The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-04-02
ACHIEvEMENTS0F.
GENERALS At TOP
or REGULAR ARMY
J. Franklin Bell Like the Late
Funston, Is Fighting Man
Man Purely.

Man Purely.
Major-G General J. Franklin Bell, the
new commander Of the Department OF
the East, comes to Governors Island
with the record Of a fighting man
pure and simple. He is a representa-
tive of the element of the army which
came from obscurity to fame in con-
sequence of the Spanish-American
War.
! His valor is attested by, the medal
of honor he wears, which was con-
ferred upon him for extraordinary
bravery as a colonel Of volunteers in
the Philippines.
Off there in Luzon Province a
scouting party of his regiment one
September day in '99 encountered a
patrol of instructors broke and fed.
| Urging his mount forward Bell charg-
ed the retreating Filipinos, and,
| though they were all fully armed and
were making good use Of their fire
arms, Bell single handed corralled
seven Of the party and drove them in
to camp.
1t is sufficient commentary on the
quality of Bell, that the war with
Spain found him a humble lieutenant
of twenty years standing in the ia
nous Seventh Cavalry. Eight years
| later he had mounted to Chief of
Staff and acting head of the United
States Army.
| He is Kentuckian by birth, tall,
spare, with a flowing mustache, now
whitened with the years, and of typi-
cal soldierly bearing He entered
West Point in 1874. Four years later
| he was graduated a second lieutenant,
and in due time was assigned to the
Seventh Cavalry. In the ensuing
years he rendered gallant service in
the Indian wars in the Dakotas. Then
| hen hibernated as all army officers
did until the outbreak of the war with
Spain. Bell was then forty-five years
old.
| First as Chief of Scouts and then as
Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Volunteer
Infantry he fought his way forward,
contributing his share toward the pa
cification Of the Philippines, and fl
nally i'm February, 1901, Roosevelt, in
recognition of his services, nominated
him to the rank of Brigadier-G General,
which was conferred upon him by the
Senate after a bitter fight.
| With the rank of Brigadier attain
| l.
! where he once more attacked the
work of pacificationA whence he was
recalled to the states and attached to
the School Of Instruction at Fort Lea
wentworth until he was called to the
post of Chief of Staff by President
| Taft in 1909. Since then Bell has
successfully served as Chief Of Staff,
as military commander in the Phili-
pines and as commander of the De-
partment of the West at San Francis
CO.
| Of equal repute as a fighter is Brig
adler General Clarence r. Edwards,
who by the War Department order
| becomes Commander of the newly
created Department of the Northeast,
with headquarters at boston. Ed
| wards also is West Pointer, having
graduated from the Point in 1888. He
has record of brilliant fighting in the
| Philippines and Of equally brilliant
administration of the Bureau Of In
sular Affairs during the formative
period of the colonial policy of the
United States.
| AS chief Of staff to the 1amented
LawtQn, Edwards was sucessively
brevetted by that commander as ma
jor, Northumberland, colonel and
brigadier- general for his galIantry in
the field. With specific reference to
the battle Of Santa, Province of La
guna, on April 10, 1899, General Law
ton said of Edwards:
''To Major Clarence Charles R. Ed
wards, assistant adjutant-general, was
entrusted the centre of our advancing
lines This gallant officer, fully alive
to the responsibilities resting upon
him, was equal to the occasion, and
no line Of battle could have been more
courageously led, as the results prov
ed. I desire to commend him in the
highest terms for the gallant work
done on this occasion"
| When Lawton was killed in battle,
General Edwards accompanied his re-
mains to Washington, and thereafter
was assigned to the work of organ
izing the Bureau of Insular Affairs, in
which he practically formulated the
| policy which has prevailed through
out in the management Of the tnsular
possessions. Of the United States
In 1913 General Edwards was de-
tached from the Bureau of Insular
Affairs and sent to command the
| troops in Hawaii. Later he rendered
important service in mobilizing the
troops on the border, whence he was
sent 10 command the forces on the
Panama Canal Zone, from which post
he now comes to organize the new
Department of the Northeast.
General Edwards was born in Ohio.
and is the ranking Brigadier-Gener-
al Of the Army. He was a member of
the famous Taft Philippines party,
| and. is one OF the most popular Off
GERS in the service.
Major-General Hunter Liggett, who
succeeds General Bell in command of
the Department Of the West, is a ma
tive Of Pennsylvania, from which
state he was appointed to West Point
in 1875.
Graduating four years later, he was
| assigned to the Fifth Infantry, with
which regiment he remained until
1902, when he attained his majority
in the Twenty-first Infantry.
General Liggett also is a veteran of
the Philippine wars. He became
brigadier-genreal in 1913, and was
placed in command of the Fourth
Brigade, Second Division, at Texas
City. Later he was sent to the Phili-