Robert Lee Bullard was a United States General.

General Bullard attended the United States Military Academy

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

 and graduated in 1885. He was involved in conflicts in the American Western Frontier, the Philippines, and World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

World War I

After the American entry in WWI, Bullard was quickly promoted from Colonel to Brigadier General (June 1917) and Major General (August 1917). He commanded the 1st Infantry Division ("Big Red One") from December 1917 to July 1918.

During World War I he led men in the Battle of Cantigny

Battle of Cantigny

The Battle of Cantigny, fought on 28 May 1918 was the first American offensive of World War I. The U.S. 1st Division, the most experienced of the seven American divisions then in France and in reserve for the French Army near the village of Cantigny, was selected for the attack...

 (1918) and captured the village of Cantigny

Cantigny, Somme

Cantigny is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.- History :During World War I, a battle liberated the town from German forces. Major-General Robert Lee Bullard commanded the US First Division in the United States' first victory of the war. About 10 years later, Colonel...

. It had been held by the German Eighteenth Army. It was the site of a German advance observation point and strongly fortified. This was the first sustained American offensive of the war. It was considered a success in that it expanded the American front by about a mile. General John J. Pershing

John J. Pershing

John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, GCB , was a general officer in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I...

 said of the attack:

"The enemy reaction against our troops at Cantigny was extremely violent, and apparently he was determined at all costs to counteract the most excellent effect the American success had produced. For three days his guns of all calibres were concentrated on our new position and counter-attack succeeded counter-attack. The desperate efforts of the Germans gave the fighting at Cantigny a seeming tactical importance entirely out of proportion to the numbers involved."

Bullard was fluent in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and often served in joint U.S. - French operations.

General Pershing created the Second U.S. Army

U.S. Second Army

Second United States Army was formed 15 October 1918 during World War I. It functioned as a training and administrative headquarters until being inactivated 15 April 1919....

 and appointed Bullard as its first commander. At the same time he turned over command of First United States Army

U.S. First Army

The First United States Army is a field army of the United States Army. It now serves a mobilization, readiness and training command.- Establishment and World War I :...

 to General Hunter Liggett

Hunter Liggett

Hunter Liggett was a lieutenant general of the United States Army. His forty-two years of service spanned the period from the Indian campaigns to trench warfare.-Biography:...

. Pershing himself moved up to become commander of an Army Group.

His behavior in sending troops into battle, at the risk of dying, with full knowledge that the Armistice was due in a few hours, was severely criticized by Alden Brooks

Alden Brooks

Alden Brooks , was an American writer, chiefly remembered for his proposal that Sir Edward Dyer wrote the works of Shakespeare.Brooks was in born in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended schools in both France and England, before graduating from Harvard University in 1905. After teaching at Harvard and as...

 in his post-war account of the war, As I Saw It, (1930).

Post war

After the war, his rank was reduced (this is normal procedure) to corps command in the smaller U.S. army. He retired from active duty in 1925 to concentrate on writing. He served as President of the National Security League

National Security League

The National Security League was a nationalistic, militaristic, and eventually quasi-fascist nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supported the naturalization and Americanization of immigrants, Americanism, a strong military, universal conscription, meritocracy and government regulation of the...

.

Retirement

He was author of the following books:

• Personalities and Reminiscences of the War, New York: Doubleday Page, 1925 (ISBN 0-7661-9742-5)
• American Soldiers also Fought New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1936

Bullard also wrote several magazine articles.

He died in 1947. Bullard is buried at the U.S. Military Academy Post Cemetery

West Point Cemetery

West Point Cemetery is a historic cemetery on the grounds of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. It overlooks the Hudson River, and served as a burial ground for American Revolutionary War soldiers and early West Point inhabitants long before 1817 when it was officially...

, with his wife Ella (Reiff) Bullard (5 November 1870 to 3 March 1963).

A biography was written about him: The General: Robert L. Bullard and Officership in the United States Army, 1881-1925, by Allan R. Millett (1975).

External links

• The Battle of Cantigny, 1918