To the Last Man - Jeff Shaara [6]
Still yearning to teach, in 1891, he accepts a position as professor of military science at the University of Nebraska, and moves to Lincoln. He brings West Point discipline to what is regarded as a poor military school. Within a year, he transforms the academy into a respected replica of West Point. Despite the satisfaction he receives from his work with young cadets, he continues to look to his own education, and in 1893, he earns a law degree. But he decides against a career in law, accepting the advice of a good friend, who tells him, “Better lawyers than you are starving in Nebraska. Your [army] pay may be small, but it comes very regularly.”
Promoted to first lieutenant, Pershing accepts a challenging assignment with the Tenth Cavalry, a Negro unit stationed at Fort Assiniboine, Montana. Pershing thrives in the command and earns the respect of his troops, as well as an affinity for their status as second-class soldiers. It is this command that gives him the nickname “Black Jack.”
In 1896, he catches the eye of army commander General Nelson Miles, and is invited to join Miles as a staff officer in Washington. But Pershing chafes at life in the capital, and in 1897, he seeks, and is granted, a post as an instructor at West Point. With the winds of war blowing toward a serious conflict with Spain, Pershing requests reassignment with the Tenth Cavalry, and in 1898, when war is declared, Pershing travels to meet the regiment at Tampa, Florida, to prepare for the invasion of Cuba. He participates in what becomes known as the Battle of San Juan Hill, where he meets and befriends Teddy Roosevelt.
One key spoils of the war is the Philippines, which is consumed by factional and civil war. Pershing arrives in Manila in November 1899, and becomes adjutant general, and governor of Mindanao. Here he successfully juggles the particular differences that inspire bloodshed between Moslem, Chinese, and native Filipino interests. The lessons learned in dealing with both Indian and Negro concerns provide Pershing with an enormous advantage in bridging the wide cultural gaps, and surprising to his fellow officers, he is held in high esteem among the Moro (Moslem) tribes.
He is recalled to Washington in 1903, to serve on the newly created War Department General Staff. He reluctantly settles into the social scene and meets Frances Warren, the daughter of Senator Francis Warren of Wyoming. Their romance is the stuff of gossip, and on January 26, 1905, they are married in what is considered to be a major social event, attended by many in Congress, as well as Teddy (now president) Roosevelt. Roosevelt so admires Pershing that the president exercises this authority somewhat excessively, and he promotes Pershing from captain to brigadier general, which does not endear Pershing to many ranking officers in the army.
Pershing returns to the Philippines with his wife and newborn daughter, and they remain there for seven more years, during which time Frances gives birth to three more children, two girls and a boy.
In 1913, he receives a new assignment and moves his family to the Presidio in San Francisco. He is almost immediately ordered to Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, to command the army’s Eighth Brigade, confronting the crisis that is blossoming with Mexico. The crisis is the result of a general chaos south of the border due to Mexico’s revolution and power struggle, which spills over the border in the form of raids and banditry that the American government cannot ignore. He observes from a great distance the war that roars to life in Europe, but his duty in Texas is tedious and isolated, and Pershing can focus only on his own command.
On August 27, 1915, he receives the devastating news that his home in San Francisco has burned,