:30 Introduction
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: Thank you very -- thank you very much for that kind introduction. Am I on there? I guess I am.
I really appreciate you-all coming out tonight to hear me. I’m introducing a very -- a very interesting topic to me, at least, and I hope that it’s an interesting topic to you as well. I am a writer. I am not a historian. And I say that at the beginning of my book. I -- I -- having written this book though, I very much appreciate what historians do.
My main interest in the history is the stories themselves and that’s why I’ve titled my talk Interesting Men, Interesting Stories. Next slide, please.
If I could -- oh, there you go. Okay. It is a very opportune time to do this speech -- oh, okay, here we go. This is the book, of course, and many of you have already seen it. Could I get the next one, please?
That’s okay. It’s good pictures. Okay. We need to back up just a little bit. As I was saying, you know, I’m not a historian. I’m a writer and a journalist. I believe that the best writing has life in it and that usually means that -- that humans connect to the story. The stories are what make history fun for me.
Five Stars was not meant to be a groundbreaking book of scholarship, but to popularize the history itself. Next slide.
2:03 Personal Background
So why me? Why would I -- why would I be interested in history? Why would I write this book? First thing is my mother. She -- she is one of these people who would always stop at every -- at every historic marker ever made. Okay. We had to stop the car and look at that historic marker. If it was a historic old fort, whatever, she’d be there.
History classes, of course, always interested me. I love the stories. In this particular case though for this book what it came down to was a soccer game. I knew the acquisitions editor at the University of Missouri Press. He and my son played soccer together. I said one day, “Hey, I’d like to write a book for you guys sometime,” and he said, “Well, shoot me some ideas.” This was one of the ideas on the generals and he said, “Muench, if you don’t write this book I’m going to write it.” So I took that as a sign and the rest is history. Next -- next slide, please.
And this is also just a personal thing here. Jimmy a fifth grader at Longfellow Elementary School realizes at the last minute that he was supposed to give a “how to” presentation one day in school. And so he just happened to be reading a book about Civil War generals and he -- so he gave a speech entitled, “How to be a Civil War General” and he got an “A” for ingenuity.
(Laughter.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: Next slide, please.
3:25 The Five Stars
Okay. Getting -- getting serious now. These are the Five Stars listed in the book: Will Doniphan, Sterling Price, Ulysses Grant, Black Jack Pershing and Omar Bradley. Now, they -- they cover quite a spread of time. But in some ways that was a fun way to do it because I began to see some patterns and connections between the generals.
I have some very basic facts here. Doniphan is famous for his 5,500 mile march down into Mexico leading the first Missouri Volunteers. Sterling Price led the second Missouri Volunteers in the Mexican War, but he was also Missouri governor and a Confederate general. Grant, of course, everybody knows Grant, President and Union general. Black Jack Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force to victory in World War I, and Omar Bradley who led the U.S. Forces in World War II Europe. He’s named -- his name is on the plan for the final defeat of Germany. And he -- but, I think, one of the main things he should be remembered for is organizing the military to fight the Cold War as its first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Next slide, please.
Okay. Missouri Generals, in general, are about -- there are about 30 of them listed in the Dictionary of Missouri Biography. Each of which has a significant connection to Missouri. That’s the one thing we had to have -- the editors told that we had to have a significant connection to the state of Missouri. The majority are from the Civil War and there are also four admirals here. If the Navy ever wants me -- ever wants to pay me to write a book, I’d be happy to take that on as well. Next slide, please.
So why choose these five guys? Okay. They’re interesting men with interesting stories, of course, they’re Missourians. They -- they changed their country and they changed the world, many of them, you know, in the -- especially in the case of Grant and Pershing and Bradley. They’re the five most famous and my editor made me take one each -- one from each side of the Civil War. Okay? No more, no less, since the Civil War is still going on in Missouri (laughter) we had to make sure that we were even. Okay? And I was only allowed five. That’s the basic -- the basic rule. They didn’t want any more ‘cause they didn’t want the book to be any longer. Next slide, please.
Were they all five-star generals? No. Only Bradley because the Five-star General of the Army rank was not created until World War II. This is one of the -- the questions I usually get first when somebody meets me and finds out that I actually wrote a book.
Pershing wore four stars, but he held a special rank that was bestowed by Congress, which sometimes people say is -- is actually a ranking of six stars. But George Washington was also by Congress legislated in the 1970s to say that nobody could ever outrank George Washington. Okay? All right. Next slide, please.
6:34 Other Missouri Generals
These are some other generals that have a significant connection to Missouri that I kind of wish I could have included, but like I say we were only allowed five generals. Sherman and Pope are both buried in St. Louis. And they -- they spent significant time in St. Louis after the war, et cetera.
Most people know Sherman. Pope was a very interesting Civil War general who lost the Battle of Second Bull Run, but was a very good Indian fighter. In addition, Enoch Crowder created the Selective Service. Maxwell Taylor was the first general in France on D-day and was a Vietnam advisor. Next slide, please.
