he held a variety of command and staff positions and rose to the rank of General. Powell obtained an MBA from George Washington University in 1971 and then served a White House fellowship under President Richard Nixon.
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Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893 – April 8, 1981) was one of the main U.S. Army field commanders in North Africa and Europe during the World War II and a General of the Army of the United States Army. He was the last surviving five star officer of the United States. On May 5, 2000, the United States Postal Service issued the Distinguished Soldiers stamps in which Bradley was honored.
Bradley did not receive a frontline command until early 1943 after Operation Torch. In the approach to Normandy Bradley was chosen to command the substantial 1st Army. During Operation Overlord he commanded three corps directed at the areas codenamed Utah and Omaha. Later in July he planned Operation Cobra, the beginning of the breakout from the Normandy beachhead.
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George Smith Patton, Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a leading U.S. Army general in World War II. In his 36-year Army career, he was an advocate of armored warfare and commanded major units of North Africa, Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations. Many have viewed Patton as a pure and ferocious warrior, known by the nickname "Old Blood and Guts". But history has left the image of a brilliant military leader whose record was also marred by insubordination and some periods of apparent instability.
As a result of his accomplishments in North Africa, Patton was given command of the Seventh Army in preparation for the 1943 invasion of Sicily. The Seventh Army's mission was to protect the left (western) flank of the British Eighth Army as both advanced northwards towards Messina.
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Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph "Dan" Daly (November 11, 1873 – April 27, 1937) was a United States Marine. He is one of only two Marines to receive the Medal of Honor twice for two separate acts of heroism. Dan Daly is well remembered for his famous cry during the Battle of Belleau Wood, when, besieged, outnumbered, outgunned, and pinned down, he led his men in attack, shouting, "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, he received his first Medal of Honor for single-handedly defending his position against repeated attacks and inflicted casualties of around 200 on the attacking Boxers. Daly was offered a commission on several occasions, but he always refused, on the grounds that he would rather be "an outstanding sergeant than just another officer."
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Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye," was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. Butler was awarded the Medal of Honor twice during his career. He was noted for his outspoken non-interventionist views and his book War is a Racket, one of the first works describing the military-industrial complex. Butler came forward to the U.S. Congress in 1934 to report that a proposed coup had been plotted by wealthy industrialists to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Butler was twice wounded during the Boxer Rebellion. Amid the Battle of Tientsin on July 13, 1900, Butler climbed out of a trench to retrieve a wounded officer for medical attention, whereupon he was shot in the thigh.
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Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 20 or January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He is most famous for his audacious Valley Campaign of 1862 and as a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. He was shot accidentally by his own troops at Chancellorsville and died of complications from an amputated arm and pneumonia several days later.
Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in United States history. His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Union Army right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership. He excelled as well at the First Battle of Bull Run, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.
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Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American soldier and politician who was elected the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.
After service in the Mexican–American War, Grant proved highly successful in training new recruits in 1861. His capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862 marked the first major Union victories of the civil war. Surprised and nearly defeated at Shiloh, he fought back and took control of most of western Kentucky and Tennessee. His great achievement in 1862-63 was to seize control of the Mississippi River by defeating a series of uncoordinated Confederate armies and by capturing Vicksburg in July 1863. After a victory at Chattanooga in late 1863, Abraham Lincoln made him general-in-chief of all Union armies.
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Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 – June 14, 1801) was a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known for plotting to surrender the American fort at West Point, New York, to the British during the American Revolution. Arnold had distinguished himself as a hero of the revolution early in the war through acts of cunning and bravery at Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 and at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Arnold strongly opposed the decision by the Continental Congress to form an alliance with France.
In September 1780, he formulated his scheme, which, if successful, would have given British forces control of the Hudson River valley and split the colonies in half. The plot was thwarted, but Arnold managed to flee to British forces in New York, where he was rewarded with a commission as a Brigadier General in the British Army, along with a reduced award of £6,000 sterling. In the United States, Arnold's name remains synonymous with treason.
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Alexander Stewart Webb (February 15, 1835 – February 12, 1911) was a career U.S. Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War who won the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, he was president of the City College of New York for thirty-three years.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, he took part in the defense of Fort Pickens, Florida, was present at the First Battle of Bull Run, and was aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. William F. Barry, the chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac. During the Peninsula Campaign, he served as Gen. Barry's assistant inspector general and received recognition for his assembling an impregnable line of artillery defense during the Battle of Malvern Hill; Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield wrote that Webb saved the Union Army from destruction. General Webb stayed with the Army until 1870, assigned as a lieutenant colonel to the 44th U.S. Infantry, and later the 5th U.S. Infantry. During his final year, he served again as an instructor at West Point
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William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (February 26, 1845 – January 10, 1917) was an American soldier, buffalo hunter and showman. He was born in the American state of Iowa, near Le Claire. He was one of the most colorful figures of the Old West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes.
