<p>
Through the many years I knew <em>Charles Justin Bailey</em>, as my commanding officer, as my friend. and as my father-in-law, I never thought of him but as the embodiment of a God-given energy. Few now are the men who remember him as Sep Bailey, but there are still many who served under him and still think of him as the Old Man, and a host of friends of his later years who knew him affectionately as “Gen”. But all of them. I think—even those few who can recall him in those far-off cadet days—will always associate him in their minds with a tireless activity.</p>
<p>
It was not mere busyness; there was nothing of fussiness or bustle about it. Instead, it was as though, even in a man who lived to his advanced years, there were not time enough to do all the things that duty demanded, that pleasure desired, that friendship asked, or, in short, that a vivid intensity of living required. He oppressed neither his friends nor himself with any pessimistic feeling that time might run out, but rather buoyed them with an enthusiasm to savor in work or in play the full value of any moment, however short. His energy carried no hint of the task master, no thought that he was driving either himself or others, but only an infectious persuasiveness that here at hand was time in which to do—time, the raw material from which he and they could make.</p>
<p>
It was a gift without price in his chosen profession. I doubt if it ever entered his head to analyze his own capacity for leadership. He was so busy seeing what lay before and about him, so genuinely joyful in the doing of it, so thoroughly appreciative and approving of the part played by others in the work, that he never questioned if others would follow him. Follow him they did—intelligently, I am sure, for he was not one to keep any fellow-worker in the dark. But I am equally sure that they would have followed him blindly, so much do men love the man who goes ahead in the security of courage, common-sense, honesty, and conviction.</p>
<p>
Do these words sound a little pompous? If they do, it is because it is I who give them that tone. General Bailey would have laughed at any intent to pin the sober virtues on him. For there was in him a deep-seated good-humor, which was really merriment, that divested his work of any suspicion of stuffiness. He had himself, and he could impart to others, that essential gaiety of heart with which any piece of work, however serious, must be approached. There was in him no despair; he could persuade others that a man can survive, and cheerfully, every accident of life save the final one, and that that one can be faced stoutly.</p>
<p>
Like every one else, he had injuries done him, but I think he did no man an injury. His worst reaction to a momentary displeasure was to call some one picturesquely “an old pelican”, and thereafter to forget that he had been displeased. Once, he did threaten to “pound on So-and-So’s grave with a ham”, but long before any such violent necessity arose, he had forgiven and forgotten. Few have quitted the scene with life’s arrears more adequately paid than did he; for where he received affection, he returned love; where he received friendship, he returned it in most beautiful kind; where he received help, he returned it in full recognition; and where he received unkindness, he returned it in forgetfulness. Nor did his payment invoke in men that kind of grateful remembrance that finds expression only after a man’s death. I shall always regret that I could not have been present at the review which the new 81st Division gave to the commander of the old 81st. The men who tendered the honor, except for a few of their officers, were young men who knew nothing at first hand of what their predecessors had met and conquered. But sustained as they were with the courage of youth, and inspired by the thought of the dangerous unknown before them, they took a new enthusiasm from the sight of the frail old man who walked their lines, the fire of his spirit still burning. At least, I read that into their reception of him.</p>
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And I believe what I read, because I have been with him, in good weather and in bad, and I know that no one was with him long without being aware that one man was as generously dealt with as were a thousand. What he gave, he made other men give as well. “That all spirit is mutually attractive, as all matter is mutually attractive, is an ultimate fact ... Spirit to spirit—as in water face answereth face, so the heart of man to man”.</p>
<p>