7:13 General Observations
Some general observations about the -- some general observations about the general; how about that? Most of them came from rural backgrounds. They had a “can do” spirit that kind of came from that -- that frontier ethos. They tend to have a focus on results, which I would say is probably a good thing for any leader, not just a general. And you can see a definite sift -- definite shift from citizen soldiers to professionals over time.
Obviously, it was necc- -- it was very necessary to have a professional military as we -- as we grew as a nation. And like I said, there are several patterns that you kind of pick up when -- when you look at them over this time -- over the -- the long time period that I looked at. Next slide, please.
8:03 Taylor vs. Scott Model
One particular pattern that I think is kind of an interesting way to look at a lot of America’s generals they -- they tend to either be -- model themselves on a Zachary Taylor model versus a Winfield Scott model. Zachary Taylor: old, rough and ready. Winfield Scott: old, fuss and feathers. Casual demeanor versus formal; informal dress, Zachary Taylor wore a straw hat when he was out fighting, straw hat and blue jeans, you know, Winfield Scott would never have been caught in blue jeans.
And, I think, you know, I kind of see Grant as a Zachary Taylor and Omar Bradley as a Zachary Taylor and Lee and Patton would probably be more Winfield Scott. I think of Pershing as sort of somewhere in the middle. He -- in many ways Patton patterned his behavior after Pershing, but -- but -- so he has in many ways the Winfield Scott, but he’s also got a lot of the characteristics of Zachary Taylor. Next slide, please.
9:03 Will Doniphan
Okay. So our first general Will Doniphan; he was a lawyer in Liberty, Missouri. He’s famous for saving the Mormon leaders. I’ll talk a little bit about that in a minute. As I said, he led the first Missouri volunteers on a 5,500 mile march through Mexico. Longer than the marches of antiquity by Xenophon and Alexander and -- mainly those two guys. I was trying to think of one other name and it’s slipping my mind. So I’ll move on.
The first Missouri Volunteers took Santa Fe without a shot and basically set up the -- the New Mexico Territory. He fought battles against the Mexicans at El Brazito and Sacramento, but in the Civil War he couldn’t choose a side and that was -- that was kind of a problem for him. He was working for a compromise and after a while, you know, the compromise was just not going to be had. Next slide, please.
Some keys to his character, I think, he was a conciliator. He wanted to resolve disputes and, as I kind of said, that Civil War -- that style didn’t work as well in the Civil War. As the war moved onward people -- peaceful solutions were more remote than ever.
And, I think, that -- I believe that his inability to choose sides led to a lack of political influence afterward. If he had -- there was a good chance that if he -- if he hadn’t been a Whig and he had been a Democrat he might have been able to have -- have -- you know, been a senator for the state or -- or governor, but people who didn’t really choose a side, even if you chose the wrong one, you didn’t get a whole lot of respect after the Civil War. Next slide, please.
This is Doniphan’s statue in Richmond, Missouri, where he -- he actually died after serving much of his career in Liberty. Next slide.
Okay. He -- his first -- he first came to prominence in the Mormon War of 1838, here, the Missouri Mormon War. And he actually led the setting up of Caldwell County for the Mormons, but they began to spread to other counties, too, and that eventually led to election violence at the first election in Daviess County in Gallatin. And leading -- that led to attacks on both sides by vigilantes attacking each other. Much murder and mayhem, burning down of homes, et cetera.
And eventually Governor Lilburn Boggs passed an Extermination Order on the Mormons. They were either going to be kicked out of the state or killed. And that was on October 27, 1838.
So after that order, Doniphan is ordered to lead the militia by General Samuel Lucas and they go and surround Far West where the Mormons are and shortly thereafter Joseph Smith and the other Mormon leaders surrender on the -- November the 1st. So in some ways, we’re right in the same -- the same month as that particular fighting. Just a few weeks ago this would have been happening.
The Lucas orders on November -- orders Doniphan on November 1st to execute the Mormon leaders. He staunchly refuses, vehemently refuses, marches his men out of camp the next day, in the morning, and tells Lucas that -- that if he -- he wants to take him on, he’ll gladly take him on in court. I don’t know if Lucas wanted to mess with one of the most famous lawyers of his day. So Lucas backs down.
The Mormons spend winter -- the Mormons spend the winter at the Liberty jail and then they conveniently escape as they travel to Boone County. The guards got drunk, conveniently, and Joseph Smith, I guess, quite a strong guy, overpowered them and the leaders escaped. What they think actually happened is that Doniphan and other political leaders arranged for this to happen so that they could get rid of the whole -- the whole mess that had become the Mormon question. Next slide, please.
This is the historic Liberty jail, now, a Mormon pilgrimage site up in Liberty. Next slide, please.
And this is Joseph Smith wintering in the Liberty jail there if you -- if you ever want to go visit that -- that site. Next slide, please.
