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An outstanding military leader, whose soldierly character was accompanied by an innate love and trust of his fellow man, has passed from among us.</div>
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<em>Hanson Edward Ely</em> was born and raised in eastern Iowa. When only seventeen years old he taught a country school which included a number of twenty year old pupils. These lads, accustomed to ruling their teacher, became quite docile when Hudson added boxing instruction to the curriculum.</div>
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The sternness and honesty which Hanson Ely had within the essence of his character were traits which fitted him well for life at West Point. He found a deep satisfaction in the devotion to duty, the respect for honor and the love of country which are so much a part of the Academy. And during the remaining seventy sears of his life he appreciated the greatness of our Alma Mater in its molding of the character of the graduate officers who were his contemporaries or subordinates during his active service, and his companions during his retirement.</div>
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Shortly after graduation he married Mary Elizabeth Barber, of Iowa City, Iowa. Then followed a decade in small far-western posts where, in addition to military routine well done, he developed himself by hunting and by robust athletic activities, supplemented by sound military reading. He earned the rating of distinguished marksman with the rifle.</div>
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In the Philippine insurrection as a rifle company commander his forceful leadership brought him to the attention of General Funston who appointed him commander of the Funston Scouts. Courage in action brought him a silver star citation in this war.</div>
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He constantly sought to further his military education in the period between the two wars in which he participated. He attended the school at Leavenworth from 1905 to 1907, supplementing this schooling by observing, at his own expense, the maneuvers of the German Army in 1906. At the time of the Vera Cruz expedition in 1914 he was a very junior major, but nevertheless held command of the Seventh Infantry during the entire operation.</div>
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In 1907 his wife Mary died. In 1911 he married Eleanor Ashton Boyle, who was his steadfast companion for the remaining years of his life.</div>
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The First World War brought out to their fullest his great military potentialities. After serving as chief of staff of the First Division during much of the early training and initial front-line indoctrination of that organization, he sought and obtained command duty. His regiment, the Twenty-eighth Infantry, was selected to make the initial American attack against the German forces. In May of 1918 the regiment assaulted and captured Cantigny, then repelled six successive strong counterattacks. This action raised the morale of all the American troops in France, and greatly increased that of the Allied forces.</div>
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Promoted to Brigadier General, he took command of the the Third Brigade in the Second Division just prior to its participation in the Soissons offensive. The Brigade distinguished itself highly in this attack, and again in the Thiau-court offensive some two months later. In these two actions the Brigade captured some 5,500 prisoners.</div>
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The hardest fought battle of the Brigade came early in October of 1918. The French Fourth Army had been repeatedly repulsed, and its failure to advance endangered the flank of the American First Army. The Second Division was designated to seize the key portion of the German position on the Fourth Army front, the heavily fortified Mt. Blanc massif. On General Ely’s recommendation, the Third Brigade made the main attack, moving against the flank of the position in column of battalions, and breaking through the fortified area in spite of extremely heavy losses. This action enabled the French forces to advance.</div>
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Scarcely had the Brigade completed its task when its commander left to take over the Fifth Division. The new organization, infused with his high morale and his combative determination, soon began a series of victories which ended only with the end of the war. The assault across the Meuse, during this period, was described by General Pershing as “one of the most brilliant military feats in the history of the American Army in France.” At the time of the Armistice the Fifth Division was vigorously pursuing the beaten and retreating Germans on a wide front, well ahead of the organizations on its right and left.</div>
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During this war Hanson Ely was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action in the Soissons offensive, and the Distinguished Medal for his leadership in successive command of the Twenty-eighth Infantry, the Third Brigade and the Fifth Division. By the Republic of France he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm on five occasions, and decorated as an officer and later as a Commander of the Legion of Honor. General Pershing said of him, shortly after the war: “A strong, virile character; very soldierly...has a clear mind...Well fitted for staff duty, but essentially a fighting man.”</div>
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In the final thirteen years of his service, Hanson Ely played a major role in infusing into the American Army the sound military principles of which he was so thoroughly a master. The doctrines which he particularly emphasized as Commandant of the Command and General Staff College were applied with outstanding success against both the German and the Japanese forces in the varied and often complicated problems with which the American forces were so often confronted during the Second World War. Under his direction, also, the Army War College tended to fill the place of the then missing National War College.</div>
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For Hanson Ely retirement was a time of rest, recreation, and seeing old friends. One of the thoughts which increasingly occupied his mind during his advancing years was his great love and respect for West Point. He was most highly gratified in his sons who graduated from the Academy in 1919, 1924 and 1942, and in his grandson, Dwight Fuller, in the Class of 1959.</div>
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Upon his passing, after some twenty-seven years of retirement, many of his former subordinates recalled his great qualities of military leadership. A number of those who later had attained very high rank, including the President, paid him their sincere tribute.</div>
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In addition to the brilliant military leadership and the sternness in battle which characterized Hanson Ely the soldier, his close personal friends and particularly his wife and children, knew him as a man of great kindness, a loving husband and father. To all of his family he was a man greatly respected and loved.</div>
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