I have not forgotten his services as a soldier, both in action and in thought. Those services have received their recognition, which recognition he shared in act and thought with those who helped win it. But more than most men, he lived far beyond the years of his professional work. Only the last was a year of enforced inactivity. But not of idleness, for even then, the energy of the man reached out to keep firm his hold on the affairs of life. Where for many years after his retirement from the Army, he had been one of the most active citizens in the home of his boyhood, he was still one of its most active, counselling and advising where he had been doing, asking dilly from himself a duty which was his delight to meet, reaching after the hearts and minds of men with that energy which is envied by all who aspire.</p>
<p>
Then there came a day, when for the first time in his life, Charles Justin Bailey asked nothing of himself save rest.</p>
<p>
<em>—A. W. C.</em></p>
<p>
Following are salient facts concerning General Bailey’s life and service:</p>
<p>
Born June 21, 1859 in Pennsylvania. Appointed to the United States Military Academy from New York.</p>
<p>
Military History:—Cadet at the Military Academy, September 1, 1876 to June 12, 1880, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to Second Lieutenant, 1st Artillery, June 12, 1880</p>
<p>
Served: in garrison at Ft. Adams, R. I., October 1, 1880 to November 14, 1881,—Ft. Canby, Wash., to January 13, 1882,—Presidio of San Francisco, Calif., (on detached service at Duck Valley Indian Reservation, August 16 to October 20, 1883, and on leave of absence, April 16 to July 13. 1884), to October 3, 1885,—Alcatraz Island, Calif., to August 9, 1886.—and Artillery School for Practice, Ft. Monroe, Va., to First Lieutenant, 1st Artillery, January 14, 1888. July 15, 1888; on leave of absence to August 31, 1888; and in Garrison at Ft. Mason, Calif.</p>
<p>
Served: at Fort Hamilton, N.Y.H., to October, 1896 (Regimental Quartermaster, 1891-95).—At Jackson Barracks, New Orleans, to July, 1897.—On detached service as Professor of Military Science and Tactics, at the University of Vermont to April, 1898.—At Galveston. Tex., to April, 1899.—At Fort Preble, Me., to Captain of Artillery. 7th Artillery, March 2, 1899. December, 1901; at Sandy Hook Proving Ground, Fort Hancock, N. J., to August, 1902; At Fort Totten, N. Y., Disbursing Officer, and on Torpedo Board, to November, 1904; at Jackson Barracks, La., to Major, Coast Artillery, June 11, 1905. November, 1905; at Fort Monroe, Va., President Artillery Board, to March, 1906; at Washington, D. C., on General Staff and Secretary of Army War College, to April, 1908; Senior Assistant to Chief of Coast Artillery to Lieut. Colonel, Coast Artillery Corps, September 1, 1908. March. 1911; at Galveston, Texas, commanding 1st Provisional Coast Artillery to Colonel, Coast Artillery Corps, March 11, 1911. June, 1911; commanding Coast Defenses of Puget Sound to Brigadier General, U.S.A., October 10, 1913. October, 1913; at Fort Totten, N. Y., commanding North Atlantic Coast Artillery District to September. 1914; enroute to Manila, September 25 to November 3, 1914; commanding Coast Defenses, Manila and Subic Bays, to April 15, 1917; commanding Philippine Department to August, 1917;</p>
<p>
Major General, National Army, August 5, 1917 en route to U.S., August 15 to October 4, 1917; on detached service with American Expeditionary Forces in France, November 24, 1917, to March 4, 1918; at Camp Jackson, S. C„ commanding 81st Division and National Army Cantonment to May 18, 1918; at Camp Sevier, S. C., commanding 81st Division and Camp to July 20, 1918; arrived in France with 81st Division, August 18, 1918; and served with A.E.F., to May 29, 1919; at Fort Totten, N. Y., commanding Middle Atlantic Coast Artillery District, July 21, 1919, to returned to Grade of Brigadier General, March 15, 1920 July 18, 1921; at Camp Meade, Md., commanding 7th Division and Camp to July 26; at Fort Howard, Md., and at Baltimore, Md., commanding 3rd Corps Area to Major General, U. S.A., October 6, 1921. December 1, 1922, Major General, U.S.A., Retired, December 1, 1922, at his own request, after over 40 years’ service.</p>
<p>
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL “For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services. He commanded the 81st Division with distinction throughout its operations, beginning October 1, 1918. The excellent conduct of this division was due, in a large measure, to his great military knowledge, energy, and zeal. He has shown qualities of able leadership and has rendered services of great value to the American Expeditionary Forces.”</p>
<p>
Commander of the Order of Leopold of Belgium; Officer of the Legion of Honor of France; awarded Croix de Guerre, with Palm.</p>