Okay. So we move on to the Mexican War. The next big part of Doniphan’s legacy. He led the first Missouri Volunteers into Santa Fe, took Santa Fe without a shot and then decided, you know, the New Mexico Territory needs a new law code so he sat down for a month and wrote them a new law code while he was there in Santa Fe. Quite an -- quite an industrious man. So then he -- eventually when Sterling Price comes to relieve him, he marches south on the Camino Real with his men. That’s the Royal Road. And he gets -- he confronts a troop of Mexicans at El Brazito. An army of Mexicans on Christmas Day at El Brazito, “the little arm”.
And one of the interesting things is that -- that he -- the -- as the Mexicans attacked, they’re firing with muskets. He orders his men to -- to fall down -- a bunch of his men to fall down each time they fire a volley to act as if they’d been hit. And then as the Mexicans get sucked in closer and closer thinking they’ve won the fight, suddenly he orders all the men to stand up and they blow them away with their rifles. It was -- you know, the battle was over in about an hour or so.
And, I think, -- you know, and it’s especially interesting because when you understand that -- that Doniphan really didn’t know that much about military tactics; he had read it all in books. The -- his commanding officer on the way to Santa Fe, General Kearny had given him some books on military tactics and he was reading them in the saddle as he went along.
His second big battle was at Sacramento where -- where he outflanks the Mexican forts that have been placed in the way and has a great victory there, routes the Mexicans and moves on down to Chihuahua. And then eventually he winds up marching to the sea to sail home with -- with Generals Taylor and Wool. Okay. Next slide, please.
16:01 Sterling Price
Okay. Moving right along to Sterling Price, he’s a farmer from Keytesville, also, a shopkeeper. He led the second Missouri Volunteers in the Mexican War. So he’s following on the tail of -- of Doniphan. If it hadn’t been for the Missourians, you know, we might not have had a Southwest.
He also has a slight feud at that time with Jefferson Davis. Jefferson Davis wants his job, wants him to swap jobs with -- with him so that he -- so that Davis doesn’t have to serve as Zachary Taylor’s underling because Zachary Taylor is his father-in-law and they don’t get along.
Sterling Price doesn’t want that. He wants this job. So they -- they feud and, of course, that comes up later when Sterling Price wants a better job in the Civil War and Jefferson Davis is president.
Price has to quell a rebellion in Taos that -- that springs up after Doniphan leaves and it was a very brutal rebellion. The former Mexican citizens rise up and they -- there’s stories of -- well, they -- they kill Governor Bent. They -- there’s a lawyer who’s part of the administration who gets run down -– who -- they make him run down the street of Taos and they shoot arrows into him. And then they scalp him and brutally kill him as well. It was a very bloody rebellion.
So he -- he squashes that and then he moves down into Mexico. He was also governor of Missouri and he played a very large role in the secession crisis. And I can talk about that a little bit later. He was in -- some of his biggest battles were Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, Lexington isn’t on there, but it was a big one too. He also led the Missouri raid in 1864, which resulted in some major battles. One of which was Pilot Knob and the other -- and Westport. Pilot Knob is sort of at the beginning; Westport is at the end when he gets routed.
He eventually refuses to pledge allegiance to the United States and immigrates to Mexico after the Civil War is over. Next slide, please.
Okay. Keys to his character: he’s a volatile, prickly guy, somewhat vain, but his men just loved him dearly. He tends to be concerned more with honor and with dreams than professionalism. Now, that sounds a little harsh. And I don’t mean to put that in a bad light, but, I think, that -- I think, he clearly made some mistakes in his strategy say on his -- on his march through Missouri and we can talk a little bit about that later.
He didn’t want to accept change. The antebellum South was dead and he -- he wanted it to come back. And he was trying to recreate it down in Mexico. But it didn’t work out under Max- -- he was under Maximilian’s protection and when the -- the French no longer were holding on to Maximilian -- were no longer propping up Maximilian that was the end of Sterling Price’s colony and he winds up returning back to the United States to die. Next slide, please.
As I said, he was Doniphan’s clean-up man in the Mexican War. He leads the second Missouri Volunteers to Santa Fe, talked about the Taos Rebellion, he -- he follows Doniphan southward to Chihuahua and eventually he corners and defeats the Mexican army and Santa Cruz de Rosales. He really wanted to have a big battle against the Mexicans. Unfortunately, that battle came after the peace treaty had already been signed by about a month.
It’s questionable about whether he really knew that or not. The way -- the way messages travel in those days, it’s very hard to tell. Next slide, please.
In the early Civil War, he served as president of the state convention that was studying secession. And a very important moment in that early Civil War is his June 11th, 1861, meeting with Governor Claiborne Jackson, representative Frank Blair and Nathaniel Lyon, the Union commander, in St. Louis. This is -- they were trying to reach some sort of compromise or at least the southerners were, but Lyon ends that meeting pretty abruptly when he stands and says something to the affect of Missouri is going to stay in the Union if I have to kill every Missourian to do it.
