Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 199, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1917 — MEN WHO WILL LEAD NEW NATIONAL ARNY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MEN WHO WILL LEAD NEW NATIONAL ARNY

President soon will appoint a number of major-generals and brigadier-generals to command the “Liberty Boys" of 1917 :: Edward B. Clark gives valorous records of some likely candidates

S SOON as the various and A perhaps multitudinous recommendations can be studVSIA led and the majority approval determined, major & generals and brigadier generals will be named to comSkrff mand divisions and brigades in the new National army. It may be a matter of interest to young men who are to serve their country to know into whose keeping their leadership is to be committed. The names of the men selected for high service with the new National army have not yet been made public, but it Is virtually known that the major generals will be chosen from officers of regulars now holding the rank of brigadier general, and that the brigadier generals will be chosen from regulars now holding either the rank of colonel or of lieutenant colonel. On June 8 last the president sent to the senate nominations for new major generals and brigadier generals for the regular army. It must be understood that these men were named for regular service and not for National army service. It Is probable, however, that several of the regular brigadiers will be made major generals of the new forces. It will cause no surprise If Col. John W. Heard of the Fifth cavalry shall be a general officer of the new forces. Young Americans may know that if they get Heard as a commanding officer they will get a soldier with a fighting record. Heard wears a medal of honor given to him by a vote of congress for conspicuous personal gallantry. During the Spanish war the transport to

which he and his immediate command were assigned became disabled at the mouth of the Manlmani river west of Bahia Honda, Cuba. Behind the rocks and in the thickets on the shore were scores of Spanish soldiers. The deck of the transport was being swept by Mauser bullets from the rifles of the hidden foe. Mechanical communication between the engine room and the pilot house of the transport was out of service and it was necessary to transmit orders by messengers. Because of his place on th 6 boat Heard did not know that two of his men had been shot in quick succession while performing the duty of order bearing. When he heard of it he said: “I will ask no more of my men to expose themselves. Give me your order's.” For twenty minutes he carried the messages along the deck, though Mauser bullets cut his blouse and splintered the railings and the boat's upper works all about him. Every step Of his way was marked out by shots, yet he came through unscathed. He wears the medal given “For Valor." When President Wilson recently promoted some colonels to be brigadier generals of regulars one of those advanced was Col. Joseph T. Dickman, cavalry officer, now in command at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont. It probably is not poor guessing to place Dickman as one of the brigadiers who will be given the command of a division of the new National army. He is a sturdy soldier of high record, a student and fighter. For army boards appointed for investigation and method-reforming purposes Dickman always has been a favorite choice. He looks like a soldier and he has proved on many a field that he has the soldier Instinct. There is a feeling here that one day he will be heard from in France.

It was Dickman who in 1892 with a small detachment fought, defeated and captured the bandit chiefs, Benavides and Gonzales, with many followers, in the chaparral country in Texas. He distinguished himself at the battle of San Juan and later was chief of staff to General Chaffee, going with his to the relief of the beleaguered ones at Peking. He was in the thick of the fighting at the Pa-ta-chao temples near the Forbidden city. Colonel Grote Hutcheson of the cavalry Is likely to have a brigadier general’s command In the new army. It was Into Hutcheson’s arms as he stood under fire on the walls of the Forbidden city in 1900 that Captain Reilly, his comrade, fell dead. At time Hutcheson was an aide to General Chaffee. With his chief and with Reilly he stood on a wall where the Fourteenth regiment had planted Its flag. A detachment of Chinese marked the three and a shower of shot splattered about them. They stood uniharmed. Another shower and the gallant Reilly, who, conquering all obstacles, had fought his battery to the front, fell dead into the arms of Hutcheson. Col. L. W. V. Kennon of the Infantry almost unquestionably will have a brigade anti possibly a division command in the new army. Kennon served for a long time on General Crook’s staff in the Indian wars of the West. He went to the Philippines early in the war game and he did not leave until he had played his hand for six years. It was this army officer who, although attached to the infantry, was given the engineer's task of building the Benguet road In the Philippine islands. It was the most difficult engineering job ever undertaken in the Islands. Kennon, although a. junior officer of the army, had commanded a brigade in -the northern campaign of General Lawton. He brotight to the work of road buildingmearly two thousand members of the tribes In country he had been campaigning. The battles with them over, he asked

these men to aid him in the works of peace. They liked him, trusted him and they stood loyally to the road building task, which was completed more quickly than anyone knowing the ordinary inclinations of Philippine laborers thought could be the case. Col. Walter K. Wright of the Twentythird infantry, now stationed at Syracuse, N. Y„ is likely to find himself promoted shortly to the command of a brigade. Wright will fight and he will lodk after his men; and when this is said it covers the entire military case as the true soldier views it. Wright’s quick thinking made him an army officer. In the New York district in which he lived as a boy a com* petltive examination was held for the appointment to West Point. Wright was a candidate. It was a question as to which of six youngsters best had stood the test, and so the examining board called them up to ask them some questions. The first question put was, “Why do you want to go to West Point?” The first five thoughtlessly answered, “Because we want to get an education.” In other words, the youngsters Implied that they wanted nothing more than to be educated at Uncle Sam’s expense. — The sixth boy to be asked the question was Wright. He had heard the answers of the others. His answer was, "Because I want to be a soldier.” He is a soldier. There are many men to be promoted to high commands in the new army. Of some of the others and their record it will be the duty and the delight of pne who knows most of them to say a word later.