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Home Town Frankfort
Last Address Baltimore, MD
Date of Passing Jan 24, 1952
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Edgar Erskine Hume was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on December 26, 1889. He was graduated from Centre College, Kentucky, as a Bachelor of Arts, 1908, and Master of Arts, 1909; from Johns Hopkins University as a Doctor of Medicine, 1913; from the University of Munich, 1914; and the University of Rome, 1915. He was appointed first lieutenant, Medical Reserve Corps, on September 16, 1916, and detailed to the Army Medical School, Washington, D C., as a student. He was graduated from the Army Medical School in 1917, standing No. 1 in his class, and commissioned a first lieutenant, Medical Corps, RA, with date of rank from January 14, 1917.
General Hume was distinguished also as a linguist and a scholar. He was for several years librarian of the famous Library of the Surgeon General in Washington and he is credited with having produced some 200 books and papers, many of them on various phases of the history of medicine.
In addition General Hume enjoyed the reputation for being one of the most honored and decorated officers in the Army, or certainly in the medical branch. He wore the decorations of no fewer than 38 foreign countries. He held honorary degrees from 23 colleges and universities. He was a member of 6 Greek letter fraternities and the founder of one of them. He enjoyed honorary citizenship in 40 Italian and Austrian cities; and, to cap the climax, he was an honorary colonel in the old Royal Serbian Army.
Other Comments:
General Hume was Parole Officer and Director of the Department of Sociology at the US Disciplinary Barracks, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, from March to November 1917. He then was assigned to the Division of Sanitation, Office of the Surgeon General (General Gorgas), Washington, D. C., as Executive Officer, until June 1918. He was the last member of General Gorgas's staff on active service.
He then sailed for Europe, where he served as Commanding Officer, Base Hospital No. 102, which was expanded into a composite hospital center with the Italian Army, until February 1919. During the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, 1918, he served, in turn, with surgical units with the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth and Twelfth Italian Armies. On temporary duty with the British Expeditionary Force in France and present at the battles of MeuseArgonne and Saint-Mihiel. He was American Red Cross Commissioner to Serbia and surrounding territory and Director of the anti-typhus fever campaign in the Balkan States until August 1920, when he returned to the United States.
In November, 1920, he was assigned as Assistant to the Commanding Officer, and later as Commanding Officer, Corps Area Laboratory, I Corps Area, Fort Banks, Massachusetts, where he served until June, 1922. During this period, on his own time, he completed the course in Public Health at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving, in 1921, the Certificate in Public Health (subsequently changed to the degree of Master of Public Health). He was also graduated from the Harvard School of Tropical Medicine, receiving the Diploma in Tropical Medicine in 1922.
He next was Assistant Librarian of the Army Medical Library, as well as Editor of its Index Catalogue, the world's standard of medical bibliography, in Washington, D. C., to April 1926. While assigned to the Library he completed requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Public Health and received that degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1924. Until October, 1930, he was Medical Inspector and Epidemiologist at Ft. Benning, Georgia. While at that post he completed the Advanced Course, Infantry School, from which he was graduated in 1928. He was Instructor in the Massachusetts and New Hampshire National Guard, Boston, Massachusetts, to September, 1932.
In September, 1932, he was appointed Librarian, Army Medical Library, Washington, D. C., where he served until October, 1936, when he was assigned to the Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, as Director of Administration. After graduation from the Advanced Course in the Medical Field Service School, he continued as Director of Administration and Public Relations Officer until January 1943, when he became Commanding Officer of Winter General Hospital, Topeka, Kansas.
In April 1943, General Hume was assigned to General Eisenhower Staff in North Africa for military government planning for the invasion of Sicily and Italy. In July and August of 1943, he was Chief of Public Health for Sicily. From August, 1943, to September, 1945, he was Chief of Allied Military Government and Assistant Chief of Staff (General Staff Corps) of the 5th Army. He participated in the initial landing at Salerno, September 9, 1943. He was successively in charge of the Allied Military Government of all the large cities of Italy, from Naples to Milan, including Rome, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Genoa, Turin, Verona, etc., governing two-thirds of Italy and three-fourths of the Italian population. He was present at the battles of Naples, Anzio, Montaquila, Apennines, Po Valley, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. General Hume was the only U. S. officer who served in Italy in both World Wars.
From September, 1945, until June, 1947, he was Chief of Military Government in the United States Zone of Austria; June, 1947 to June, 1949, Chief of the Reorientation Branch, Civil Affairs Division, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C.; and from June, 1949, Chief Surgeon of the Far East Command on General MacArthur's staff. On 30 July 1950, General MacArthur appointed him Surgeon (Director General of Medical Services) of the United Nations Command in Korea.
