page_title: John J. Pershing
section_title: West Point instructor
hierarchical_section_title: John J. Pershing / West Point instructor
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Army General John J. Pershing with his wife and three of their children. Pershing's wife and three daughters were killed in a fire in 1915; only his son Warren survived.
context_page_description: General of the Armies John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing GCB was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front in World War I, 1917–18.
  Pershing rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated with their armies, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command, although some American divisions fought under British command, and he also allowed all-black units to be integrated with the French army.
  Pershing's soldiers first saw serious battle at Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Soissons. To speed up the arrival of American troops, they embarked for France leaving heavy equipment behind, and used British and French tanks, artillery, airplanes and other munitions. In September 1918 at St. Mihiel, the First Army was directly under Pershing's command; it overwhelmed the salient – the encroachment into Allied territory – that the German Army had held for three years.
context_section_description: In 1897, Pershing was appointed to the West Point tactical staff as an instructor, where he was assigned to Cadet Company A. Because of his strictness and rigidity, Pershing was unpopular with the cadets, who took to calling him "Nigger Jack" because of his service with the 10th Cavalry.
  During the course of his tour at the Academy, this epithet softened to "Black Jack," although, according to Vandiver, "the intent remained hostile." Still, this nickname would stick with Pershing for the rest of his life, and was known to the public as early as 1917.
caption: Pershing with his wife Helen and three of their children
exif: {}