Utah's Brigadier Generals

BRIGADIER-GENERAL RICHARD W. YOUNG

Utah's Brigadier Generals

By Junius F. Wells

Since the entrance of our Nation into the great World War there have been five of Utah's soldiers promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General: Colonel E. A. Wedgewood, who failed on physical examination and was retired from the service; Colonel Frank T. Hines, now in the transport service on the Atlantic sea- board and a recent visitor in Europe with Secretary of War Baker; Major William E. Cole, recently promoted, born in 1374, in Willard, Utah, and a graduate of West Point, in 1898; Colonel Richard W. Young, and Colonel Briant H. Wells. It is with feelings of particular pride that we congratulate these officers, especially the latter two, whose names are so fa- miliar and whose records of military service in the State and Nation have reflected so much honor upon that part of our peo- ple who are especially interested in the Era. The service record of General Young has been briefly stated in the following summary prepared by his son, State Senator R. W. Young, Jr., and exhibits a wonderfully active life in the military and civil offices where he has served. Apart from this, his career has been most honorable and useful as a worker in the Y. M. M. I. A., and as President of the Ensign stake of Zion, and as a writer for the local newspapers and periodicals: Richard Whitehead Young Born Salt Lake City, April 19, 1858; son of Joseph Angel and Margaret Whitehead Young; U. of U. 1874-7; graduated U. S. Military Academy 1882; degree of Bachelor of Law, Co- lumbia University 1884; Second Lieutenant in the Fifth U. S. Artillery 1882-9; Captain Acting Judge Advocate in the United States Army on General Hancock's Staff 1884-6; resigned from army 1889; Brigadier General Utah National Guard 1894. Cap- tain and Major commanding Utah Light Artillery, Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection 1898-9; awarded medal of honor for distinguished services and later breveted as Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel and Brigadier General; admitted to bar in New York 1884; in law practice Salt Lake City since 1889; member Salt Lake City Council 1890-1; Board of Educa- tion 1890-4, 1898 member of Board of Visitors, West Point, by ;

presidential appointment 1902; Supreme Provost Judge, Asso-

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ciate Justiceand President of the Criminal Branch of the Su- preme Court of the Philippine Islands, author of the Criminal Code for the Philippine Islands; twice Democratic candidate for the Supreme Court, State of Utah; Regent University of Utah, 1905-17; trustee Brigham Young University and Brig- ham Young College; President International Army Congress, 1912-14; Colonel 145th Field Artillery, U. S. Army, stationed at Camp Kearny; appointed to the Efficiency Board at Ft. Sill. Promoted to Brigadier General, April 12, 1918, commanding 65th Brigade, 40th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, now in France. His last visit to Salt Lake City terminated July 23, 1918. Briant Harris Wells

The youngest son of Daniel H. Wells and Martha Harris was born in Salt Lake City in the old homestead where Zion's Savings Bank now stands, on the 5th of December, 1872. He had his schooling in the district ward schools and at the Deseret University, until he eecured the appointment as a cadet to West Point Military Academy, in 1889. It happened that I accompanied him East and put him in Colonel Braden's preparatory school at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson where he was coached for two months before coming up for the entrance examination at West Point. I recall saying to Colonel Bra den: This boy is sound as the heart of an oak physically, and we want you- to cram his head full of the particular knowledge that will insure his pass- ing the examination and getting into West Point. If he gets in, I have no doubt of his future. I will tell you why: When he was little, he played marbles, and he knew how. He held his taw so as to put the strength of his wrist as well as his thumb back of it. He knuckled down fair, and didn't fudge. He usually started out in the morning with six, and came home at night with a hat full. I told "Bry" when he got in at West Point and was making good with his studies that he should remember some things that his father would want him always to regard — that he had en- — tered upon his life's mission and work to stick to it and make the most of it. That he should first of all be true to Briant H. — Wells look him in the eyes occasionally, and take account; that he should always be true to the Wells family, and never suppose, even if he became commander-in-chief of the Nation's armie", that he would be bigger or greater than the family that no — member of it ever would be, and none of Daniel H. Wells' de- scendants would ever rob him of the peculiar distinction that fate had given him as -the head of his lineage, a patriarch and savior of his race and kindred. Then I told him that it was a mighty good thing to be an official citizen of the United States,

