Person:John Pershing (3)

General Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri. His father owned two farms and a lumberyard. John Pershing first became a teacher.

In 1882 John Pershing applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point. His military service began in 1886 in the New Mexico Territory, where he participated in campaigns against the Apache. In 1890 he was a 2nd Lieutenant at the last major Indian battle in America, at the infamous "Wounded Knee". While in Nebraska in 1893, he earned a law degree. Beginning in 1895, Pershing commanded "buffalo soldiers". In 1897 Pershing was back at West Point, where he became an instructor. As a result of his experience leading buffalo soldiers, West Point cadets originated the famous nickname of "Black Jack".

Gen. Pershing participated in the Spanish-American War in the Phillippines. In 1905, he married the daughter of Wyoming Senator, Francis Warren. Pershing served as an "observer" in Japan and the Balkans in Europe. The general was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas in 1914. Arrangements were made to bring his family there, but his wife and three daughters died in a tragic hotel fire in San Francisco. Only his son survived. It was said that he never got over his grief of his family's deaths.

Gen. Pershing led the "American Expeditionary Force" during World War I, and was the overall commander of all allied forces. He is the only person (while still alive) to rise to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army: "General of the Armies".

In 1923 Gen. Pershing was in Indianapolis, Indiana to award the DSM to his very distant relative, General Robert Tyndall (later mayor of Indianapolis), who served under him during World War I in Europe. See picture below, and also WeRelate.org page for Robert Tyndall. In that same year of 1923, Gen. Pershing attended the Pershing Reunion in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and gave an address. This reunion was to honor Frederick Pershing, the oldest known ancestor of the family.

Also see WeRelate.org page for General Pershing's Tuscarawas County cousin, General Donald Putt.

The retired general died in 1948 in Washington, D.C., and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia.

--White Creek 14:35, 11 September 2012 (EDT)

GEN. TYNDALL at left, GEN. PERSHING at right

1.   Edgar J. Pershing. The Pershing Family in America. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: George S. Ferguson Co., 1924).
2.   American History: A Survey.