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Contact Info
Home Town Tamaqua
Date of Passing Sep 21, 1946
Location of Interment Lake View Cemetery - Jamestown, New York
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Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Maj. Gen. Charles Justin Bailey, Born June 21st 1859 in Tamaqua Pennsylvania,the son of Milton and Fanny O. Andruss Bailey. Died September 21st, 1946 in Jamestown New York. He was enrolled in the United States Military Academy, West Point as a Cadet on September 1st, 1876, while a resident of Jamestown New York. Upon graduation on June 12th, 1880, near the top of his class, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Artillery and assigned to the First Regiment then stationed at Fort Adams, Rhode Island. He was promoted to the various grades and became colonel in 1911, and Brigadier General in 1913. On August 5th, 1917, he was appointed Maj. Gen. of the National Army. He commanded the Philippine Dept. in 1918, and in the same year was made commander of the 81st Division (Wildcats) of the National Army, which he commanded in France in 1918-1919. In the latter year, he was appointed Commander of the Middle Atlantic Coast, Artillery District, and in 1921, Commander of the Third Corps area. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Order of Leopold (Belgium), the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and was an officer of the Legion of Honor.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Hegeman Bailey; two daughters, Mrs. Omira Bailey Chilton, wife of Col. A. W. Chilton, United States Army retired, of Mozilla Park, New Mexico, and Mrs. Merry Bailey Gandy, wife of Col. C. L. Gandy United States Army, Tokyo Japan.
From the Post Journal, Jamestown New York, September 23rd, 1946.
Inscription:
Served 46 yrs Regular Army of United States in every grade from Cadet to Major General and commanded a division in the American Expeditionary Forces in France 1918.
Note: It was his wish to lie among his own people and the soldiers from the home of his boyhood who fought for their country.
World War I
From Month/Year
April / 1917
To Month/Year
November / 1918
Description The United States of America declared war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917. The U.S. was an independent power and did not officially join the Allies. It closely cooperated with them militarily but acted alone in diplomacy. The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw material and money, starting in 1917. American soldiers under General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. They played a major role until victory was achieved on November 11, 1918. Before entering the war, the U.S had remained neutral, though it had been an important supplier to Great Britain and the other Allied powers. During the war, the U.S mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 due to the influenza pandemic. The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. military. After a slow start in mobilising the economy and labour force, by spring 1918 the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict. Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world,[citation needed] although there was substantial public opposition to United States entry into the war.
Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech.[26] Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 17, 1917, but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various Co-belligerents allied with the central powers, thus the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
The United States as late as 1917 maintained only a small army, smaller than thirteen of the nations and empires already active in the war. After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, it drafted 2.8 million men into military service. By the summer of 1918 about a million U.S. soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily. In 1917 Congress gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before U.S. troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.
The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to serve as mere reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.
Impact of US forces on the war
On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically welcomed the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their losses. After British Empire, French and Portuguese forces had defeated and turned back the powerful final German offensive (Spring Offensive of March to July, 1918), the Americans played a role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive of August to November). However, many American commanders used the same flawed tactics which the British, French, Germans and others had abandoned early in the war, and so many American offensives were not particularly effective. Pershing continued to commit troops to these full- frontal attacks, resulting in high casualties against experienced veteran German and Austrian-Hungarian units. Nevertheless, the infusion of new and fresh U.S. troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale. The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918 after German morale had collapsed both at home and on the battlefield.