BRIGADIER-GENERAL BRIANT H. WELLS

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a representative for life of our Nation; to be proud of it, and true to it, and to give the best service to it that he was capable of, as long as he should live. pride and pleasure that I now record my It is with infinite belief that he has observed these admonitions all the way through, and because of it has come to be as true a man and soldier as there is in all the American Army, and is now occu- pying a post of great honor and responsibility at the front, with the armies of the Allies in France. General Wells graduated as second lieutenant from West Point, in 1894, and was assigned to the Second Infantry, sta- tioned at Omaha, Nebraska. He served in that regiment and in the Eighteenth Infantry and later in the Twenty-ninth, at sev- eral military posts in various parts of the country. For a time he was adjutant at Fort Douglas. In the Spanish War he went to Cuba, and was wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill, and furloughed home. He was instructor of the Utah National Guard before he went to the Philippines. Three times his duty called him there, and he also served at Panama. He was rapid- ly promoted in the earlier period, to First Lieutenant, 1898, and gaining his Captaincy in seven years from graduation at West Point. At the establishment of the officers' training camp, in 1916, at Plattsburg, N. Y., he was promoted to Major and given command of half the regiment there. From there he went to the Mexican border as Chief of Staff, with General Plummer, and was thence ordered to Washington as a member of the Gen- eral Staff. When war was declared, and the new army was be- ing formed, he was promoted to Colonel, and given command of the 138th Infantry, at Camp Lee, Petersburg, Virginia, where he remained until January, 1918. Upon the return from France of General Bliss, then Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Wells was called to Washington and informed by General Bliss of the latter's appointment as the American member of the Supreme War Council of the Al- lies. General Bliss told him he was detached from his regiment, and was to accompany him to France upon his return, for ser- vice at the Supreme Council. This has been since January and is his present general assignment.

Since the elevation of General Foch to the supreme com- mand as Generalissimo of all the armies of the Allies, Colonel Wells has been the liaison-officer, at his headquarters, repre- senting General Bliss. The nature of this assignment is care- fully stated in the following clipping from the New York Times, written by Richard Barry: In the War College at Washington is a little book marked "Private and Confidential." On the first page appears the line, "Instructions for Liaison

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Officers." It never leaves the confines of the college, where officers prepar- ing for staff duty are expected to master its contents. I was permitted to see it, but not to reproduce the minutiae of its contents, which might be of dis-

tinct value to the enemy. From Colonel Murray of the War College, instructor in liaison work; from Colonel Cordier, the American Liaison Officer attached to the Gen- eral Staff at the War Department, and from other sources was obtained a — general view of the function of the liaison officer facts which it is proper to publish at this time and which seem particularly interesting in view of the international character of the present military organization. The case, it appears, is far different from that imagined by the lady in the lounge of the Savoy, who, observing a covey of English, French, and Belgian officers flocking about a group of social butterflies, observed: "Ah! What a charming detail it is to be a liaison officer!" Rather, from what the writer of this article can gather in a comparatively brief survey, the liaison officer is next to the actual commander in the field, the most im- portant brain serving the cause. And there are more of him in all branches of the service, on all fronts, in all camps, and in all capitals than could be measured of any other special variety. His fast service forms a network of intercommunication and of extracommunication which ties not only our army, but all the armies, together in a fine mesh of exact and instant knowledge. Instinctively one might think of a liaison officer as being the link of communication between two allied armies, but while that is one of his functions, it is not his most important. His most important function is his supervision over and responsibikty for the various methods and systems of communication existing within an army. He is a supertelephone inspector, a super-wireless inspector, the overlord of the carrier pigeons, the boss of the runners, the generalissimo of the motor cycle corps, the boss of the ground telephone, the last court of appeal for the signal corps, and in this latter activity he becomes automatically the all but final seat of responsi- bility for the airplane service in all activities except those pertaining to actual combat. So much for the liaison officer responsible for intercommunication with- in an army. He has other functions, less dangerous, but no less responsible. t £ The obvious nature of his duties is that of linking up the various armies, French with American, American with French, British with French and with American, Italian with French, with British, and with American, etc.

For instance, when Marshal Foch wishes to communicate with General Pershing (that is, for the run of the day's work, though not for a supreme war council, of course) he does not speak to Pershing directly nor send word to him directly. Instead, he communicates with the American liaison officer attached to his headquarters. The functions of this officer become much more than those of a messenger (he is of regimental or brigade rank), for the Generalissimo consults with him exactly as if he were the American commander in person. If he finally has an order to give he gives it to the liaison officer, who in turn communicates it to his chief. In a peculiar and in a militarily limited sense the liaison officers are the ambassadors of their immediate commanders. Foch has one at Pershing's headquarters, as he has one at Haig's and one at Diaz's, and vice versa. Needless to say, officers chosen for this duty are required to have wide knowledge and experience, together with discretion and authority fitting them for general rank.

That Colonel Wells has proved his ability and worthiness in this position of high honor, responsibility, and trust, is evi-

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denced by the fact that in August he was promoted to Briga- dier General, and was continued at General Foch's headquarters, the representative of General Bliss, of the Supreme War Coun- cil, which determines the strategy of the war, and provides the armies of execution. Since the above was written General Wells has been ap- pointed Chief of Staff of the Fifth Army Corps, 182,000 men, — commanded by Major-General Bundy a part of the First Field army under General Pershing, now in action in the Lorraine sector. The accompanying portraits of Generals Young and Wells were taken recently, in their colonel's uniforms, before they were made Brigadier Generals.