Henry Granville Sharpe Henry Granville Sharpe ( April 30 , 1858 – July 13 , 1947 ) was the 24th Quartermaster General of the United States Army from 1916 to 1918 . Biography . Sharpe was born in Kingston , New York , in 1858 , and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , graduating in 1880 . Sharpe served on frontier duty with the 4th Infantry Regiment ( United States ) at Fort Laramie , Wyoming for the next year and a half . Following a six months ' leave of absence , he submitted his resignation from the Army to take effect June 1 , 1882 . About fifteen months later on September 12 , 1883 , Sharpe was reappointed to the Army as a commissary of subsistence with the rank of Captain and assigned to temporary duty at New York City . He was then stationed at West Point 1884 to 1889 . From 1889 to 1898 he served as a commissary officer at various locations to include Washington , Oregon and the St . Louis Depot . He was promoted to the rank of Major on November 13 , 1895 . He transferred from St . Louis to Boston on March 15 , 1897 , but assumed his duties there only after he had purchased and distributed supplies for the relief of sufferers from the Mississippi flood at St . Louis , Missouri and at Cairo , Illinois . When war with Spain was imminent in April 1898 , he was appointed chief commissary of the First Army Corps , and deployed with the Corps to Puerto Rico . There he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed an assistant commissary general of subsistence . He remained on duty in Puerto Rico until December 21 , 1898 . For a short time he was assigned to the Chicago Depot as purchasing commissary general , but in September 1899 he was ordered to Washington to act as assistant to the Commissary General of Subsistence . This assignment lasted until the spring of 1902 . He was then sent to Manila as chief commissary of the Division of the Philippines . By that time he been promoted to the rank of Colonel and was the senior officer in the Subsistence Department . Sharpe ' s tour of duty in the Philippines lasted until he was again recalled to Washington to act as assistant to the Commissary General of Subsistence . He served in this capacity from June 22 , 1904 , to October 8 , 1905 . He was commissioned Commissary General of Subsistence with the rank of Brigadier General on October 12 , 1905 , and was reappointed for a second four - year detail in 1909 . In the summer of 1907 he sailed to Europe at his own expense to investigate the supply departments of the British , French , and German armies . He visited the schools for bakers and cooks maintained by those armies . The data he obtained on the use of rolling kitchens in the French and German armies materially assisted in the development of similar equipment suitable for the U . S . Army . Upon his return to Washington in September 1907 , General Sharpe submitted recommendations to the War Department urging the establishment of a supply corps . While these were not adopted , they undoubtedly proved helpful when the subject of consolidating the Quartermaster , Subsistence , and Pay Departments into one agency was being considered four years later . Sharpe was so enthusiastic about establishing a consolidated supply corps that Quartermaster General James B . Aleshire called him the " father of consolidation . " Many of Sharpe ' s friends recommended that he be selected to head the newly created Quartermaster Corps in 1912 . But when his classmate , General Aleshire , was appointed , Sharpe accepted a subordinate post in the Corps and worked devotedly to prove the value of consolidation . When ill health brought General Aleshire ' s retirement four years later , General Sharpe was appointed to succeed him as Quartermaster General on September 16 , 1916 . This was approximately seven months before the United States declared war against Germany . World War I . The Quartermaster Corps and the War Department generally were unprepared for World War I . The supply bureaus within the Quartermaster Corps were eager to procure and ship as quickly as possible the enormous quantities of supplies for which they were responsible . However , their uncoordinated procurement resulted in excessive and unbalanced railway shipments that overtaxed port facilities and finally developed into a serious congestion of the railroad system in the winter of 1917 - 18 . By that time shortages in clothing , hospital equipment , and other supplies were causing hardships in Army camps , and it was charged by some that the lack of adequate clothing and shelter was responsible for an epidemic of pneumonia sweeping through the camps . General Sharpe was held responsible by many for a large share of the supply crisis that had developed . These developments stirred a widespread uneasiness that led to a Congressional hearing on the conduct of the war . In the end the General Staff took complete control of supplies and the Office of the Director of Purchase and Storage in the Purchase , Storage , and Traffic Division was erected on the foundation of the Quartermaster Corps . On December 15 , 1917 , a War Council was formed consisting of the Secretary of War , the Assistant Secretary of War , the Quartermaster General , the Chief of Artillery , the Chief of Ordnance , the Judge Advocate General , and the Chief of Staff . The War Council was to oversee and coordinate all matters of supply and to plan for the more effective use of the military power of the nation . While serving on the Council , General Sharpe was required to delegate all his administrative duties to an acting chief Quartermaster designated by the Secretary of War . In June 1918 , General Sharpe was relieved from duty with the War Council and assigned to the command of the Southeastern Department . The following month he was appointed a Major General in the line of the Army , with rank from July 12 and officially ceased to be Quartermaster General . General Sharpe requested retirement on May 1 , 1920 , he was then 62 . In his later years he lived in Providence , Rhode Island , where he died at the age of 89 , on July 13 , 1947 . He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Legacy . General Sharpe was inducted into the Quartermaster Hall of Fame in 1989 .