Now, there are different versions of what he actually said depending on which side you were on. So they may not have been exactly in those terms, but basically -- Lyon was kind of a hothead and he -- that was pretty much his -- his declaration of war ‘cause after that Jackson and -- and Sterling Price head back to Jeff City on the train burning the railroad bridges as they go and cutting the telegraph wires.
And Nathaniel Lyon then follows with the -- with the federal Home Guards by river. And they make a water landing down in Jeff City and they take the capital. The southern -- the secessionist legislators have already left so the -- the Union -- the pro-Union Legislature meets, added to it by some of -- some other legislators such as my -- my ancestor Frederick Muench, one of the Germans -- early Missouri Germans. And Lincoln recognizes that that Legislature as being the de jure authority and Missouri stays in the Union.
Although, technically then, of course, the secessionist legislators meeting to the south eventually vote to secede as well and so Missouri also has a star on the Confederate flag.
He was -- he was also known as the “Washington of the West.” When he went to Richmond, Virginia, to try to -- to try to up his chances of getting a higher command and -- and talking to Jefferson Davis the newspapers were calling him the “Washington of the West” because of his -- his recent victories in battle. Next slide, please.
This is his statue in Keytesville. Next slide, please.
This is -- this is Wilson’s Creek. That’s the actual creek there in the background. That’s right at the Gibson’s Mill site, but it’s the creek that I’m kind of showing there. This is one of the -- one of his signature battles at the beginning -- toward the beginning of the war. Next slide, please.
And here is a Union cannon at the top of Bloody Hill at Wilson’s Creek Park in Springfield. This is -- you know, the Confederates are coming up the hill to push back the Union invaders who have tried to catch them -- catch them napping. This is where Nathaniel Lyon dies in this battle, but he -- strategically even though he has to withdraw he actually stopped, delayed the Confederate attack on Springfield. So in some ways his -- his strategy worked. Next slide, please.
And this is Anderson House at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site in Lexington, Missouri. Another -- another battle that -- that deals with Price. This is the battle, of course, the famous battle of the hay bales where they used the hay bales for cover as they -- as they surrounded the Union position. Next slide, please.
And this is Elkhorn Tavern. This is at Pea Ridge in -- in Arkansas, which is a battle that pretty much meant that Missouri was going to remain in the Union for the rest of the Civil War. It was kind of centered around -- this tavern was one of the main sites. Next slide, please.
And I thought that elk horn was kind of cool at the top of the (laughter) -- of the building. That’s where -- that’s where it derived its name. Next slide, please.
And this is Fort Davidson State Historic Site at Pilot Knob. This is -- the battle that occurs here is when Sterling Price is making his -- his Missouri raid in 1864 around the state. He -- he thinks that people are going to flock to his cause if he makes an attack, but he -- he gets held up here at Pilot Knob. He decides to attack and take this fort even though it’s a small outpost. And -- and they hold him off for a day and they -- they kill a lot of his men and it makes it very tough for him then to -- to go after his real objective, which would have been St. Louis. So he winds up having to instead make a detour to the west looking at possibly attacking Jeff City, but -- but eventually winds up over at Westport getting defeated at Westport and routed there. And eventually winds up down in Texas.
I realize these are kind of hard to see, but where that -- that brown spot there is the depression where the middle of the fort was. And then this is a picture of the moat there on the right. Okay. Next slide, please.
25:58 Ulysses S. Grant
Okay. On to Grant; Grant is a fascinating character. I really -- I enjoy him, you know, he’s -- he failed at everything except the military. He tried to be a businessman and just couldn’t do it.
He was probably an alcoholic. There is a big section, if you read his memoirs, there’s a big section when he’s been posted to California that he just sort of ignores. It’s sort of a year or two that just didn’t seem to exist in his life. And that’s when he -- he got unhappy and depressed and, I think, started drinking, but I can’t really prove it.
I think a big key to Grant is that he was an expert horseman. He really loved breaking horses. And when you look at what he -- the way he fights his battles, that’s kind of the same type of activity he uses to fight his battles. He just holds on -- he holds on and holds on and holds on and doesn’t give up. And that’s what Lincoln was talking about when he said that Grant had pertinacity. He just -- he refuses to quit and refuses to lose.
He knew the winning strategy for the Civil War when you would think that some of the ones who were considered brighter generals would have really understood how to win it, but he did. Now, there is -- he had a lot of help in that from Sherman. And the -- the fellow who runs the Fort Davidson Historic Site would say that Sherman had a lot of help from Thomas Ewing, but -- but still, I think, he deserves credit for understanding the way that the war -- the only way the war was going to end with the -- with the Union winning. And he went after that victory.
He was a good general, but a poor president ‘cause corruption was rampant and we may talk about that here, too, depending on how much time we have. Okay.
I think he’s one of our greatest generals. He was a Mexican War hero. There’s a cool story about him down in Mexico in Monterey where he was the -- he was the quartermaster for his unit and he actually -- his men were running out of ammo and so to get more ammunition he rode his horse sideways in the saddle with one foot in the stirrup and one in the back using the horse as -- as a shield, the other side of the horse as a shield to get that -- that ammo.
