Edward Mann Lewis
Edward Mann Lewis, KCB, KCMG, was a highly decorated United States Army officer who served his nation for 46 years. During the First World War, he led the 30th Infantry Division when they broke the Hindenburg Line. Upon arrival in France in 1917, he was placed in command of all U.S. forces in Paris. In 1918 he led the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division at Château-Thierry where he was responsible for planning and leading the attack on the strategic town of Vaux. General John J. Pershing then promoted him and placed him in command of the 30th Infantry Division in July 1918. Assigned to the Fourth British Army, the 30th Division broke the Hindenburg Line on September 29, hastening the end of the Great War.
Biography
The son of William Henry and Julia Frances Lewis, Edward Mann Lewis was born December 10, 1863, in New Albany, Indiana. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in September 1881 and graduated seventieth in a class of seventy-seven in July 1886, a classmate of John J. Pershing. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry and served in the Spanish–American War and the Moro Rebellion in the Philippines while assigned to the 20th Infantry Regiment.During World War I, General Lewis was placed in charge of the Paris Military District before commanding the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, and later commanded the 30th Infantry Division. Following World War I, he commanded the 8th Corps Area in Texas, then the Hawaiian Department from 1925 to 1927.
Early life and West Point
Edward Mann Lewis was born on December 10, 1863, alongside the river in New Albany, Indiana. His father, a railroad executive, told him stories of the Lewis family who served in the military, going back to the American Revolution. He was able to secure an appointment to West Point in 1881, where he excelled in the classroom and on the athletic field. He was made a cadet lieutenant in his first year, but ran into trouble with mathematics. His potential was recognized, however, so he was granted a "turnback" joining the class of 1886 and becoming a friend of classmate John J. Pershing. That friendship would last for over 40 years while they served together in The Philippines, San Francisco, Mexico and in Europe during the Great War. Called 'Sep' by his friends and classmates, they stood in honor when the funeral train of Ulysses S. Grant made a stop in West Point in 1885. His experiences at West Point started him down a path of lifelong service. The stories he told inspired his son Henry Balding Lewis to do the same, with the younger Lewis graduating from West Point in 1913, before becoming a major general himself in the Second World War. He graduated 70th in his class of 77 in 1886.Frontier duty
Commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry, he joined the 11th Infantry Regiment in the west, at Fort Yates in the Dakota Territory. After about a year on the border, they were shipped to Fort Wood, Liberty Island in New York harbor where the newly installed Statue of Liberty stood proud, Captain Lewis its new Commander. His son, Henry Balding Lewis a future major general and deputy chief of staff to Omar Bradley in World War II was born there, the first child born at the new hospital on the island. Packing up the family, they traveled to Fort Huachuca in the Arizona Territory for their next duty station. His attention to detail and outstanding performance led to regimental duties and post staff assignments unusual for one so young. He was then detached from his regiment, and assigned to teach Military Science at DePaw University in his home state. Being assigned to the 9th Infantry Regiment, he led his men when they were mobilized to help end the violent Pullman Strike in 1894. In an effort to conciliate organized labor after the strike, President Grover Cleveland and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday later that year.Finishing up his duties at DePaw, he was assigned to the 20th Infantry Regiment in 1896, joining them at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. He would spend twelve years with the 'Sykes Regulars' serving as the regimental adjutant in the Spanish–American War, and the Moro War in the Philippines.
Spanish–American War
During the Spanish–American War, Lewis and the 20th Infantry Regiment fought in the Cuban Campaign as part of the 2nd Division. The primary objective of the American Fifth Army Corps' invasion of Cuba was the capture of the city of Santiago de Cuba. U.S. forces had driven back the Spaniards' first line of defense at the Battle of Las Guasimas, after which General Arsenio Linares pulled his troops back to the main line of defense against Santiago along San Juan Heights. In the charge at the Battle of San Juan Hill U.S. forces captured the Spanish position. At the Battle of El Caney the same day, U.S. forces took the fortified Spanish position and were then able to extend the U.S. flank on San Juan Hill. The destruction of the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba allowed U.S. forces to safely besiege the city.The U.S. troops met stiff resistance from a well-armed adversary at the Battle of El Caney, fought on July 1, 1898, in southeastern Cuba. The Division under General Lawton succeeded in capturing the town, fort and blockhouses and protected the right flank of the main American attack on the Heights of San Juan to the south.
