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Contact Info
Home Town Lexington
Last Address Martha's Vinyard, MA
Date of Passing Jun 30, 1948
Location of Interment Cave Hill National Cemetery (VA) - Louisville, Kentucky
Major General Preston Brown, retired United States Army officer, died June 30, 1948, after a brief illness at his home in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. His body was brought to Louisville for services, held Monday, July 5, at the family lot in Cave Hill Cemetery. General Brown was bona in Lexington, Kentucky, January 2, 1872. His father, John Mason Brown, was a son of Judge Mason Brown, of Frankfort. His mother, Mary Owen Preston Brown, was the daughter of General William Preston and his wife, Margaret Wicklfffe Preston, of Lexington. The family moved to Louisville in 1873, and their home was for years a center of gracious hospitality. Young Brown was prepared for college in Louisville by his father and at Professor Jason W. Chenault's school. Following his father's example, he graduated from Yale, receiving an A.B. degree in 1892, at the age of twenty. Later, the honorary degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater and an LL.D. by Trinity College, Hartford. After graduating at Yale he attended the University of Virginia Law School, finishing his legal training in one year, and was admitted to the bar in Virginia and Kentucky. He also practiced his profession for a year in Long Island, and was sent by his firm, for work on a law encyclopedia, to California where in 1894 he enlisted in "the army as a private at the United States Presidio Barracks near San Francisco. Here he received his initial lessons in soldiering from First Sergeant Joseph Heifer, a stern drillmaster of the old school. Sergeant Heifer became a loyal friend and was present at Fort Hamilton, New York, March 1897, when his pupil was commissioned second lieutenant, and again on December 10, 1925, when the officer took the oath as major general, and thirteen guns were fired in his honor.
General Brown fought the Cheyenne Indians in 1897, served in the Spanish American War, and was in the Philippines from 1915 to 1917, advancing constantly in rank. Attending the Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth, he was graduated from the Army Staff College in 1914. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in August, 1917, he left for Europe in December to become actively engaged in World War I. A colonel in
February, 1918, and brigadier general later in the same year, he served as chief of staff of the Second Division of the American Expeditionary Force and also as commanding general of the Third Division. For his accomplishments he was decorated as commander of the French Legion of Honor, personally recommended by Marshal Foch; and of the Belgium Order of the Crown. He was presented with the United States Distinguished Service Medal by General Pershing for his work in the creation of the American Army in France and its successful assault on the German lines. In November, 1918, he was assistant chief of staff of the A.E.F. at Advanced General Headquarters in occupied German territory. After the Armistice, having led the Third Division into Germany, he returned to the United States, and from 1919 to 1921 was director and acting commandant of the Army War College in Washington, D. C. He commanded the First Corps Area (Boston) 1926-1930; the Panama Canal Department 1930-1933; and the Second Army and Sixth Corps Area (Chicago), until his retirement, November 30, 1934, ended forty years of service.
General Brown is survived by his wife, the former Miss Susan Ford Dorranee, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, whom he married February 8, 1905. Their only son, Dorrance, died in June, 1936. He is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Henry M. Waite (nee Mary Mason Brown), of New York, and a niece and nephew, Mrs. J. Wooster Lambert and John Mason Brown, of New York, children of a younger brother (John Mason Brown, deceased). His nephew, the well known author and dramatic critic, was born in Louisville, July, 1900, and started his literary career by writing for the Louisville Courier-Journal. He now resides in New York where he is a member of the staff of the Saturday Review of Literature. Active in World War II as lieutenant USNR, he received the Bronze Star for service on the staff of Vice Admiral Allen G. Kirk during the invasion of Sicily and Normandy.
Preston Brown, tall and stately, with a commanding presence and courtly manners, was a favorite with all who knew him well. His rise from a "buck" private to the rank of major general was due to sheer ability and hard work. He was a student of history, interested especially in the campaigns of Napoleon and the Civil War, and also in genealogical lore. He belonged to the Society of Cincinnati and delighted in the deeds of his ancestors, among whom he found many soldiers and statesmen whose lives were dedicated to their country and to the development of Virginia and Kentucky. Rating high in his estimation were his great-grandfather John Brown, Kentucky's first United States Senator; William Hancock, an incorporator of the Colony of Virginia; and Col. Wm. Preston, a founder of Washington and Lee University. He was devoted to his father, whose life he reviewed in an article in The Filson Club History Quarterly, of July, 1939, entitled "John Mason Brown, 1837-1890, One of the Founders of The Filson Club." The father's death, January 29, 1890, while the son was still at Yale, was a civic loss. An outstanding lawyer of the firm of Brown, Humphrey and Davie, John Mason Brown, if he had lived would shortly have been appointed an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, according to his close friend and Yale classmate, Chauncey M. Depew, erstwhile senator and Republican party. He was also an author of note. As indicated, he was a founder of The Filson Club and wrote its valued publication The Political Beginnings of Kentucky, reading it as a paper at the last Club meeting which he attended. At the time of his death he was busily engaged in procuring a public park system for Louisville. He drew the bill passed by the Legislature May 6, 1890, under which lands for the system were purchased. His name will always be associated with the beautiful woods surrounding the city which now offer recreation to its teeming population.
Army Distinguished Service Medal Citation:
General Order No. 12, U. S. War Department, Washington, January 17, 1919, published the citation as follows: "Brigadier General Preston Brown, United States Army. For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services. As chief of staff of the Second Division he directed the details of the battles near Chateau-Thierry,' Soissons, and at the St. Mihiel salient with great credit. Later, in command of the Third Division in the Argonne-Meuse offensive, at a most critical time, by his splendid judgment and energetic action, his division was able to carry to a successful conclusion the operations at Clairs Chenes and at Hill 294."
Other Comments:
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.
