Arthur MacArthur Jr.

Arthur MacArthur Jr. won the Medal of Honor at eighteen and commanded in the Philippines at fifty-five, and he is the father of Douglas MacArthur; the two are the first father and son both to hold the medal. He was a lieutenant in the 24th Wisconsin at Missionary Ridge in 1863, where he picked up the regimental colours after the bearers were shot and carried them to the crest shouting the regiment's name, and he finished the civil war as a colonel at nineteen. The peacetime army left him a captain for twenty-three years. In 1898 he went to the Philippines, fought the Spanish at Manila, and then fought the Filipinos who had expected independence. He succeeded Elwell Otis as military governor in May 1900 and ran the war through its hardest phase, when it turned from conventional battles to guerrilla resistance: he imposed strict reconcentration and severe measures against the population supporting the insurgents, and simultaneously pursued amnesty, municipal self-government and school-building, believing the war would be ended by politics. He quarrelled continuously with William Howard Taft, the civilian commissioner sent to supersede him, and was relieved in 1901. He was made lieutenant general in 1906 and never given the command of the army he expected. He died in 1912 giving a speech to the survivors of his old regiment. His son Douglas was in the audience. The two careers rhyme closely enough to be confusing: both commanded in the Philippines, both quarrelled with civilian authority over who directed policy there, and both were relieved for it.

• Lived: 1845 CE – 1912 CE
• Nationality: American
• Roles: military_leader