<p>
It was a beautiful day in late autumn—mild and sunny. The cortege moved slowly along the winding roads of Arlington Cemetery; the band took up the triumphal strains of “Onward Christian Soldiers” as minute guns roared a salute to the memory of an old First Artilleryman. The caisson, drawn by six superb gray horses, halted beside the gravesite beyond which stretched the magnificent panorama of Washington. Thus, with military honors, was Major General <em>John L. Chamberlain</em>, Inspector General of World War I, borne to a soldier’s resting place after a long and full life of nearly ninety-one years, forty-two of them devoted to the service of his country.</p>
<p>
Born on January 20, 1858, in Geneseo, New York, the third of five children, Chamberlain was the son of Jabez Lewis and Charity Hart Chamberlain. His father was a prosperous small farmer and a deacon of the Baptist Church, with the strict views peculiar to that sect. His mother, a woman of unusual intelligence, judgment, strength of character and broadness of vision, exercised a continuing influence upon Chamberlain’s life. From his parents Chamberlain inherited the sense of duty and honor, the loyalty, the power of will and the sound judgment which were so characteristic of him.</p>
<p>
Chamberlain’s early education was received at the District School near his father’s farm and, later, at the State Normal School. He was but one year short of graduation, when family financial difficulties forced him to leave school and take a teaching position.</p>
<p>
In 1875, on applying to the Member of Congress from his district for an appointment to West Point, he was informed that the appointment had already been made and that there was no chance for him. While considering his next step, Chamberlain suddenly received word that the appointee had failed in the examination, and that a competitive examination would be held to fill the vacancy. Although he had almost no advance notice, Chamberlain determined to try for the appointment. Rising at three o’clock in the morning, he drove in a buggy the twenty-six miles over the hills to Canandaigua where the examination was to be held. He arrived after the other candidates had already begun their work, but he was permitted to compete. He won the appointment.</p>
<p>
Chamberlain entered the Military Academy in September of 1876 with some twenty others. These “Seps”, added to those new cadets who had entered earlier, brought the total of the class to about one hundred—an interesting contrast to the large classes of today.</p>
<p>
In voluminous notes which he left Chamberlain records:</p>
<p>
“I entered my first class camp as Captain of Company ‘B’. I left the camp as a high private, which distinguished rank I maintained during the remainder of my cadet days. As I soon discovered, the position of a first class private was a very enviable one. I had no responsibilities, lived with an officer and sub-division inspector, was right general guide of the battalion (which kept me out of ranks) and pumped the organ in church, which allowed me to take a nap every Sunday during service and got me out of drill each week.</p>
<p>
“A memorable circumstance connected with my first class year was the so-called New Year’s celebration of 1880. For many years an effort had been made each New Year to have some sort of celebration at midnight but it had always resulted in someone being discovered and punished. Upon this occasion, about half a dozen members of the first class concluded that they would have a real New Year’s celebration and that nobody should get caught. Accordingly, they purchased, through an agent in New York, a lot of fireworks which were shipped to Highland Falls and delivered to Fort Putnam. The night before New Year’s Eve they were brought down to barracks and concealed. On New Year’s Eve blue lights were set off on top of barracks, and firecrackers and skyrockets fired from the windows of the barracks. The performance was a great success and no-one was caught. One of the stunts planned was the firing of a small brass cannon which had been carried to the top of the barracks. For some reason or other, it missed fire at midnight, but the next morning, just after breakfast, they succeeded in getting it off. That naturally created an unusual sensation.” Chamberlain never revealed what role, if any, he played in these proceedings.</p>
<p>
In 1880 Chamberlain was graduated, fifth in his class, and was assigned to the Artillery with station at Governors Island, New York, reporting for duty at the height of the ill-starred presidential campaign of General Hancock, then Commanding General of the Eastern Department. During that same year the now famous Governors Island Officers Club was organized, with General Hancock as the first president and Chamberlain as the first secretary-treasurer.</p>
<p>
A year later the regiment, the First Artillery, was transferred to California, taking stations at the Presidio, Black Point, Fort Canby and Alcatraz Island. Chamberlain was assigned to Alcatraz, and was detailed as Quartermaster, Commissary, Ordnance Officer and Prison Officer.</p>
<p>
In his notes Chamberlain records some interesting sidelights on life in some of our western garrisons:</p>
<p>
“The garrison at Angel Island consisted of two infantry battalions. The post duties consisted of one hour of close order drill per day, Saturdays and Sundays excepted, and a dress inspection on Sunday morning. One officer was supposed to attend drill but this was not considered entirely necessary as the first sergeant was thought quite competent to drill the few men who turned out. The only absolute requirement was that there should be an officer of the day on the post at all times. Other officers could be absent when their services could be spared. Not only this, but the commanding officer considered an officer present for duty if he were where he could be reached by telegraph—there being no telephone in those days—and could return to the post within a few hours ... Nonetheless, whenever the Array was called upon for serious work, as it was frequently in connection with Indian troubles, it was always on the Job and no troops in the world ever did better service than this same Regular Army did in the West”.</p>
<p>
In 1884 Chamberlain was ordered to West Point as instructor in chemistry and tactical officer. Among the cadets attending his sections was John J. Pershing, with whom he was subsequently to have close association in the Moro country and still later in World War I. A warm mutual admiration and friendship was to develop between the two men.</p>
