U.S. Army General. A combat veteran of World Wars I and II, he rose in rank to become the Commander of the 1st U.S. Army. He was one of the few general officers who were present at the German surrender in Rheims, France and the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri at Tokyo Bay, Japan. The son of the his hometown's newspaper publisher, he briefly attended North Georgia Agricultural College (now the University of North Georgia) at Dahlonega, Georgia before receiving an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1905. After a year he dropped out and enlisted in the US Army and was commissioned as an officer three years later. His early military career took him to the Philippines and Mexico, and the Officers Candidate School/Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. Following the US entry into World War I in April 1917, he was assigned to the 5th Infantry Division of the American Expeditionary Force and saw combat action in the Meuse-Argonne, the St. Mihel, and Aisne-Marne Campaigns. After the end of the war, he returned to the US and became an instructor at West Point. After completing the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1925, he served as an instructor at the Infantry Center and School at Fort Benning from 1929 until 1933 and then enrolled at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. In 1938 he became the Assistant Commandant of the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and three years later he became its full Commandant. In May 1941 he was promoted to the rank of major general and following the US entry into World War II in December 1941, he became Commander of the 10th US Army Corps. In 1943 he was sent to England where he commanded the 3rd US Army and participated in the Allied invasion at Normandy, France in June 1944 as Deputy Commander of the US 1st Army under General Omar Bradley. In August 1944 he replaced Bradley and his forces were the first to liberate Paris, France. Later, as Commander of the 1st US Army, his forces participated in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest (September to December 1944) and the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 to January 1945), and crossed the Rhine River into the heartland of Germany in March 1945 that ultimately led to their surrender two months later. In April 1945 he was promoted to the rank of general and was only the second soldier at that time to go from private to four-star general. After the Surrender of Germany, he was sent to the Pacific Theater of Operations in anticipation of the Allied invasion of Japan, which never materialized. Following the end of World War II he commanded 1st US Army at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York and he retired in that position with 43 years of continuous military service. Among his military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal (with two oak leaf clusters), the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Mexican Service Medal, the Mexican Border Service Medal, the World War I Victory Medal (with three campaign stars), the post-World War I Army of Occupation of Germany Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with arrowhead device and seven campaign stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the post-World War II Army of Occupation Medal, and the Army Presidential Unit Citation. He died at the age of 79.