General John J. Black Jack Pershing
The installation of the Venustiano Carranza regime in Mexico City did not result in lasting tranquility with the United States. Events became so chaotic that the State Department issued a warning to U.S. citizens living in Mexico to leave the country. Thousands took the advice. One of Carranza’s allies, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, turned against the new president, claiming with some justification that Carranza was not making good on his reform pledges. Villa himself was a rascal, an enormous self-promoter and an occasional champion of the underprivileged. Villa was initially engaged in a struggle on behalf of the government against rival forces. He became the darling of Hollywood filmmakers and U.S. newspapermen by granting open access to his campaigns. Some claimed that he actually staged battles for the cameras and publicity.
Villa's horizons broadened considerably when he began to seek control of the Mexican government for himself. His method was to weaken Carranza by provoking problems with the United States. On January 10, 1916, his forces attacked a group of American mining engineers at Santa Ysabel, killing 18. The Americans had been invited into the area by Carranza for the purpose of reviving a number of abandoned mines.
Pancho Villa’s men struck next on March 9, by crossing the border to attack Columbus, New Mexico, the home of a small garrison. The town was burned and 17 Americans were killed in the raid. War fever broke out across the United States. Senator Henry F. Ashurst of Arizona suggested that “more grape shot and less grape juice” was needed, a none-too-subtle indictment of the teetotaling secretary of state William Jennings Bryan.
President Wilson abandoned 'watchful waiting' and appointed General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing to head a punitive force of 12,000 soldiers to locate Villa — dead or alive. Carranza was not enthusiastic about the incursion of an American army onto Mexican soil, and became even less so the farther south the soldiers marched. Despite several close calls, Villa always managed to escape the larger and better-equipped invaders. An exasperated Pershing cabled Washington: “Villa is everywhere, but Villa is nowhere.”
The chase lasted nine months and finally ended in February 1917, when Wilson summoned the soldiers home in anticipation of imminent hostilities with Germany.
A new Mexican constitution had been adopted in January 1917. The document sharply reduced the powers of The Roman Catholic Church and foreigners, which reflected popular disgust with those two elements of oppression. Carranza was formally elected president by a democratic vote and was recognized by the United States. Pancho Villa was a popular hero in many quarters in Mexico, but had also made many enemies over the years. He was ambushed and killed several years later, probably at the instigation of then president Obregon.
- John Joseph 'Black Jack' Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), was a general officer in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Pershing is the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army— General of the Armies (a retroactive Congressional edict passed in 1976 promoted George Washington to the same rank but with higher seniority).
- United States Army General. He is remembered world-wide for serving from 1917 to 1918 as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front during World War I. Born in Laclede, Missouri, he was the son of a railroad switchman. At the age of 17, he taught in a rural school for African-American.
“Black Jack” Pershing is the only man in U.S. Military history to, in his lifetime, be promoted to the rank of General of the Armies – which equates to being a six-star general. George Washington also reached that same rank, though it was bestowed upon him 177 years after his death. The Reason General John Pershing Was Called 'Black Jack' February is Black History Month in the United States. I have never done a specifically black history piece on this site, although I have from time to time suggested, for example, that Anglicans realise that the “Anglican Communion” is now and should be the “African Communion” with. Pershing, in full John Joseph Pershing, byname Black Jack, (born September 13, 1860, Laclede, Missouri, U.S.—died July 15, 1948, Washington, D.C.), U.S. Army general who commanded the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe during World War I.
See General John J. Pershing. To other Wilson foreign affairs activities. One hundred years ago this spring, the American Expeditionary Forces entered World War I under the command of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who had also led the famous 10th Cavalry Regiment of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” during the Indian wars and the Spanish-American conflict. In fact, “Black Jack,” his nickname, was initially an insult leveled against John Pershing for leading African-American troops.
However, while many people may know these and other facts about General Pershing’s distinguished military career, few have heard about the devastating deaths of his wife and three daughters.
Pershing married Helen Frances Warren, the daughter of Wyoming Senator Francis E. Warren, in 1905. She was a Wellesley graduate and some twenty years his junior, but most historians suggest she was enamored of the adventurous officer. Senator Warren defended his son-in-law when a scandal erupted over an affair Pershing was alleged to be having with a local woman in Mindanao, the Philippines, where he served as a military officer after the Spanish-American War.
Other stories suggest Pershing’s rivals fabricated the story in retaliation for President Theodore Roosevelt’s promoting Pershing to brigadier general over some 862 higher ranking officers. Pershing’s critics charged that his prominent father-in-law helped secure the promotion. Regardless, the general’s defenders argued that T.R. admired Pershing and had planned to promote him three years earlier. Whatever the truth may be, the Pershings appeared to be a happy family despite long separations when the general commanded remote posts.
In 1915, Mrs. Pershing and their four children were living at the Presidio in San Francisco while the general was stationed in El Paso, Texas, on the eve of Pancho Villa’s border town raids. Before Pershing would set off in pursuit of Villa, he would experience a devastating family tragedy. On August 27, 1915, Pershing’s wife and three daughters—ages nine, seven, and three—would die in a house fire that engulfed their Presidio home. A few other inhabitants of the home, including the Pershings’ five-year-old son Warren, managed to escape the blaze. The fire started when hot coals from the fireplace popped out on to the heavily waxed floor.
A day after the fire, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Timesall reported that the family might have survived had “flimsy construction” and government “red tape” not been a factor. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department told reporters that a standing order prohibited Presidio officials from summoning the city fire department “until an effort had been made to subdue the blaze.” Significantly, in the three years before the Pershings died, nine other people had lost their lives in Presidio fires. However, whether Pershing’s wife and children could have survived is a matter of speculation. When General Pershing saw the charred ruins of the house, he reportedly said, “They had no chance.”
General John J. Black Jack Pershingjack Pershing
When members of the military are ordered into a combat theater, their families worry they will face serious peril or even death. In addition to the dangers combat personnel face, however, soldiers worry about the threats and dangers their loved ones back home may encounter. One can only imagine Pershing’s sorrow and guilt about the fire. Even an influential general of his caliber could not protect his family from shoddy workmanship, bureaucracy, and fate.
Devastated, Pershing immersed himself in his work. Less than two years after the fire, he would lead the Allied Expeditionary Forces in the final year of World War I. His efforts would prove decisive in the defeat of the Central Powers.
Although he would be romantically linked with a number of women during the remainder of his life—including George S. Patton’s sister—he would never remarry.
Warren Pershing, the only family member who survived the fire, went on to graduate from Yale University. He enlisted as a private in the United States Army and fought in World War II. He died in 1980 at the age of 71.
General John J. Black Jack Pershing Terrier
General Pershing died in 1948, at the age of 88. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His wife and daughters are buried in Cheyenne, Wyoming.