US Army Brigadier General. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, he attended Washington University there until receiving an appointment to attend the US Military Academy at West Point, New York in August 1887 and graduated in June 1891 with a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the US Cavalry. The following year he was sent to Fort Bayard, New Mexico and while there, he was detached to San Antonio, Texas as an aide to General Zenas R. Bliss, Commanding General of the Department of Texas and also as an engineer, engaged in mapping of the Rio Grande River that separates the US from Mexico. In 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he served with the 1st Cavalry in Tampa, Florida and in January 1899 he was assigned to Cuba and was appointed aide for one year to General James H. Wilson who was in command of Matanzas and Santa Clara there, and as acting judge advocate of the department for one more year. In 1901 he was assigned to Fort Meade, South Dakota and served with the 13th Cavalry, and accompanied the unit to the Philippines for two years which was followed by assignments to Governor's Island, New York and Fort Sheridan, Illinois. After returning from a second tour in the Philippines, he was assigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he served on the "Munson Shoe Board" that developed the shoe shape for the US Army boots that are still used today. Around 1912 he was sent to Washington DC as a member of the US Army General Staff that was followed by a short tour as quartermaster at Fort Myer, Virginia (now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall). In 1914 he was promoted to the rank of major and attended Field Officers Classes at the Mounted Service Schools at Fort Riley, Kansas and the Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth. From 1916 until early 1917 he served in the Mexican Punitive Expedition under US Army General John J. Pershing in the quest to capture Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Following two month's duty at El Paso, Texas he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and assigned back to Fort Myer, Virginia, upon the US entry into World War I, where he trained civilians to become junior US Army officers. In December 1917 he was assigned as Commander of Trains to a new division organized at Charlotte, North Carolina and shortly thereafter to the Army War College at Washington Barracks (now Fort McNair) in Washington DC to prepare a curriculum for brigade and field officers of the National Guard, and completing it, he was assigned to San Antonio, Texas as senior instructor in the three-month course. After serving as a special investigator on certain border incidents involving American and Mexican troops along the frontier between the Big Bend of the Rio Grande and Nogales, Arizona, he was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel and assigned to the 14th Cavalry, the next Cavalry regiment that was scheduled to deploy to France, but it did not materialize. In September 1918 he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general and became commander of the 20th Infantry Brigade at Camp Funston, Kansas. In May 1919 he reverted to his permanent grade of lieutenant colonel. He then attended Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas followed by the Army War College at Washington DC In 1923 he became Chief of Staff, 1st Division, at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Fort Hamilton in New York City, New York, followed by three years in the Office of the Chief of Cavalry, Washington DC. In March 1927 he was promoted to the permanent rank of brigadier general and placed in command of Fort Myer, Virginia and retired at that position two months later due to a physical disability, with 36 years of continuous military service. He lived out the remainder of his life at his wife ancestral home, the Magoffin Homestead (now a state historic site), in El Paso, Texas. He died at the age of 101.