Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1917 — BLACKJACK’ [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BLACKJACK’

He's the general in command of the first division of American soldiers that has gone to the rescue of heroic France

tr\S} NOWN to his men variously as JaC ‘ 4Fi g htin ? John.” “Kitchener” Pershing and “Black Jack,” the man who commands the first American division in France is the ideal type of American soldier. The grim lines of his mouth indicate the qualities which —have made hi in successful in war. The Pershing smile when it illumines his face hints of those other qualities which have endeared him even to his foes. Major General Pershing—he won his two stars for the conduct of the expedition into Mexico—is a chivalrous soldier. He is the type who fights relentlessly until he has beaten his enemy and then helps him. His fellow officers say that he attained his present rank because he “soldiered hard,” and it is a pretty good sign lhat he has fairly won his rank when he. is so generally well thought of by the over the heads of 862 of whom he was from the grade of captain to tfcjp£#o£ brigadier general by President KOoSevelt. The Ideal American Soldier. General Pershing began to be the Ideal soldier on the day he entered the United States Military academy at West Point. He graduated as senior cadet captain, which is the highest rank which can be attained at the academy. He was immediately appointed second lieutenant In the Sixth cavalry and, under Gen. Nelson A. Miles, plunged into the thick of the fighting against the Apaches. He had not been in the’ saddle a full year when General Miles complimented him in orders for “marching his troop, with pack train, over rough country, 140 miles in 46 hours, bringing in every man and animal In good condition.” In Mexico General Pershing more than lived up to the record of a dashing cavalry leader which he established as a second lieutenant in 1887. The campaigns against Geronimo taught Pershing his first lessons in real war. The kind of fighting he learned from the Apnche and Sioux campaigns stood him in good stead when he tackled the Moros. How modern armies fight, or did fight previous to the present war, he learned in Cuba and as military attache and observer with the. Japanese armies in their war against Russia. In 1889 young Lieutenant Pershing won commendation again from General Miles when, as commander of Troop A of the Sixth cavalry, he .took ' ten men, rescued a band of cowboys who had been captured by one hundred hostile Indians, captured a number of horse thieves who were among the Indians, and returned with his party to Fort Wingate, without having fired, a shot, lost a single man or'killed an Indian. That is typical of the man. He is the true American soldier. He does not kill when he can win without It. The experience Pershing gained fighting Geronimo and other Apache chiefs caused him to be sent to the Dakotas in command of the Sioux scouts in the wars against the rebellious Sioux. After this period of fighting he became military instructor in the University of Nebraska, where he took the degree of LL.B., and in the early nineties he was sent to West Point as an instructor. Valor at El Caney. When the Spanish-American war began the young lieutenant became restive and begged tp be sent back to the line. He was assigned to a negro regiment and won commendation in orders for his work at El Caney. A more substantial reward for his valor came, after he was sent to the Philippines. in the form of a captain’s commission. It was in the Philippines that “Black Jack” Pershing did his greatest work and won glory for himself and. the American army. A little more than ten years ago the United States faced a tremendous problem in the Philippines, Almost incessant warfare han existed between Christians and Moslems In the archipelago since Magellan was slain during the voyage in which Europeans first circumnavigated the globe. Spaniards, British and Americans ao far had failed to settle the problem. Its entire weight was shift*

