Adams, Charles (19 December 1845–19 August 1895), soldier and diplomat, was born Karl Adam Schwanbeck in Anclam, Pomerania, Germany, the son of Karl Heinrich Schwanbeck, a cabinetmaker, and Maria J. Markman. Adams was educated at the Gymnasium in Anclam and graduated with very high marks, especially in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Soon after his graduation in 1862, he moved to the United States. He had not been in the New World long before he enlisted in the Union army, serving in the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment. He fought in the Civil War for the remainder of the conflict and was wounded two times....
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Adams, Charles (1845-1895), soldier and diplomat
Kathryn D. Snavely
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Bacon, Robert (1860-1919), banker, diplomat, and soldier
Calvin D. Davis
Bacon, Robert (05 July 1860–29 May 1919), banker, diplomat, and soldier, was born in Jamaica Plain near Boston, Massachusetts, the son of William Benjamin Bacon and Emily Crosby Low. Raised in an old Massachusetts family long prominent in business, he was educated at Hopkinson’s School and at Harvard, graduating in 1880. Although his intellectual abilities were considerable, he won attention for his athletic ability, personality, and good looks, as he would throughout life. After graduation he traveled around the world, then joined the banking firm of Lee, Higginson, and Company. In 1883 he became a member of E. Rollins Morse and Brother. That year he married Martha Waldron Cowdin; they were the parents of three sons and a daughter....
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Bliss, Tasker Howard (1853-1930), soldier, scholar, and diplomat
Edward A. Goedeken
Bliss, Tasker Howard (31 December 1853–09 November 1930), soldier, scholar, and diplomat, was born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of George Ripley Bliss, a Baptist clergyman and professor at Lewisburg Academy (now Bucknell University), and Mary Ann Raymond. After attending Lewisburg Academy for two years, Tasker Bliss was admitted to West Point, where he excelled in foreign languages and finished eighth in his class in 1875. After graduating, he was assigned to the First Artillery in Savannah, Georgia. The next year he returned to West Point for a four-year tour as an instructor in modern languages. His grasp of other tongues included not only his beloved Greek, which he studied relentlessly, but also Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. The Custer massacre in 1876 prompted him to request active duty at a frontier post, but Major General ...
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Bragg, Edward Stuyvesant (1827-1912), Civil War general, congressman, and diplomat
Mike William Beattie
Bragg, Edward Stuyvesant (20 February 1827–20 June 1912), Civil War general, congressman, and diplomat, was born in Unadilla, Otsego County, New York, the son of Joel Bragg, a rural businessman, and Margaretha Kohl. Bragg received his early education at local schools and went on to study law at Geneva College (now Hobart College) in Geneva, New York. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1848. After briefly practicing in Unadilla, he migrated to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, at the age of twenty-three. He was admitted to the Wisconsin bar and began a lifetime practice of arguing cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In 1854 he was elected district prosecuting attorney. That same year he married Cornelia Coleman; they had four children....
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Bristol, Mark Lambert (1868-1939), naval officer and diplomat
Rodney P. Carlisle
Bristol, Mark Lambert (17 April 1868–13 May 1939), naval officer and diplomat, was born in Glassboro, New Jersey, the son of Mark Lambert Bristol and Rachel Elizabeth Bush, farmers. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883 and graduated in 1887. After service aboard the converted bark ...
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Crosby, John Schuyler (1839-1914), military officer and government official
Thomas A. McMullin
Crosby, John Schuyler (19 September 1839–08 August 1914), military officer and government official, was born in Albany County, New York, the son of Clarkson Floyd Crosby, who was independently wealthy, and Angelica Schuyler. Crosby attended the University of the City of New York in 1855–1856 but left for a grand tour of the Far East and South America. In 1863 he married Harriet Van Rensselaer; they had two children....
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Crowder, Enoch Herbert (1859-1932), soldier, diplomat, and jurist
Patrick G. Williams
Crowder, Enoch Herbert (11 April 1859–07 May 1932), soldier, diplomat, and jurist, was born in Grundy County, Missouri, the son of John Herbert Crowder and Mary Weller, farmers. Crowder graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1881 in the bottom half of his class. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Eighth Cavalry, he was stationed at Fort Brown in Texas. While there he read law in Brownsville, and by 1884 he was admitted to practice in Texas, Missouri, and federal courts. That year Crowder was transferred to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. Between 1885 and 1889 he served as a professor of military science and commandant of the cadet corps at the University of Missouri. He also continued to study law both at the university and with a Kansas City law firm and earned his LL.B. in 1886. That summer he played a bit part in the campaign against ...
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Eaton, William (1764-1811), soldier and diplomat
Willard Carl Klunder
Eaton, William (23 February 1764–01 June 1811), soldier and diplomat, was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, the son of Nathaniel (or Nathan) Eaton, a teacher and farmer, and Sarah Johnson. The family moved to Mansfield shortly before the Revolution. In January 1780 Eaton ran off and joined the army, but he was discharged after a month with frostbitten toes. In early 1781 Eaton reenlisted with his father’s blessing. He saw no military action and was released with the rank of sergeant when the war ended. Eaton returned to Mansfield and taught school before enrolling at Dartmouth. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1790 and became clerk of the Vermont Assembly....
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Eddy, William A. (09 March 1896–03 May 1962)
David A. Hollinger
Eddy, William A. (09 March 1896–03 May 1962), diplomat, intelligence agent, and military officer, was born in Sidon, a city in present-day Lebanon, to William King Eddy and Elizabeth (Nelson) Eddy, both of whom were Presbyterian missionaries. Eddy was reared in Beirut, where his father taught at the American University. He had a near-native facility with the Arabic language and could recite long passages from the Koran in several Arabic dialects. After completing his undergraduate degree at Princeton University in 1917, Eddy served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I. For his valor as a captain in the Battle of Belleau Wood he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, and two Purple Hearts. As a result of his wartime injuries, Eddy walked with a limp for the rest of his life and often used a cane. In 1917 he married Mary Garvin, also the daughter of Protestant missionaries; the couple had four children....