Galena, Illinois, likes to say that Grant is one of theirs, but he only lived there for about a year and he was only there under protest because he just -- he had kind of -- he had fallen on such hard times that he finally had to go back to Daddy and get a job.
But he -- he had married a St. Louis girl. He lived in St. Louis for six years in the 1850s and he returned here in the early Civil War with troops from Illinois. There are several towns that he was stationed at during those early -- during that early part of the Civil War. And as I said earlier he was, with help from Sherman and Ewing, understood how to beat the south.
And, I think, it was basically systematically wearing them down, getting in that saddle and just riding it until -- until the end came, until he won. Next slide, please.
Okay. The character question, this is kind of important to Grant, I mean, was Grant corrupt or not? A couple of interesting stories; in 1861, Leonard Swett tries to pressure General Grant to give him some favors in a military contract and Grant threatens to have him shot. And Swett goes and complains to President Lincoln and Lincoln says, “You know, you better do what he says ‘cause he’s a man of his word.”
1862, Grant’s father brings some Jewish friends to visit him and asks him to support their cotton speculation. They want to make a fast buck selling cotton that’s piling up in the ports of the south. So Grant gets angry and -- you know, he’s angry at his father anyway. He never liked his father. So he orders all the Jews removed from his military jurisdiction, which included several states.
And (laughter) -- you know, Lincoln cooled him down to that -- on that one and rescinded the order. Now, there’s also -- and I’ll talk about this in a minute the Black Friday affair. Grant does -- goes -- when he’s president goes against his family speculators. They want him to not sell off government gold, so that they can keep the price high and he does it anyway. So, I think, there is a case to be made that he wasn’t really all that corrupt, but -- next slide, please.
But the amount of corruption in his administration, you really have to wonder, I mean, he was certainly surrounded by corrupt friends and family. He was best when he had a honest military advisor. His best friend John Rawlins served that purpose, but he died in 1869 just shortly after he became president.
And he replaced him with Orville Babcock, but he was -- Orville was not a good replacement in that -- in that case. Babcock would be later implicated in the Whiskey Ring and the Black Friday scandals. He also involved himself in Santa Domingo. Grant wanted to annex Santa Domingo, now, known as the Dominican Republic. And -- and Babcock actually purchased land in Samana Bay there where the U.S. Navy was going to build a base. And he actually was able to wangle it so that -- he ordered the Navy to squelcher rebellion there in Santa Domingo just so he could safeguard his property. Next slide, please.
I don’t know how far we want to go into these, but the -- the Black Friday affair was about gold speculation and Jay Gould and Jim Fisk were basically bribing Grant’s brother-in-law. They tried to bribe the assistant secretary of -- the assistant treasury secretary. They -- and -- and other people were involved as well and Grant wound up selling four million dollars in gold anyway. The market dropped 27 points and ruined these guys. Well, it didn’t ruin them, but -- but, you know, hurt them badly.
Credit Mobilier, a railroad construction corporation giving 340 percent profits for shareholders; both of Grant’s vice-presidents were involved in that. Next slide, please.
The Indian Agency corruption and the Belknap affair come in there as well. They’re dealing with the sale of Indian Agency contracts, getting somebody -- having people kickback money so that they can get a lucrative contract for an Indian Agency such as Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The wife of secretary of war, William Belknap, gets this contract given to this man named Marsh and when she’s -- she’s dying she arranges for the contract to be given to another friend and they wangle it so that Carrie’s sister Amanda gets the money instead. Eventually, it causes Belknap’s resignation and unfortunately Grant’s brother Orvil, his brother-in-law, John Dent, and Orville Babcock’s brother also held Indian trading posts. So it’s kind of -- everybody was in on the -- the money here. Next.
It never ends; does it?
(No response.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: Minnesota Brittan lends his name to a silver mine causes British citizens to lose money, surveying contracts. The Navy secretary gets 320,000 and a vacation home from a grain company. The Sanborn incident -- I would like to get a piece of this myself. Treasury secretary hires Sanborn to collect 427,000 in unpaid taxes. He gets to keep half of them. But then he has to return 156 of it to Richardson who is his -- now, his assistant and -- and it probably went into Republican campaign coffers. Next slide, please.
And, of course, the biggest one that was based in St. Louis and so the one that you may find the most interesting to you is the Whiskey Ring. The treasury secretary found that employees were taking kickback -- taking bribes and kickbacks on whiskey sales. And Bristow was told to investigate along with the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney. Next slide.
But then they implicate Babcock and Grant doesn’t want to believe that, so he hires a private investigator to break into Dyer’s office in a very Nixonian manner to exonerate Babcock. The private investigator finds out that the charges are true, so Grant fires him.
And Grant even testifies for Babcock in court. He doesn’t want to admit that his friends are using him for their own financial gain. Babcock winds up having to resign after the secretary of state shows Grant that he was involved in the Black Friday speculation.