<p>
In the winter of 1889-90, the Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation took to the warpath, and there ensued the campaign highlighted by the Battle of Wounded Knee. Chamberlain, on detached service at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, asked to be returned to his regiment, which was at Pine Ridge. Arriving in the Dakotas, he was assigned to Battery “B” and served therein until the campaign ended. Although fighting had ceased by the time he reached his regiment, Chamberlain always derived much satisfaction from his service with “Capron’s Battery”. Of the Indian Wars Service Medal, which this service authorized him to wear, Chamberlain, with his characteristic sense of fairness, later said: “It hardly seems fair that for a most inactive service of this kind I should have a war medal, while hundreds of officers who spent years on the frontier chasing and fighting Indians yet wear no Indian War medals because of the fact that they were not in any Indian War officially recognized”. His contacts during this campaign, with General Nelson Miles, in command of the force sent against Sitting Bull, led to Chamberlain’s assignment, in 1892, as an aide to the General at the Chicago Exposition, the first of the really great expositions held in the United States.</p>
<p>
It was during the course of a tour of duty at Fort Wadsworth, New York, in 1894, that Chamberlain met Miss Carolyn Marrow, who was visiting at the post. They were married in 1896, making their first home at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.</p>
<p>
In the summer of 1897 Chamberlain was appointed Military Attaché to Austria-Hungary. The succeeding year was one of great interest and fascination for both him and Mrs. Chamberlain, since Vienna was at the height of its splendor and the Austrian Court was perhaps the most brilliant one in Europe. However, as relations between the United States and Spain worsened, strained relations developed as well between our embassy in Vienna and the Austrian government, as the Queen of Spain was an Austrian arch-duchess. On the other hand, Chamberlain recalled, our relations with the Spanish Embassy were cordial until the very end. He recounts a statement made to him at the time by the Spanish Military Attaché: “I hope there will be no war with America, for if there is, there can be but one result—our defeat. However, should there be war and should it result in Spain losing the Philippine Islands, Cuba and Puerto Rico, it would be the greatest blessing that could possibly come to Spain, for her colonies have been the cause of her downfall”.</p>
<p>
Upon the declaration of war, Chamberlain asked for relief from his post in Vienna, and. after repeated appeals, was returned to the United States for reassignment to troops. Appointed a major of volunteers, he took command of a siege train at Tampa, but, before the unit had received orders for Cuba, the armistice was signed and the train was deactivated.</p>
<p>
It was at this time that Chamberlain made up his mind to enter competition for assignment to the Inspector General’s Department, then a permanent corps. Successful In the competitive examination, Chamberlain received his appointment to the Department in 1900.</p>
<p>
During the succeeding years, Chamberlain served as inspector in the Western, Eastern and Philippine Departments, with brief interruptions in this service to attend Leavenworth and the War College.</p>
<p>
In February of 1917, with the United States on the verge of war with Germany, Chamberlain was appointed Inspector General of the Army, with the rank of brigadier general. Major General Arthur Murray, then Commanding General of the Western Department, wrote at the time that he considered Chamberlain “not only one of the best officers and Inspectors I have ever known, but better equipped for promotion to the office for which he is recommended than any other army officer known to myself”.</p>
<p>
On assuming office, Chamberlain threw himself heart and soul into the task of developing the Inspector General’s Department into an organization ready to assume the role which he felt it should play in the coming war effort.</p>
<p>
“I felt that the Department should be a constructive power”, he wrote, “that it should be an instrumentality for information and activities, always at the disposal of the Chief of Staff and the Secretary of War, and that these officials should make use of the Department to a degree which never before had existed.”</p>
<p>
Throughout his incumbency, Chamberlain never deviated from this philosophy. He never relaxed his efforts to develop the constructive aspects of all the activities of his Department, and to make the corps a powerful force for the improvement of the efficiency of the Army.</p>
<p>
“Criticism is not the primary function of an Inspector”, Chamberlain would frequently remark. “An inspector’s job is to help; to show how things can be improved and to assist in improving them. Only after an impartial and thorough investigation has brought to light gross neglect or crookedness should disciplinary action be taken; then it should be taken without hesitation”. Adherence to these views gained Chamberlain his reputation for being “a tough inspector but utterly square”.</p>
<p>
Chamberlain remained Inspector General throughout the war, being promoted to the grade of major general in October of 1917. While his duties generally confined him to the Zone of the Interior, he spent the summer of 1917 inspecting the armies on the Western Front, arriving in time to be present at the Chateau Thierry engagement.</p>
<p>
For his war services as Inspector General, Chamberlain was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.</p>
<p>
Upon termination of his original appointment, Chamberlain was, in 1921, reappointed Inspector General, remaining in office until his retirement, at his own request, in November of 1921. For the greater part of the remaining years of their life, Chamberlain and his wife divided their time between Washington and Wakefield, Rhode Island, where they had a summer cottage and where Chamberlain could indulge his love for gardening and reading.</p>
<p>
Mrs. Chamberlain died in the winter of 1947 and her husband did not long survive her. On November 14 of 1948, after a protracted illness, Chamberlain went to join his beloved wife and the Long Gray Line of his classmates and friends—Bailey, Converse, Goode, Goethals, Hewitt, Morgan, Sharpe and the other members of the oldest class, of which he was the last survivor.</p>
<p>
<em>J. L. C., Jr.</em></p>
<p>
</p>