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Contact Info
Home Town New York City, New York
Last Address Fort Omaha, Nebraska
Date of Passing Jul 06, 1935
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Stuart Heintzelman, "Tommy" to his friends, was born in New York City on 19 November 1876. Both his grandfather (Class of 1826) and father (Class of 1867) graduated from West Point. (Note: His father, Captain Charles Stuart Heintzelman, is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery). He was educated abroad as a child and graduated from the Groton School in Massachusetts before entering the Academy. His leadership qualities were evident early in his military career as a cadet. He was the captain of the class gym and track teams, and he also was elected president of the Cadet Athletic Association. As a star football player, he was an Army letterman.
After graduation, he was assigned to the 4th Cavalry in the Philippines, where he served until 1900. He then joined the 6th Cavalry in China and participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion.
Heintzelman had a keen interest in research and military history and served several tours at the Leavenworth School as an instructor as well as instructing at the Army Service Schools. In 1916, he was assigned to Princeton University as a military instructor and was awarded an honorary degree of master of arts.
During WWI, Heintzelman served in France and Italy with the General Staff at the headquarters of the AEF; as a Military Observer with the French Army, First Army Corps; as Chief of Staff of the IVArmy Corps; and as the Chief of Staff of the Second Army. For his service in WWI, he was named a Commander of the Legion of Honor, awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm, named a Commander of the Order of the Crown, and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
He was appointed a brigadier general in 1922 and a major general in 1931. His assignments included director of the Army War College; the General Staff at Headquarters, VI Corps Area; Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2; Assistant Chief of Staff, G-4; commander of the 22d Infantry in Hawaii; and commander of the Harbor Defenses of Eastern New York.
Before his death, General Heintzelman was the Commandant of the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. He died on 6 July 1935 at age 59 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He is buried in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Ann Bowling Heintzelman who died on 14 April 1935 is buried with him.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/heintzelman.htm
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.