And, you know, McDonald later goes to jail, the collector for the St. Louis district goes to jail and writes a tell-all book and says that Babcock and the Grants should be there, too. Next slide.
Now, some good things that -- there were some good things that happened in his -- in Grant’s administration, but the Whiskey Ring scandal basically kills any idea of returning to St. Louis for him ‘cause there’s too many people involved in those Whiskey Ring scandals. And he winds up going to New York instead and joining his son in a financial firm, but they lose their fortune in a swindle.
And Grant winds up dying of throat cancer while racing to finish his memoirs. And they’re very good memoirs to read and it may be partly because Mark Twain helped him write them. Next slide, please.
This is the cabin that he built on his farm -- on his father-in-law’s farm really in St. Louis called Hardscrabble. And he built this house himself and you can tell. The -- you know, the floors and the doors and things are all a little bit -- a little bit off, but -- but it’s a, you know, it’s a neat place to visit if you get a chance. Next slide, please.
And this is White Haven the -- sort of the manner house of the farm that the Dent’s originally owned and then Grant -- the Grant’s owned later on. And it’s a national historic site. If you get to see it in St. Louis it’s worth going to. Next slide, please.
This is Shiloh National Military Park I just -- I threw these in, a cannon demonstration. I took these photos myself. They’re not really that good, but anyway Shiloh is really where, I think, Grant comes into his own as a commander. He gets caught with his pants down, he’s pushed up -- he almost gets pushed into the river, but he hangs on long enough to get reinforced and then he goes and wins the battle the next day. Next slide, please.
37:24 Black Jack Pershing
Okay. Moving on to Pershing, Black Jack Pershing is really an important figure. And I know he’s important to one of our audience members over there. I -- you told me to use this story and I -- I guess, we’ll have to tell it later. I can’t remember all the details. But -- but, anyway, I like Black Jack Pershing a lot. I think -- he was a former school teacher. He really knew how to use his fists.
There’s a story that one day he was a little -- he disciplined one of his students a little too harshly and the father, a farmer, came to the schoolroom with a revolver and Pershing told him to put away the revolver and they’d decide it like men. And he proceeded to just beat the crap out of this farmer. Okay? And -- and he wound up -- he wound up having to take the farmer to the doctor.
He was a Spanish-American War hero and he also -- one of his -- one of the best things he did for his career was meeting Teddy Roosevelt before he became president. They grew to be fast friends over one night of drinking and cards. And eventually Teddy Roosevelt jumped him from captain to brigadier in one swoop.
He and Leonard Wood got promoted at the same time, which really bothered the other -- the other hundreds of officers who had kind of been waiting in line. But he -- he was really a man of promise and had been a very outstanding officer and if anybody deserved it he did. He worked very hard in subduing the Moros and the Philippines. He was made a “datu” and a sultan to ranks by the Moros. Some of that, I wonder, if that was really public relations, but -- but it’s a fun fact anyway.
A very important formative event in his life is when he lost his entire family in a San Francisco fire at the Presidio. When he comes back -- shortly before he’s going down to chase Pancho Villa on the border he -- he had to leave his family and he ordered that new varnish be placed on the floor of the home and the varnish caught fire and burned down the house and he lost his wife and his three daughters. The only survivor was his son. But he couldn’t really grieve publicly because there was no time and he had to look -- he had to be a stoic man who couldn’t really show that he was -- that he was hurt by this and so, I think, that made him rather hard to get along with later on.
As I said he went down -- he’s famous for going down and chasing Pancho Villa around northern Mexico and the main thing that that was -- that that excursion was good for was preparation for World War I and using -- they were first using mechanized -- mechanized vehicles and airplanes and things and testing them down there in Mexico against Pancho Villa and that would become very important later on.
Now, the one mistake that I made in my book, I believe, came right at this point. I made a mistake and I -- there’s a story in there, George Patton was a -- was a lieutenant who -- who begged Pershing to take him with him to chase Villa. And so he did and Pershing was out forging for food at a ranch house and he ran into some Villistas and he pulled out his -- his -- his Colt Peacemakers and had a Wild West shootout at this ranch and he killed these three Villistas and he tied them to the front of his -- the hood of his truck like a few prize bucks and drove them into camp and drove up to Pershing and said, hey, look what I did, you know, and Pershing thought he was nuts.
But, anyway, I made a mistake in the book and I said that he tied them to the -- the -- the hood of his Jeep and thinking as a -- thinking in terms of a generic military vehicle and I have been -- I have been severely chastised by World War II vets ever since. And I apologize for that.
(Laughter.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: Because the Jeep wasn’t invented until 1939. I know that. I know that and I shouldn’t have said that. You shouldn’t have used those words.
Of course, he’s famous for leading the AEF [American Expeditionary Force] to the win in World War I. But he also did some other things. He invented jumping jacks. So anytime you’ve been in P.E. class and you’ve done the jumping jacks that was -- that was Pershing’s first thing. And what happened was -- and I’ll show you very bad jumping jacks, I guess.