The Army deployed a combined force of about 15,000 American troops in regular infantry and cavalry regiments, including all four of the army's "Colored" regiments, and volunteer regiments, among them Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders", the 71st New York, the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry, and 1st North Carolina, and rebel Cuban forces. They attacked 1,270 entrenched Spaniards in dangerous Civil War-style frontal assaults at the Battle of El Caney and Battle of San Juan Hill outside of Santiago. More than 200 U.S. soldiers were killed and close to 1,200 wounded in the fighting, thanks to the high rate of fire the Spanish were able to put down range at the Americans. Supporting fire by Gatling guns was critical to the success of the assault. Cervera decided to escape Santiago two days later.
On July 3, 1898, the same day as the naval battle, Major General William "Pecos Bill" Shafter began the siege of Santiago. Shafter fortified his position on San Juan Heights. General Henry W. Lawton's division moved up from El Caney extending the U.S. right flank to the north. To the northwest, Cuban rebels under the command of Calixto García extended the U.S. line to the bay. General Arsenio Linares had been severely wounded at the Battle of San Juan Hill and was replaced by General José Toral y Velázquez. Toral had a good defensive position and Shafter knew he would sustain severe casualties from a frontal assault.
Lewis was cool under fire, and was cited for Gallantry at the Battle of El Caney. During the war Lewis met Teddy Roosevelt and made a lifelong friend who would later help muster troops in Indiana, as the nation prepared for the Great War.
The Philippine–American War and Moro Rebellion
The Philippine–American War required that the 20th Infantry Division to ship overseas again, with Captain Lewis serving in the north of the country. Between 1899 and 1901 they opened the Pasig River and fought in many battles as a part of the campaign. Lewis personally accepted the surrender of General Aglipay at Ilocos Norte in 1901, bringing relative peace to the north. He was then transferred back to Chicago to help the recruiting effort, returning to the Philippines with the 20th in 1904 for two more years of occupation duty during the Moro War. He served at headquarters as the Adjutant General of the 1st Brigade in Manila. In early 1906 the 20th Infantry was called home, to the Presidio in San Francisco, just in time to help cope with the impending disaster.The San Francisco earthquake
When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, the city turned quickly to the Army for help. A few years earlier, while John J Pershing was in the Philippines, a fire consumed the General's residence at the Presidio, killing his wife and three of his young children. In an effort to avert such a tragedy in the future, the first dedicated fire department was created on station, and they would prove valuable in fighting the fire that swept the city after the earthquake. Captain Lewis was still serving with the 20th Infantry Regiment when they were stationed in at the Presidio in Monterey when an urgent call for aid was sent to the commanding officer, Colonel Marion P. Maus. When General Funston took command of the city, Military Districts were established to manage the crisis. The 20th Infantry was assigned to the Third Military District, establishing a command post at Portsmouth Square. They pitched their tents in front of the Hall of Justice, and played a key role in restoring order to daily life in the city. It was noted in the after action report "The most important duties were those devolving upon Colonel Maus, who guarded the business center in the burned district."The following are excerpts from the report of Major General Adolpuhs Greely:
Several attempts had been made to get into telegraphic communication with the commanding officer of the Presidio of Monterey, in order to bring to the city a portion of the command of that post. Owing to the telegraph lines being down it was, however, impossible to communicate with any place south of San Francisco. On the 19th the Pacific Squadron had reached San Francisco Bay, and, at my request, Admiral C. F. Goodrich, commanding, sent a torpedo boat to the Presidio of Monterey, carrying the necessary message to the commanding officer of that post. These orders were delivered with great dispatch and with the result that on the 21st headquarters, 1st and 3d Battalions of the 20th Infantry, Col. Marion P. Maus, commanding, reached San Francisco and reported for duty, being followed the next day by field and staff and the 2d Squadron, 14th Cavalry.
The work of sanitation was exceptionally disagreeable. Many dead animals, human bodies and refuse, all in a decomposed condition, littered the area. Added to this the 20th Infantry was obliged to occupy points, where walls of building were tottering, where fires still raged, and in streets filled with debris. The troops subsisted for ten days on the rations carried on their persons from Monterey. They were courteous in deportment and considerate of the people, besides being faithful in their military duties. Verbal reports have been made of frequent cases in which enlisted men of the Regular Army, whose names are unknown, contributed greatly to giving some comfort to the homeless people, making personal sacrifices and furnishing supplies for persons to who they were unknown.
In 1908 he was detached again from his unit, to serve as a professor of military science and tactics at the University of California. In 1912 he was promoted to the rank of major, and was selected to attend the Field Officers Course at Fort Leavenworth, graduating March 19, 1913. This was a special class in tactics organized just for the attendees.