The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-06-17
Gen. Billiard Tells West Point
Cadets of Heroism of Regulars
Officer Known "Slent Man. Spurs What He
clares to Be His Third Speech-American Determine
ton Won War.


division in France, was the principal
speaker at West Point commence
ment last Wednesday. The speech is
of interest here, owing to the fact that
Gen. Billiard Is a southerner, being an
Albanian by birth and because OF
his kinship to the Littleton and Brab-
son families of Tennessee. The gen.
raj married u younger sister of Mrs.
Mary Brabson Littleton, daughter OF
the late Reese Brabson.
West Point. The 275 members OF the
1921 class Of West Point, who were
commissioned on November OF last
year but were held at the school be-
cause of the early signing OF the armis-
tice, received their diplomas from Sec
rotary Baker.
At the close of the commencement
exercises a cablegram from Cen. Per-
shing. was read stating that tne class
would be taken overseas in July ana
would spend three months travelling over
the war zone, studying battlefields un-
der the instruction of the officers who
fought there, and surveying the pase
organizations and the army OF occupa-
ton. The cablegram was received with
cheers.
Gen. Peyton c. March said that the
commencement, to be followed by the
trip abroad was significant as marking
the close of the period when West Point
graduates on getting their commis-
sions, were sent to distant army posts.
and the beginning of period when the
graduates would start on intensive
training in military science outside the
school.
The achievements OF the First divi-
sion were specially celebrated. Brig. :
Gen, Tillman said that the country had
not heard much OF them because the
rattle OF the machine guns was COM
pletely drowned by the pounding OF the
typewriters," and he continued:
''It was the first division to leave this
country. the first on the other side. the
first in the trenches, the first to occupy
a sector by itself, the first to fire a.
hostile shot into the enemy, the first TO
capture G. German prisoner, the first
to have casualty. the hrst TO recap
ture town which had been taken by
the enemy, and the first to hold 1t
against six times its numbers"
Gen. Tillman said this in introducing
the speaker of the day. Lieut.. Gen:
Robert Lee Billiard, who commanded
the First division, until he was pro.
NOTED first to the command OF a corps
and then to the command of an army.
The graduating class listened with IN
tense interest TO the address OF Gen.
Bullard, who condensed the experiences
of life OF soldering into vivid SEN
"sIIent Man'sv Third Speech.
Gen. Bullard is known as silent
man" and he said that this was the
third speech of his lifetime. HIS nrst
address was made thirty-eight years
ago under duress when he was COM
PEELED on his entrance to West Point by
upper classmen to deliver the alphabet
with such rhetorical flourishes as he
could command. His second address,
he said, was on the Mexican border,
which he briefly mentioned as the
CarranZa border" when, being calieo
on by q body of civilians to make a
speech, he finally responded with sew
enteen words.
lust issued an eleventh commandment
to army officers, Thou shalt not talk
His third speech, which ne was now
ordered by the war department: he
began by urging the graduates to hang
on to all they had learned. From ms
own career he gave the Impressive ex-
ampes of the value of studies which 10
students might appear very indirectly
connected with the life of a soldier. He
said that II was because he remembered
something of the French he had learned
at the academy that he was sent TO
France in the post which he had oc-
cupied and which naturally LED TO ms
assignment to train the First army
corps. His French was faulty, but, he
'It was hard to find even a few of
us who had remembered as much as
| have, but it served me and it served
the government WELL"
In the Philippines, Gen. Billiard said,
the Spanish which he had retained came
to his aid, when, after
hot battle with a band of Filipinos, he
heard a prisoner, who, thought no one
understood him, eXclaim:
'They have captured all our money
but they don't know it,"
This led to a search, with the result
that 20, GOO silver dollars, a good sized /
treasury for the Fiipinos, was discov-
cred and captured.
II stood thirty-eighth in class of
thirty nine in drawing" Gen. Bullard
continued. There was not much bot
tom underneath me. and have telt |
that lack all the time. When l reached
the other side the first thing l noticed
was that everything seemed TO be done
by drawing. You Travelled by maps,
YOU marched by maps. you Unanswered
by maps, you slept by maps, you fought
by maps and you did everything else
by maps and graphic.
Gen. Billiard said that he had found
the fundamental character training OF
the military in frankness. loyalty and
honor, which had been stressed by the
commander of the school, had
proved in his experience to be a per-
feet guide for the oftlcers, Whetner ne
knew all the regulations or not. When
he first became an officer he had care |
fully memorized the regulations, only
to have them all repealed and amended |
as soon as he had learned them and |
he had gone through this experience |
repeatedly. He continued:
AFTER these experiences | said, |
Never again. and l resorted to these |
three words, which you have heard |
here, as my regulations--honor and |
iuty and country. They fit in every |
hing. They st here, they fit in the |
they mt in France. they fit |
n Mexico, and D have never got into |
rouble by not knowing ths regulations. !
Don't forget them"
Gen. Billiard gave his theory Of the |
of soldiership as learn
ng, organizing and perfecting every
hing in advance, against the time OF
lction.
when the units with which l went |
'vor." he said, arrived in France they |
lad never had any organization. We
lad the tables OF, organization and |
new what they should consist of. but
hey had never worked together. The |
'irst division was a division of paper.
The first time we tried to use it we
ound that out. At once we started 10
make a machine.
Don't try TO do anything in the mill