What happened was, is that -- is Pershing had -- the commandant called him in and said -- and said, Jack, you got to do something different here. The -- the laundry is screaming bloody murder. These guys have white pants on and you keep drop- -- making them drop and give you 20. And they cannot get the dirt out of the pants. Can you try to find something else to do to punish these guys? So he invented the jumping jack and he had them stand up -- he had these men in ranks, of course, and the first rank would do the arms and the second rank would do the legs. Okay?
And then -- and eventually Jack LaLanne in the 40s combined the two together patented it as the -- the “jumping jack movement”. Okay? But, Black Jack Pershing invented it.
Now, another interesting piece of that, too, is there was also a jumping jack doll. And it may have -- he may have gotten the idea from that doll. It’s a doll that has arms and legs that you pull a string on the back and the arms and legs flap, but -- but I don’t really know for sure exactly whether he derived it from that or not.
Pershing got an honorary doctorate at MU. And, I think, one of the most important things that he should be remembered for is that his actions helped us win in World War II as well. Okay? They decided part of the reason Marshall and Roosevelt decided to land -- to land in Normandy on D-day is because or Pershing’s recommendation because of the infrastructure that -- that his army built in Normandy to supply the troops, et cetera.
And they -- they understood the road network and the railroad network and so, I think, he deserves a lot more credit than he seems to get. He tends to be a forgotten general in many ways and, I think, that’s unfair. Next slide, please.
Intelligent, tough, results oriented; he’s a political man, but not a politician and he didn’t like “yes men”. And there’s a neat story from the front in World War I; George C. Marshall -- he comes to George C. Marshall’s unit, George C. Marshall is the executive officer, and Pershing -- Pershing rips into Marshall’s commanding officer saying he’s done all sorts of things wrong. He’s doing a terrible job, yadda, yadda, yadda.
After the tirade, Marshall comes up and grabs him by the sleeve and says, no, no, you’re wrong on this. And he lists off why he’s wrong and why he was being unfair to his commanding officer. All of Marshall’s buddies say, wow, you’re history. You’re history, George. You may as well take the boat back now. But what happens, Pershing calls up Marshall and says, hey, you want a job? He brings him on to his staff. To me that’s leadership.
Talked about losing the family, I -- yeah, okay, and his credit for winning World War II, I think, that the organizational lessons are also important and his training of the generals that would later lead us to victory in World War II was also a very important key; namely George Marshall. Marshall is his protégé; Bradley is Marshall’s protégé. So it kind of: Pershing, Marshall, Bradley and it goes down the line. Next slide, please.
This is Pershing’s statue up in Laclede, a great place to visit if you get a chance. Next slide, please.
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: That’s his boyhood home, same location. Next slide.
This is the Locust Street covered bridge that, I think, is just kind of cool and this would have been on the main road that Pershing probably would have taken to go over to Trenton to take his West Point exam. You’ll notice now that there’s no creek there anymore. It’s just out in the middle of a field. I don’t know, I find that an interesting thing. Next slide, please.
46:43 Omar Bradley
Okay. Omar Bradley, another poor kid; Pershing was poor, but I would say Omar Bradley was dirt poor. Okay? Of course, he’s known as the “G.I. General”. He believed in training. He -- he got more training than just about anybody. He was like constantly picking up education whenever he got the chance.
He had to, of course, work with extreme prima donnas, as we’ve seen in the movies with Monty and Patton in particular. D-day he was in charge of the American forces that were on the ground. At the Battle of the Bulge was probably not his best moment. That’s when he kind of got caught with his pants down, kind of like Grant, but he came through that, we responded, it worked out.
I think, too, that he should be remembered for helping to set up the response to the Cold War. I mentioned that earlier when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff he was also Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during Korea. He was our first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, actually. The post was invented and then he got into the slot.
He also led the VA after World War II and for those of you -- if any of you are from Columbia or are interested he’s the -- during this -- during his administration at the VA is when they decided to link up VA hospitals with University Hospital. So that’s why we have one in Missouri, up at the University of Missouri. He -- and he also received his honorary doctorate at MU. Next slide, please.
Okay. Once again, poverty roots, I think, that was important to his character. He knew how to assess and work with people. He was a real players coach, very good judgment. He’s kind of been overshadowed by Patton, partly because of the movie and, I think, that’s a little unfair. I personally think Patton was just a little bit nuts and -- and, I think, if you read -- if you really want to read an interesting his- -- Bradley’s second memoir is really good. If you read the one that came out in the early 80s it’s -- it’s not A Soldier’s Story, which is the one that won the Pulitzer Prize. That one was white-washed by the PR guys. It’s A General’s Life. Read that one. It’s very -- got very interesting information and it makes it a lot more clear why he passed up Patton, I think. Okay. And I’ve already talked about those two points. Next slide, please.