From 1925, General Hume was the United States Correspondent for the International Congresses of Military Medicine and delegate to their meetings at Paris, in 1925; London, 1929; The Hague, 1931; Brussels, 1935; Mexico, 1936; Bucharest, 1937; Washington, D. C., 1939; Basle, Switzerland, 1947; Stockholm, 1948; Monaco, 1950. He also represented the United States at other international scientific congresses.
Description St. Mihiel, 12 - 16 September 1918. By September 1918, with both the Marne and the Amiens salients eliminated, there remained but one major threat to lateral rail communications behind the Allied lines-the old St. Mihiel salient near the Paris-Nancy line. Active preparations for its reduction began with the transfer of Headquarters First Army, effective 13 August, from La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in the Marne region to Neufchateau on the Meuse, immediately south of St. Mihiel. On 28 August the first echelon of headquarters moved closer to the front at Ligny-en-Barrois.
American unite from Flanders to Switzerland were shifted into the area near the salient. The fourteen American and four French divisions assigned to the First Army for the operation contained ample infantry and machinegun units for the attack. But because of the earlier priority given to shipment of infantry (at the insistence of the British and French) the First Army was short of artillery, tank, air and other support units essential to a well-balanced field army. The French made up this deficiency by loaning Pershing over half the artillery and nearly half the airplanes and tanks needed for the St. Mihiel operation.
Shortly before the offensive was to begin, Foch threatened once again to disrupt Pershing's long-held desire to carry out a major operation with an independent American force. On 30 August the Allied Commander in Chief proposed to exploit the recently gained successes on the Aisne-Marne and Amiens fronts by reducing the size of the St. Mihiel attack and dividing the American forces into three groups-one for the salient offensive and two for fronts to the east and west of the Argonne Forest. Pershing, however, remained adamant in his insistence that the First Army should not now be broken up, no matter where it might be sent into action. Fina1ly a compromise was reached. The St. Mihiel attack was subordinated to the much larger offensive to be launched on the Meuse-Argonne front in late September, but the First Army remained intact. Pershing agreed to limit his operations by employing only the minimum force needed to reduce the salient in three or four days. Simultaneously he was to prepare his troops for a major role in the Meuse-Argonne drive.
The St. Mihiel offensive began on 12 September with a threefold assault on the salient. The main attack was made against the south face by two American corps. On the right was the I Corps (from right to left the 82d, 90th, 5th, and 2d Divisions in line with the 78th in reserve) covering a front from Pont-à-Mousson on the Moselle westward to Limey; on the left, the IV Corps (from right to left the 89th, 42d, and 1st Divisions in line with the 3d in reserve) extending along a front from Limey westward to Marvoisin. A secondary thrust was carried out against the west face along the heights of the Meuse, from Mouilly north to Haudimont, by the V Corps (from right to left the 26th Division, the French 15th Colonial Division, and the 8th Brigade, 4th Division in line with the rest of the 4th in reserve). A holding attack against the apex, to keep the enemy in the salient, was made by the French II Colonial Corps (from right to left the French 39th Colonial Division, the French 26th Division, and the French 2d Cavalry Division in line). In First Army reserve were the American 35th, 80th, and 91st Divisions.
Tota1 Allied forces involved in the offensive numbered more than 650,000-some 550,000 American and 100,000 Allied (mostly French) troops. In support of the attack the First Army had over 3,000 guns, 400 French tanks, and 1,500 airplanes. Col. William Mitchell directed the heterogeneous air force, composed of British, French, Italian, Portuguese, and American units, in what proved to be the largest single air operation of the war. American squadrons flew 609 of the airplanes, which were mostly of French or British manufacture.
Defending the salient was German "Army Detachment C," consisting of eight divisions and a brigade in the line and about two divisions in reserve. The Germans, now desperately short of manpower, had begun a step-by-step withdrawal from the salient only the day before the offensive began. The attack went so well on 12 September that Pershing ordered a speedup in the offensive. By the morning of 13 September the 1st Division, advancing from the east, joined hands with the 26th Division, moving in from the west, and before evening all objectives in the salient had been captured. At this point Pershing halted further advances so that American units could be withdrawn for the coming offensive in the Meuse-Argonne sector.
This first major operation by an American Army under its own command took 16,000 prisoners at a cost of 7,000 casualties, eliminated the threat of an attack on the rear of Allied fortifications at Nancy and Verdun, greatly improved Allied lateral rail communications, and opened the way for a possible future offensive to seize Metz and the Briey iron fields.
