Peyton C. March: Greatest Unsung American General of World War I

By Edward M. Coffman | MHQ  | 2 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

As an artilleryman, March had more prosaic duties in various East Coast forts. The war in 1898 took him away from garrison life, and he was awarded a citation for leading his battery in a charge against a blockhouse during the Battle of Manila. After the discharge of this wartime unit, he returned to the Philippines, where the war with Emilio Aguinaldo’s nationalist forces was in progress. After brief service as Maj. Gen. Arthur MacArthur’s aide, he received a temporary majority in the 33rd Volunteer Infantry. When Aguinaldo’s army disintegrated and the guerrilla war began, March’s battalion was close on the leader’s trail. March almost caught Aguinaldo and did kill the commander of his bodyguard and capture his chief of staff. MacArthur commended March as he returned to his regular rank of captain, saying, No officer has rendered more efficient or brilliant field service on Luzon.

In 1899 Pershing went to the Philippines as a volunteer major but served for almost two years as an adjutant general before he returned to his regular rank of captain and had his first great opportunity for fame. The Moros on Mindanao and Jolo were resisting attempts to establish American control in the interior of their islands. While on staff duty, Pershing had studied these fierce Muslim warriors, and the commanding general assigned him a battalion-size force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery to deal with the Moros near Lake Lanao on Mindanao. Pershing employed both diplomacy and the skillful use of force in dominating the several Moro tribes in that area. During his two-year service, he impressed the Moros, who even made him an honorary tribal chieftain, and he earned praise up the chain of command to the White House.

At this stage of their careers, both men were promising captains. In 1903 they were among the officers assigned to the initial General Staff in Washington, where they shared the same office for two months. Later they served at different times as observers with the Japanese in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War. Then in 1906, Pershing, with President Theodore Roosevelt’s recommendation and the approval of the Senate, was promoted over the heads of 862 officers to the rank of brigadier general.

Throughout the next decade, while March rose through the ranks to colonel and held appropriate command and staff assignments in the States, Pershing returned to the Philippines for two tours, totaling five years, and wound up the Moro Wars with two large-scale battles. In March 1916, newly appointed Secretary of War Newton D. Baker gave him command of a combined-arms punitive expedition of some eleven thousand troops into Mexico. Although he did not capture Pancho Villa, whose attack on Columbus, N.M., had triggered this intervention, Pershing pushed him back from the border and handled the complex problems of dealing with both Villistas and the supporters of the central government. By the time the expedition left Mexico, he was a major general.

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Pershing was the Southern Department commander in Texas, and March commanded a field artillery regiment. March had had a successful career, and Pershing had experienced extraordinary success, but both had suffered great personal loss. March’s wife died while he was in Manchuria and left him with five small children. Pershing suffered a stunning blow in 1915, losing his wife and three daughters in a fire, which his son survived. As officers, they had similar characteristics. They were relentless drivers as commanders. Ben Lear, who served under them, said that both were very harsh — quiet — abrupt and inconsiderate of subordinates. He illustrated his point about Pershing by telling of an incident when he was on an expedition against the Moros. Lear, a lieutenant, was checking outposts when one of the sentries fired on him. When Pershing heard about this the next morning, he commented, He should have killed you.

March’s first sergeant during the Spanish-American War remembered, Everybody was scared of him. A lieutenant who served in his battalion in garrison at Fort Riley, Kansas, wrote, He could cut one down to size more completely and in fewer words than any other commander I ever had. Another young officer in that battalion flatly stated, He was absolutely cold-blooded in performance of his duties.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures, People, World War I

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