ed to the broad shoulders of the then Captain Fershing pnd he straightened under the burden and carried it to the end. In 1899 he became adjutant general, executive officer of the department of Mindanao and Jolo. In this capacity he studied the Moros and the Moro problem. He tried in every honorable way to conciliate the native chiefs and judges or dattos, but the Moros would not fake the word of a white man. Later they learned that Pershing’s word was never broken. Finally, after studying the question from every possible viewpoint, he decided that the only way to subdue the natives was to prosecute a campaign against them. Washlngtdh coincided with this view and Pershing went into the jungle. - Every foot of the way, through muddy rqads little better than jungle trails, where guns and caissons sometimes sank hub'deep and had tmbe raised by planks and levers; through insect infested forests, in an atmosphere fraught with fever and malaria, he had to fight against crazed Mohammedan warriors, who believed that to die - slaying Christians insured them of a life in heaven with a white horse to ride and beautiful houris to wait upon them. Against odds like this the expedition fought and cut its way to the Lake Lanao country, where the Moros had gathered in force. At Bayan Captain Pershing gave the rebels their first taste of American fighting. The battle resulted in a brilliant tactical victory for our troops, and the expedition pressed forward. Destroyed 40 Forts. The sultan of Macolod, one of the most powerful of the nntive rulers, refused to surrender. With a battalion of Infantry, a squadron of cavalry and a section of guns Pershing moved against him and threatened to demolish his fort unless he gave in. The sultan was defiant. He dreamed that his stronghold was impregnable. In two days it was a memory and the American troops had received upon their bayonets the last maddened charge of the Moro band. The Americans had two men wounded. One after the other 40 Moro forts fell under Pershing’s assaults and the island of Mindanao was at peace, two Americans having lost their lives. Then the Pershing smile succeeded the fighting grimness of his face and the Moros became his friend. They made a datto of him and they submitted to his judgment in their legal disputes, and the United States made him military governor of the department. For this work he was advanced to the grade of brigadier general, although 862 officers had priority over him. For a time Pershing was relieved of his Philippine duties because of ill health, but the Moros of Jolo continued to make trouble and he was sent back to subdue them as he had the rebels of Mindanao. It was a bigger task, arid one the magnitude of which has seldom confronted a regular army officer except in time of actual war. Pershing picked a command of men every one of whom he knew down to the last private—He loved them all as children and they loved him as “Black .Tack” and “Fighting John” Pershing. There wasn’t a man under him whose face the genernl didn’t know and whom he could not call by name. The Moros —men, women and children —had taken refuge and fortified themselves in the crater of Bud Dajo. an extinct volcano, on the island of Jolo. Pershing announced to his men that he was going to drive the rebels out of the crater if it took ten years to do It. There were 600 Moros, everyone of them imbued with the faith that each Christian he slew’ would be his slave in the Moro heaven, lurking under the rim of the big hole in the top of the mountain. Guerrilla Warfare. The addition of a band of Filipino scouts brought the American forces up to about one thousand men. Every inch of the way from the shore of the island they had to fight against the hidden enemy. Outposts w’ere stabbed in the night by naked savages, who wriggled through the tall grass without a sound. Pickets and patrolling parties were fallen upon and slain by beast-men, who swung from.the branchos of tropical trees and palms like panthers, but the relentless column cut its way further and further toward the heart of the Moro stronghold and at last spread in a thin circle around the base of the ancient volcano. Several times reconnoitering parties of American troops crawled to the ritn of the crater and observed the disposi-

tion and numbers of the Moros without being seen. At last General Pershing announced that if the Moros did not surrender within spur days he would storm the position. Two days, later ninety of the men came dow r n the side of the mountain and surrendered. Hunger had shattered even Moslem fanaticism, and thoughts of heaven had given away before the pangs of empty stomachs. • They were disarmed and set at liberty. The same afternoon 150 more, men and women both, straggled into cainp and gave themselves up. By nightfall almost five hundred of the Moros had throw’n themselves on the mercy of the Americans. When the Four Days Were Up. At the end of the four days General Pershing ordered an advance. The crater itself w r as found to be deserted, but a band of almost one hundred men had hidden in the jungle. They tried to break through the cordon of troops on the east side of the mountain, and so fierce was the fighting that Captain Barber was wounded by a shot fired so close to his body that it burned his clothing. Those of the band w’ho were not killed were driven back into the crater, and although they attempted several times in the night to break through the line, not a man escaped. All the available troops surrounded the piece of jungle In which the Moros were hiding, and it was only a question of time before they would.be annihilated. At this juncture an aged datto appealed to General Pershing, declaring that he could persuade the rebels to surrender. Always willing to spare bloodshed where it was possible, Pershing told him to do his best, but made it perfectly plain that the surrender must be unconditional. For two hours the datto paced back and forth in the jungle calling in the native dialect to his people. At last they answered and he persuaded them to surrender. Only forty-five were left. They marched down the mountainside and laid down their arms, several automatic pistols among them, and were sent- to Jolo, where they went aboard the cutter Samar and were taken to Zamboanga and spent some time in the Calarlan prison. It broke the back of the. Moro power in the Philippines. The dattos nev- . er became a menace again. Became Major General. In January, 1916, having endeared himself alike to the hearts of the Filipinos and Americans in the islands, General Pershing returned to the United States and was placed in command of the Eighth brigade of the regular army, with headquarters at El Paso. There he remained until the on Columbus, N. M., when President Wilson placed him in command of the flying punitive expedition into Mexico. That this expedition did not turn out to be more punitive was not General Pershing’s fault. General Pershing was under orders and in communication with the war department all the time, and the way in which he handled the Mexican problem met with the full approval of President Wilson. Pershing can be a diplomatist as well.as a soldier. General Pershing’s men regard him in the most kindly manner. Were he in command of French troops they would doubtless call him “Papa” Pershing, as they do the great marshal of France, but he Is over American boys, and to them there is more endearment in the terms “Black Jack” and “Fighting John.” v