Pershing becomes commander of the American Expeditionary Forces

On 10 May 1917 Major-General John Pershing, commander of the Southern Department, that is, of the troops guarding the border with Mexico, arrived in Washington from San Antonio. A few days earlier he had received orders to select four infantry regiments and a field artillery regiment for a division that was to sail for France, and to report to the capital. He chose the 16th, 18th, 26th and 28th Infantry Regiments and the 6th Field Artillery Regiment. President Woodrow Wilson and the Secretary of War, Newton Baker, chose him to command the troops that the United States would send to Europe. Many chronologies give 10 May as the day of his appointment, although the matter was spread over several weeks. At first there was talk of only one division, but it soon became clear that Pershing would take command of all American forces in France, named the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). This was announced publicly on 18 May, and he formally assumed the duties of commander on 26 May.

Why Pershing

As late as the winter the natural candidate had been Major-General Frederick Funston, the best-known general of the American army, a holder of the Medal of Honor and Pershing’s superior on the Mexican border. On 19 February 1917, however, Funston died suddenly of a heart attack in a hotel in San Antonio, and Pershing took over the Southern Department from him. The most senior general was now Leonard Wood, a former Chief of Staff of the Army, but as a vocal critic of Wilson’s policy and a friend of Theodore Roosevelt he did not have the president’s confidence. Pershing thus leapfrogged several major-generals senior to him. He was also helped in the choice by his father-in-law, the influential Republican senator Francis E. Warren of Wyoming. It was Warren who, even before the summons to Washington, asked Pershing by telegram how well he spoke, read and wrote French.

Pershing was 56 and had behind him the typical career of an officer in an army that for decades had fought mainly on the frontier and in the colonies. He graduated from West Point in 1886, fought the Apaches and the Sioux, and owed the nickname “Black Jack” to his service in the 10th Cavalry Regiment, made up of black soldiers known as the Buffalo Soldiers. In the Spanish–American War he fought in Cuba, later suppressed the rising of the Muslim Moros in the Philippines, and was an observer during the Russo-Japanese War. In 1906 President Roosevelt promoted him straight from captain to brigadier-general, passing over more than eight hundred senior officers, which gave rise to accusations of favouritism. On 27 August 1915 tragedy struck him. In a fire at his house in the Presidio in San Francisco his wife Helen Frances and three little daughters died, and only his six-year-old son Warren survived. Pershing received the news in silence and threw himself into his work.

The Mexican expedition

His most important test was the punitive expedition into Mexico. After the raid by Pancho Villa’s band on Columbus, New Mexico, in March 1916, Pershing led about 10,000 soldiers deep into Mexico. He did not catch Villa, and the expedition almost led to war with the Mexican government. He withdrew the last units in February 1917. The expedition showed Wilson and Baker, however, that Pershing could maintain discipline, command a large force and, what mattered to them, carry out the instructions of the civil authorities even when he disagreed with them. In September 1916 he was promoted to major-general.

Preparations for departure

In mid-May Baker introduced Pershing to Marshal Joseph Joffre, who was then finishing his visit to the United States. According to John Eisenhower, a historian and the son of the later president, Joffre predicted that Pershing would soon be commanding millions of men and promised him every assistance. For two weeks Pershing and his men assembled a staff in Washington, trying to keep everything secret. James Harbord, who later left a colourful diary of this period, became chief of staff. On 26 May Baker signed Pershing’s instructions. They directed him to cooperate with the forces of the other countries fighting Germany, but to bear in mind that the forces of the United States were “a separate and distinct component” of the combined forces, the identity of which must be preserved. This principle later became the crux of Pershing’s disputes with the Allies, who wanted to incorporate American soldiers into their own divisions.

On 28 May Pershing and his staff, numbering from a hundred to almost two hundred people according to various accounts, sailed from New York on the British liner Baltic. He reached Liverpool on 8 June, and on 13 June he was already in Paris. The American army he was to lead was only just coming into being. In October 1917 Pershing was promoted to full general, the first since Philip Sheridan.