Okay. This is the sign for the City of Clark where there is really nothing to show that Bradley was even there, but that’s where he was born. Next slide, please.
And, I think, it’s kind of a shame. This is the Bradley statue up in Moberly where he graduated from high school and lived most of his early life after he had -- he had moved there after his father died. That’s his statue in the park and really that’s about all there is for -- for Bradley.
And, I think, it’s kind of sad. Moberly has -- there’s a table in the back corner of their state historic -- of their county historical museum. It’s just a fold-up table with some stuff on it. And that’s about the only tribute to -- to a man who really had a lot to do with setting up, like I say, our response to the Cold War with our defeat of -- of Germany. I think -- I think he deserves a little more. He’s probably my favorite of the five generals. Next slide, please.
This is an interesting story. I talk to you about connections sometimes. In World War I Pershing was constantly, you know, bickering between him and a rival Leonard Wood. Pershing got the job to lead the AEF [American Expeditionary Force] partly because Leonard Wood was a political -- was seen as a political rival to President Wilson, but -- and Pershing was a Republican as well, but Wilson said that Pershing could keep his mouth shut, so Pershing got the job.
He was also -- Pershing was also fighting with Peyton March who was the Army Chief of Staff. They were squabbling over who was really in charge of the American Expeditionary Force. Was it the Chairman of the Army back -- excuse me -- the Chief of Staff of the Army back in Washington or was he in charge? They fought over such things -- even such minor things as whether or not the sand brown belt which is that -- a belt that goes across -- it’s a leather belt that goes around your waist and then has a cross piece. It’s to try to hold up a heavy sword or a heavy -- heavy -- heavy pistol. Pershing liked it, Peyton March hated it, but Pershing won.
He also, didn’t get along with Douglas MacArthur all that well. So 1921, when Pershing gets back and becomes Chief of Staff of the Army he and MacArthur competed for Louise Cromwell Brooks and she later has three more names. MacArthur wins really.
And so when MacArthur -- well, the story -- the story is that they -- that they had a fling in Paris when he’s there in World War I and she eventually said we’re not doing anything else until I get a ring and -- and Pershing said, well, Louise, marrying you would be like buying a book for everybody else to borrow.
(Laughter.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: And he got up and left the apartment. Anyway. The (laughter) -- that’s the story. Anyway. So she eventually chooses MacArthur. MacArthur at that point is the -- is at the -- he’s the commandant of West Point. So because of that, Pershing exiles him to the Philippines and the rest is history in that regard.
She does not do well in the Philippines. She’s kind of a spoiled brat, flapper, socialite and she fills up the boat with all of her stuff including a car and all the other officer’s wives only get like a suitcase. So she didn’t have it -- she didn’t win any friends or influence people on that trip. Eventually they wind up -- MacArthur and her -- and she wind up getting a divorce, but that’s another -- another story.
So when MacArthur is named Chief of Staff of the Army, in retaliation, he exiles George Marshall to the Illinois National Guard ‘cause Marshall is Pershing’s protégé. Okay? So then in 1951, when Marshall -- Marshall and Bradley are in the room and they’re advising Truman to fire MacArthur, so my question is: Was that Pershing’s last revenge?
(No response.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: I don’t know, but it’s a fun idea, fun story. Okay. Next slide, please.
53:36 20th Century Connections
And this is kind of -- just a chart of those connections between how the -- how these generals kind of fit together. Dwight Eisenhower is in the middle between MacArthur and Marshall. He was MacArthur’s PR guy and then he switched over as soon as he could to get -- to get along with Marshall where the real power was and since they -- we kind of wanted to focus on Europe first in World War II. You can kind of see this Europe versus Asia thing developing and MacArthur was a great fit for Asia. They could put him out in Asia and it made it look like they were really doing something when they were really focused on Europe. Okay. Next slide, please.
54:12 Missouri Military Hall of Fame
I just wonder here if there would be a possibility of a Missouri Military Hall of Fame. I’d like to sell a few books. Not really. Not really. I’m just saying, I think, these guys deserve something -- something better than what they’ve got right now. I talked about this with Bradley.
But even the other generals that I’ve focused on, there’s just not a whole lot of -- there’s just not much there to honor these guys and, I think, they deserve more than they’re getting. Next slide, please.
54:44 Interesting Men and Interesting Stories
And just to sum it up. Once again, it’s the Interesting Men and Interesting Stories. It’s the stories that I care about, but I also think that studying the generals brings lessons and leadership that you don’t find in a whole lot of other environments. These were men who were successful leaders who changed the world. And I think that they deserve recognition for that. And as Harry Truman said, “Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.” So make sure you read Five Stars. Okay. All right. Blatant commercialism, but anyway that’s -- now, he did say the first part.
Anyway that’s what I have for you this evening. I really appreciate you coming. I’d like to open it up for questions at this point.
(No response.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: Well, thank you very much for having me today.
(Applause.)
MR. JAMES F. MUENCH: I really -- I really appreciate the invite.