Revered Commander, Maligned General: The Life of Clarence Ransom Edwards, 1859-1931

Preface

xi Preface Why Clarence Ransom Edwards? While doing research for my first book on the Yankee Division, I came across several contemporary mentions of Clarence Edwards; nearly all refer to his controversial relief late in the war, and all are couched in negative terms. One account refers to him as a “political general,” while another cites his volubility as well as his apparent indiscretion and inability to follow orders. These sources, I have strongly suspected, merely recited the short version of a one-sided picture, much of it erroneous. In other words, I believe that a myth has been perpetuated about the service of the Yankee Division and its commanding general during World War I—a historical shortcut that is neither totally factual nor does it do justice to the man. In point of fact, no man’s life, and certainly not that of one who participated in the great events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, can be summed up in one or two sentences casually tossed into a narrative of historical events. During his lifetime our nation was nearly wrenched apart by civil war; three presidents were assassinated; the Panama Canal was completed with American engineering and brawn; we fought two wars, one small and one a worldwide conflict; and the nation gained an empire and dealt with an insurrection. Many general officers, such as Peyton C. March, Robert L. Bullard, and Hunter Liggett, emerged from the First World War expecting the well-earned respect of a grateful nation, only to be confronted by a nation tired of war, and a Congress bent upon slashing the size and budget of the military, particularly the army. John J. Pershing alone remained unscathed—the lone, iconic hero. Congress, acting according to tradition, was anxious to demobilize and in no mood to consider the need for a larger standing army between the inevitable wars, much less promotions as a reward for service. Many senior officers, including Edwards, reverted to their prewar rank, and as a result, for several years afterward, there was an unseemly scramble for the limited openings created by retirements, adding an intensity to the natural rivalries. xii Preface A man should be judged as a whole, taking into account, to the extent possible , the parts that add up to that sum total. So it should be with Clarence Edwards. I have found him to be a man of immense wit, charm, bonhomie, and, above all, loyalty to his subordinates, officers and enlisted alike, who, in turn, revered him as “Daddy.” Although he graduated dead last academically from West Point, his forty-three-year U.S. Army career found him in extremely responsible positions and in receipt of regular promotion. Personally brave, he was cited three times for courage in battle in the Philippines. His was the first complete National Guard division to sail to and assemble in France. He had friends in high places. Edwards did not suffer fools lightly, regardless of rank, and he was vocal about it. He was a direct, plainspoken man who expressed himself in earthy terms. He could also be petty and injudicious with his comments , particularly about his superiors, and he frequently bragged about his own accomplishments, with, perhaps, not a little exaggeration. Little wonder that he raised a few eyebrows among his fellow regular officers who had undoubtedly come to France overly sensitive to the fact that they were considered “poor relations” by their counterparts among the Allies. Moreover, Edwards was never schooled in the business or science of war—he was never part of the “Leavenworth crowd.” Shortly after his death, Edwards’s longtime friend, Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord , eulogized him. Edwards “lives on in the legends with which you are already enshrining his name,” he told his audience at a memorial service, and, “your hearts are the true guardians of his fame.”1 Alas,Edwards’s“stout-hearted lads”have all“gone west.”The world of publishing has changed, as has the taste and patience of the reading public. As a result there is a need to distill sufficient facts into a manageable whole, so that the reader comes away satisfied with the portrait of a real person.The danger in doing so is that biography becomes hagiography . I hope that with this work I have been able to flesh out a balanced portrait of this very real man, and that he shall live a while longer. I am indebted to a great many dedicated people...