After the death of his mother in 1863, Cody enlisted in the 7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and fought with them on the Union side for the rest of the Civil War. From 1868 until 1872 Cody was employed as a scout by the United States Army. Part of this time he spent scouting for Indians. He received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for "gallantry in action" while serving as a civilian scout for the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment. This medal was revoked on February 5, 1917, 24 days after his death, because he was a civilian and therefore was ineligible for the award under new guidelines for the award in 1917. The medal was restored to him by the army in 1989.
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Leonard Wood (October 9, 1860 – August 7, 1927) was a physician who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Wood was personal physician to Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley through 1898. It was during this period he developed a friendship with Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Wood, with Roosevelt, organized the 1st Volunteer Cavalry regiment, popularly known as the Rough Riders. Wood commanded the regiment in a successful engagement known as the Battle of Las Guasimas.
He took a position as an Army contract physician in 1885, and was stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Wood participated in the last campaign against Geronimo in 1886, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, in 1898, for carrying dispatches 100 miles through hostile territory and for commanding an infantry detachment whose officers had been lost.
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Daniel Boone (October 22, 1734 – September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and hunter whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the U.S. state of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. Despite resistance from American Indians, for whom Kentucky was a traditional hunting ground, in 1775 Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. There he founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.
Boone was a militia officer during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between settlers and British-allied American Indians. Boone was captured by Shawnees in 1778 and adopted into the tribe, but he escaped and continued to help defend the Kentucky settlements. He was elected to the first of his three terms in the Virginia General Assembly during the war, and fought in the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, one of the last battles of the American Revolution.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. A central figure of the 20th century, he has consistently been ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic system. After 1938, Roosevelt championed re-armament and led the nation away from isolationism as the world headed into the war. He provided extensive support to Winston Churchill and the British war effort before the attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the U.S. into the fighting. During the war, Roosevelt, working closely with his aide Harry Hopkins, provided decisive leadership against Nazi Germany and made the United States the principal arms supplier and financier of the Allies who defeated Germany, Italy and Japan. Roosevelt led the United States as it became the Arsenal of Democracy and put 16 million American men into uniform. As the Allies neared victory, Roosevelt played a critical role in shaping the post-war world, particularly through the Yalta Conference and the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelt died on the eve of victory in World War II and was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.
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| Stephen Trigg | |
|---|---|
| Delegate, Virginia House of Burgesses (1775) Delegate, Virginia House of Delegates (1778, 1780-81) |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | c.1744 Virginia |
| Died | 19 August 1782 Blue Licks, Kentucky |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Christian |
| Residence | Trigg's Station, Kentucky |
Stephen Trigg (c.1744–August 19, 1782) was an American pioneer and soldier from Virginia. Colonel Trigg was killed ten months after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in one of the last battles of the American Revolution while leading the Lincoln County, Virginia militia unit at the Battle of Blue Licks in present-day Kentucky.
Born the son of William and Mary (Johns) Trigg, Trigg mainly worked as a public servant and militia officer during the early years of the frontier counties in southwest Virginia and those portions that would later form Kentucky. He was one of the wealthiest men on the frontier at the time. He was a delegate to the first Virginia Revolutionary conventions and was a member of the Fincastle Committee of Safety that drafted the Fincastle Resolutions, which was the precursor for the Declaration of Independence made by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. He was also elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.
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Sidney Sanders McMath (June 14, 1912 – October 4, 2003) was a decorated U.S. Marine, renowned attorney and progressive Democratic reform Governor of Arkansas. McMath received an ROTC commission as a second lieutenant in the Marines upon graduation from college. During World War II he served with the Marines after voluntarily returning to active duty in 1940. Assigned to train officer candidates at Quantico, Virginia, he was promoted to captain, then to major, and in 1942 he was ordered to American Samoa in command of the combined forces jungle warfare school. He served as acting CO of the 3rd Marine Regiment during the Battle of Bougainville, single handedly rallying troops pinned down by enemy fire. He received a battlefield promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and was awarded the Silver Star and Legion of Merit. Shortly afterward, McMath was stricken with malaria and filariasis and hospitalized for several months in San Diego, California. He then served in the Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. planning an amphibious invasion of the Japanese home islands.
In 1967, he helped found the Marine Corps JROTC at Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, Arkansas, which became one of the top JROTC units in the country. Ever since, cadets there have been known as "Sid's Kids."
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Wesley Kanne "Wes" Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army. He spent 34 years in the Army and the Department of Defense, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clark was valedictorian of his class at West Point, was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University where he earned a Masters degree in Economics, and later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a Masters degree in military science.
Clark commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000. During the conflict, some of Clark's command decisions, such as his statements at press briefings and his actions at Priština International Airport, were heavily criticized.
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George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union.