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Fairchild, Lucius (1831-1896), soldier, governor, and diplomat
Edward G. Longacre
Fairchild, Lucius (27 December 1831–23 May 1896), soldier, governor, and diplomat, was born in Portage County, Ohio, the son of Jairus Cassius Fairchild, a tanner and storekeeper, and Sally Blair. In 1846 the family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where Jairus Fairchild became state treasurer. After a local education supplemented by a brief stint at Carroll College, Lucius Fairchild left Wisconsin for the gold fields of California. From March 1849 to May 1855 he prospected and farmed in the Shasta Valley, where he also owned an interest in a general store. Returning home, he developed an interest in politics, joined the Democratic party, and in 1858 was elected clerk of the circuit court of Dane County, Wisconsin....
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Franks, David Salisbury (1742-1793), revolutionary officer and diplomat
William Weisberger
Franks, David Salisbury (27 March 1742–07 October 1793), revolutionary officer and diplomat, was born in Philadelphia, the son of Abraham Franks, a Jewish merchant. His mother's name is unknown. In 1760 Franks enrolled in Benjamin Franklin's Academy of Philadelphia, where he studied for several years. After the British victory during the French and Indian War, his family went to Canada to seek new business opportunities. They first settled in Quebec during the late 1760s. In 1774 the family moved to Montreal. David Franks and his father became two of the earliest Jews engaged in mercantile activities in this city. In 1775 David Franks became the ...
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Gregg, David McMurtrie (1833-1916), U.S. Army officer, diplomat, and Pennsylvania state official
Rod Paschall
Gregg, David McMurtrie (10 April 1833–07 August 1916), U.S. Army officer, diplomat, and Pennsylvania state official, was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, the son of Matthew Duncan Gregg and Ellen McMurtrie (occupations unknown). He was the paternal grandson of U.S. senator Andrew Gregg and the first cousin of ...
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Gregg, David McMurtrie (1833-1916)
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David McMurtrie Gregg. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1756).
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Halderman, John Adams (1833-1908), soldier, politician, and diplomat
Virgil W. Dean
Halderman, John Adams (15 April 1833–21 September 1908), soldier, politician, and diplomat, was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, the son of Susan Henderson Rogers and John A. Halderman, a physician. Subsequent to the death of Halderman’s mother in 1843, Halderman’s father remarried and moved to Illinois, but the younger Halderman remained in Kentucky in the care of his maternal grandparents. Little else is known of his early years except that he aspired to a military career and thus sought appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. When these efforts were frustrated, Halderman attended McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois, Xavier College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the University of Louisville. His most important educational experience, however, came in the Lexington law office of his uncle, Colonel C. C. Rogers, where he read law. In the spring of 1854 Halderman was admitted to the bar....
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Holcomb, Thomas (1879-1965), commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and diplomat
Leo J. Daugherty
Holcomb, Thomas (05 August 1879–24 May 1965), commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and diplomat, was born in New Castle, Delaware, the son of Thomas Holcomb, an attorney, state legislator, and civil servant, and Elizabeth Hindman Barney. The family moved to Washington in 1893 when his father joined the Treasury Department. Holcomb graduated from high school in 1897 and three years later was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. After completing the marines’ School of Application, Holcomb served from September 1902 to April 1903 with a seagoing battalion attached to the North Atlantic Fleet. In 1903 he was promoted to first lieutenant and stationed in the Philippines in 1904 and 1905 and at the U.S. legation in Peking (Beijing) from 1905 through 1906. He returned to China in 1908 as a naval attaché. Holcomb, by that time a captain, oversaw the training of the legation’s marine detachment, placing particular emphasis—as he would throughout his career—on rifle marksmanship. An expert marksman himself, he had served as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Rifle Team in 1901, 1902, 1903, 1907, and 1908, and would do so again in 1911. Holcomb returned to the United States in 1914 and became inspector of target practice at corps headquarters. He married Beatrice Miller Clover in 1916; the couple had one son....
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Joy, Charles Turner (1895-1956), naval officer and diplomat
Robert James Cressman
Joy, Charles Turner (17 February 1895–06 June 1956), naval officer and diplomat, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Duncan Joy, a cotton broker, and Lucy Barlow Turner. Educated at private schools in St. Louis, New York, and Pennsylvania, and appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy from Illinois’s Twenty-second District in July 1912, Joy received his ensign’s commission in June 1916....
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Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson (1836-1881), army officer and diplomat
Ralph Kirshner
Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson (14 January 1836–02 December 1881), army officer and diplomat, was born near Deckertown (now Sussex), New Jersey, the son of Simon Kilpatrick, a farmer and colonel in the state militia, and Julia Wickham. Kilpatrick attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was two years behind ...
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Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson (1836-1881)
In
Judson Kilpatrick. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1391).
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King, Rufus (1814-1876), soldier, editor, and diplomat
Ethan S. Rafuse
King, Rufus (26 January 1814–13 October 1876), soldier, editor, and diplomat, was born in New York City, the son of Charles King, a merchant and the ninth president of Columbia College, and Eliza Gracie. After attending the preparatory academy of Columbia, Rufus entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1829. After graduating fourth in the class of 1833, he was commissioned into the elite corps of engineers but resigned three years later to accept a position as a civil engineer with the New York & Erie Railroad. In 1839 he began a career as a newspaper editor. After two years with the ...
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King, Rufus (1814-1876)
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Rufus King, Jr. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-10662).
