William S . Graves Major General William Sidney Graves ( 27 March 1865 — 27 February 1940 ) was a United States Army Major General . He commanded American forces in Siberia during the Siberian Expedition , part of the Allied Intervention in Russia . Biography . Born in Mount Calm , Texas to the Reverend Andrew Carrol ( a Southern Baptist minister ) and Evelyn ( née Bennett ) Graves , Graves attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated on 12 June 1889 . Graves married Katherine Pauline " Kate " Boyd , daughter of William Lang and Augusta Josephine ( née Merriam ) Boyd , at St . Mark ' s Episcopal Church in Cheyenne , Wyoming , on 9 February 1891 . Katherine was the niece of his commanding officer , Henry C . Merriam . He served in the Spanish - American War in the Philippines until 1902 . He fought at the Battle of Caloocan as a company commander during the insurrection . In 1918 he was given command of the 8th Infantry Division and sent to Siberia under direct orders from President Woodrow Wilson . He landed on September 1 , 1918 . His orders were to remain strictly apolitical amidst a politically turbulent situation , as a result , he found himself constantly at odds with his Allied peers , the State Department , and various Russian groups . Given some 8 , 000 soldiers in what was called the American Expeditionary Forces ( A . E . F . ) , he settled on the idea of making sure the Trans - Siberian railroad stayed operational and brought in a number of railroad experts to run the railway . His troops did not intervene in the Russian Civil War despite strong pressure brought on him to help the White army of Admiral Kolchak . Early on , Graves developed a strong distaste for Kolchak and his government . Graves thought that the British , French , and Japan ese forces in Siberia were all following self - serving political ambitions beyond the stated goals of the Allies , which were to protect supplies provided by the powers to their erstwhile Tsarist allies and to provide for the safe conduct of foreign allied troops , primarily Czechs , who were to exit Russia via Vladivostok . Graves believed , correctly , that the British and French were trying to suppress Bolshevik forces ( thought by some to be the result of German provocateurs ) . He also believed ( again correctly ) that the Japanese had plans to annex parts of Eastern Siberia ( the Amur region , east of Lake Baikal ) . The Japanese deployed an estimated 72 , 000 soldiers — some 6 times the authorized troop level of 12 , 000 set by the Allies . U . S . forces operated the Trans - Siberian railroad for almost two years , while bandits roamed the Siberian countryside and the political situation turned chaotic . The U . S . military did accomplish its main objective and the entire Czech Legion was evacuated out of Russia via Vladivostok . The last U . S . soldiers left Siberia April 1 , 1920 . Historian Benson Bobrick wrote of Graves : " In the whole sad debacle , he may have been the only honorable man . " General Graves was promoted to the rank of major general on 11 July 1925 , and retired from the army in 1928 and then wrote a book about his time in Siberia . William and Kate would have four children , " infant Graves " ( who died as a newborn on October 27 , 1891 , and is buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver , Colorado - ) , Marjorie ( 19 November 1892 – 24 February 1894 ; also buried at Ft . Logan NC . ) , Sidney Carroll ( 1893 – 1974 , USMA 1915 ) and Dorothy ( Mrs . William R . Orton ) . Major Sidney C . Graves would receive a Distinguished Service Cross ( DSC ) in World War I , and then a second DSC in the Russia campaign , and in 1921 married Olga Roosevelt ( Bayne ) , a direct relative of President Theodore Roosevelt , both descendants of Cornelius van Schaick Roosevelt ( her grandfather , Robert Barnwell Roosevelt , and the president ' s father , Theodore Roosevelt , Sr . , were brothers ) .