McClellan's leadership skills during battles were questioned by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who eventually removed him from command, first as general-in-chief, then from the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln famously quoted, "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time." Despite this, he was the most popular of that army's commanders with its soldiers, who felt that he had their morale and well-being as paramount concerns. After he was relieved of command, McClellan became the unsuccessful Democratic nominee opposing Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. He served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881. He eventually became a writer, defending his actions during the Peninsula Campaign and the Civil War.
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Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953); as vice president, he succeeded to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During World War I he served as an artillery officer. After the war he became part of the political machine of Tom Pendergast and was elected a county judge in Missouri and eventually a United States Senator. In 1944, Roosevelt replaced Henry A. Wallace as vice president with Truman for Roosevelt's fourth term.
As president, Truman faced challenge after challenge in domestic affairs: a tumultuous reconversion of the economy marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over his veto. He used executive orders to begin desegregation of the U.S. armed forces and to launch a system of loyalty checks to remove thousands of communist sympathizers from government office. Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the end of World War II (including his decision to use nuclear weapons in combat), the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of NATO, and the Korean War.
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Thomas Carmichael Hindman, Jr. (January 28, 1828 – September 27, 1868) was a lawyer, United States Representative, and a Major General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Shortly after he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hindman moved with his family to Jacksonville, Alabama and later Ripley, Mississippi.
He attended the Lawrenceville Classical Institute and graduated with honors. Afterwards, he raised a company in Tippah County for the 2nd Mississippi regiment in the Mexican–American War. After the war, he returned to Ripley. He commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department, and later raised and commanded "Hindman's legion" for the Confederate States Army. After the war, Hindman avoided surrender to the federal government by fleeing to Mexico City.
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David Glasgow Farragut (July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was the first senior officer of the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and full admiral of the Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his possibly apocryphal order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!".
David Farragut entered the Navy as a midshipman on December 17, 1810. In the War of 1812, when only 12 years old, he was given command of a prize ship taken by USS Essex and brought her safely to port. Admiral Farragut's last active service was in command of the European Squadron, with the screw frigate Franklin as his flagship, and he died at the age of 69 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.
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James "Jim" Bowie (April 10, 1796 – March 6, 1836), a nineteenth-century American pioneer and soldier, played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution, culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo. Countless stories of him as a fighter and frontiersman, both real and fictitious, have made him a legendary figure in Texas history.
Born in Kentucky, Bowie spent most of his life in Louisiana, where he was raised and later worked as a land speculator. His rise to fame began in 1827 on reports of the Sandbar Fight. What began as a duel between two other men deteriorated into a melee in which Bowie, having been shot and stabbed, killed the sheriff of Rapides Parish with a large knife. This and other stories of Bowie's prowess with the knife led to the widespread popularity of the Bowie knife.
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Benjamin Franklin Tilley (March 29, 1848 – March 18, 1907), was a career officer in the United States Navy who served from the end of the American Civil War through the Spanish–American War. He is best remembered as the first Acting-Governor of American Samoa.
Tilley entered the United States Naval Academy during the height of the Civil War. Graduating after the conflict, he gradually rose through the ranks. As a lieutenant, he participated in the United States military's crackdown against workers in the wake of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. During the Chilean Civil War of 1891, Tilley and a small contingent of sailors and marines defended the American consulate in Santiago, Chile. As a commander during the Spanish–American War, Tilley and his gunship, the USS Newport, successfully captured two Spanish Navy ships. After the war, Tilley was made the first acting-Governor of Tutuila and Manua (later called American Samoa) and set legal and administrative precedents for the new territory. Near the conclusion of his 41 years of service, he was promoted to rear admiral, but died shortly afterwards from pneumonia.
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The early life and military career of John Sidney McCain III spans forty-five years (1936–1981). McCain's father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, and attended many schools growing up as his family moved among naval facilities. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He married the former Carol Shepp in 1965; he adopted two children from her previous marriage and they had another child together.
As a naval aviator, McCain flew attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War in 1967, he narrowly escaped death in the Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. He was finally released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords.
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Uriel Sebree (February 20, 1848 – August 6, 1922) was a career officer in the United States Navy. He entered the Naval Academy during the Civil War and served until 1910, retiring as a rear admiral. He is best remembered for his two expeditions into the Arctic and for serving as the second acting governor of American Samoa. He was also commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet.
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1867, Sebree was posted to a number of vessels before being assigned to a rescue mission to find the remaining crew of the missing Polaris in the Navy's first mission to the Arctic. Sebree was subsequently appointed as the second acting governor of American Samoa. He served in this position for only a year before returning to the United States. In 1907, he was promoted to rear admiral and given command of the Pathfinder Expedition around the South American coast before being appointed commander of the 2nd Division of the Pacific Fleet and then commander-in-chief of the entire fleet. He retired in 1910 and died in Coronado, California in 1922. Two geographical features in Alaska—Sebree Peak and Sebree Island—are named for Admiral Sebree.
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