The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-12-06
General Perish
ing's Life History

ing's Life History
The man who today leads the tri.
umphant armies of the United Statel
across the German border In carry
ing liberty into the very provinces
which was the home of his fore
fathers. General John J. Pershing
commander in chief of the Ameri
can expeditionary forces in France,
is a direct descendant Of French
Huguenots of Alsace. His great
! great-grandfather was born abou
three-quarters of a mile from the
river Rhine.
This great-great-grandfather came
to America in 1749. At that time
the family name was spelled "Pfoer'
schin." To better conform with Eng.
lish the name was finally changed to
"Pershin," and Isaac Pershin added
the final "g." The son of the first
Pershing in America was a Metho-
dist minister in Pennsylvania. His
son Joseph was the grandfather of
the present American commander.
John Fletcher Pershing moved west
ward into Missouri. and in the town
OF Laelede, Linn, county, no., en-
September 80, 1850, there was born
the man who today occupies with
American forces one Of the old pro-
y'nres of France from which his an
sestOrs migrated.
At the opening Of the Civil war in
the following year home made flag
appeared on q pole in front Of the
Pershing homestead. Accor ling to
Rena Michaels Atchison, who relates
this incident, the flag had been made
from materials purchased in the
nearest town. Father Pershing was
prepared with rifles and couple of
friends to see that it was never
pulled down.
Some days later a wood burning
engine drawing a troop train groaned
along the track in front of the farm
house. 1t carried the first division
of Union soldiers to enter the dis
puted state of Missouri. Pershing
and his two friends, all armed with
rifles, stood at salute beside the flag
pole and cheered the arrival of these
unexpected reinforcements. Beside
the little band stood Ann Thompson
Pershing, who had bravely stitched
the emblem. In her arms she car
ried the boy who later as a man was
to carry the same flag on distant bat
tlefields. John J. Pershing has car
ried the stars and stripes against the
Indians, against the Moros, against
the Spaniards, against Mexicans and
against the Germans.
At the age of twenty Pershing
graduated with the degree of B. A.
from the Kirkville normal school.
In 1882 he entered West Point, and
upon his graduation, with high honor
in 1886. he was assigned as a first
lieutenant in the sixth cavalry and
detailed for duty in the Apache In
dian country. Two years later he
was commanding the Souix Scouts
under General Miles in the Dakotas.
He became instructor of military
science in the University Of Nebraska
in 1889, and there manifested his
first severe insistence upon extreme
discipline.
One day at the cadet encampment
a line of cadets under Pershing's
command were lying on their stom-
achs firing by volleys on a screened
target. In those days the drill regu-
lations specified the firing commands
as Load" Ready" AIM" and
Fire. Pershing having given the
first three commands, waited and
then touched one cadet on the foot
and in a quiet tone ordered him to
fire his piece. The cadet did SO, and
Immediately all of the other cadets
in the line blazed away. Every man
in the command who had discharged
his piece without orders received
severe reprimand for this breach of
discipline. The instructor had tricked
them, but the trick had effectively
inculcated in them great principle.
After eight years as an instruc-
tor in West Point Pershing went to
Cuba in 1898 and served under Ger
eral Shafter., But it was in the fol-
lowing year that career of the Ameri-
can commander began to develop.
This occupied in the PHILIPPINES, where
as adjutant general on the staff of
General Bates he organized and sue
cessfully conducted the first Ameri-
con expedition into the Zulu arch
ipelago.
In 1903 Pershing was called back
to America by President Roosevelt
and given position on the general
staff at the time of it's initial organ
ization. In 1905 he married Miss
Frances H. Warren, daughter of Sen
ator Francis e. Warren OF Wyoming. |
The wedding took place in Washing
ton, D. G. in that same year he was
appointed military attache at the
American embassy at Toxic, Japan,
and accompanied Kuroki's army as
an observer on the Manchurian cam
paign in the Russo-Japanese war.
Before leaving Toxic in 1906 he was
decorated by the Japanese emperor.
In recognition Of Pershing's sup
preston of the Moro uprising in the |
Philippines President Wilson pro-
noted him in 1906 from the grade |
If captain to that of brigadier gen.
eral. In this elevation Pershing |
Jumped over the heads of 862 senior