Background
Manton Sprague Eddy was born on May 16, 1892 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was the son of George Manton Eddy, an insurance broker, and Martha Bishop Sprague.
Manton Sprague Eddy was born on May 16, 1892 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was the son of George Manton Eddy, an insurance broker, and Martha Bishop Sprague.
After receiving his early education in the Chicago public schools, Eddy graduated from the Shattuck Military School in Faribault, in 1913.
Uncertain whether he wanted a military career, he went to work for a casualty insurance company in Indiana. By 1916 his doubts were resolved, and he accepted a commission as a second lieutenant of infantry in the regular army. The next year, after completing the First Provisional Officers Course at the Army Service Schools, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he was promoted to captain.
In April 1918, Eddy went to France with the Fourth Infantry Division. As commander of a machine gun company, he saw action in the Aisne-Marne offensive and in August was wounded during an operation on the Vesle River. He recovered in time to participate in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and finished the war as a battalion commander.
Eddy was promoted to the temporary rank of major in November 1918 and served with the American occupation force in Germany until the summer of 1919, when he returned to the United States. In the period between the two world wars, Eddy held assignments in which he gained recognition as an outstanding military educator. Reverting to his permanent grade of captain in 1920, he completed the Company Officers Course at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1921.
Eddy remained at the Infantry School until 1925, attached first to the Infantry Board and then to the demonstration regiment. In August 1925 he was sent to the Riverside Military Academy, Gainesville, Georgia, where he served as a professor of military science and tactics. Returning to the Infantry School in 1929, he completed the advanced course in 1930.
Two years of regimental and staff duty in Hawaii followed. From 1932 to 1934, Eddy attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, and from 1934 to 1939 he was an instructor in tactics at the school. After assignments as a regimental and a staff officer, he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general in March 1942 and was appointed assistant commander of the Ninth Infantry Division.
During World War II, Eddy was a field commander in the European theater. He was elevated to the command of the Ninth Infantry Division in June 1942 and led the division through the North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy campaigns. Under his direction the Ninth Infantry emerged as a first-rate combat unit, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, rated it as one of his two best divisions.
Lieutenant General George S. Patton later wrote that Eddy probably commanded larger groups of combat troops in that theater longer than any other general.
In August 1944, Eddy was assigned command of the XII Corps, which was attached to Patton's Third Army. Showing "tactical deftness, " he played a major role in the rapid advance of the Third Army across France to the Siegfried Line, the Lorraine campaign, the crossing of the Rhine River, and the drive into the heartland of Germany. Eventually the months of combat strain exacted their toll, and in April 1945 illness forced Eddy to return to the United States.
In 1946-1947, following his recovery, Eddy served successively as commander of the Third Service Command, deputy commander of the Second Army, and chief of information in the Office of the Chief of Staff. In 1948 he was named commandant of the Command and General Staff College and director of the Army Educational System. In these positions he oversaw major changes in the curriculum and teaching methods at Fort Leavenworth and the reestablishment of the Army War College.
In June 1950, Eddy was appointed deputy commander in chief of the European Command and six months later was given command of the reactivated Seventh Army. After two years in this post he was named commander in chief of the U. S. Armed Forces in Europe. During this stint he superintended the buildup of a force of more than 200, 000 for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Eddy retired in 1953 with the rank of lieutenant general and returned to Columbus, Georgia, where he was involved in business and civic affairs. Eddy's military reputation rests upon his service during World War II.
Organizing his headquarters in a fashion that resembled the German practice, he kept his deputy commander at the command post to make emergency decisions and supervise the staff, so that he would be free to be "right up at the front where it was hot. "
He died at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Eddy stands out as one of the most reliable and battle-tested army commanders in the European theater. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for "repeated acts" of "extraordinary heroism" during the capture of Cherbourg from the Germans in June 1944, and by the end of the war he had earned four of the five highest American decorations for bravery.
A burly, amiable man who looked more like a teacher than a soldier, he was never a "dugout" general. Notwithstanding his personal bravery, Eddy was a cautious commander.
He performed classic maneuvers and, as General Omar Bradley, one of his wartime superiors, recalled, counted "his steps carefully before he took them. " They usually took the form of sweeping, well-prepared end runs around the flanks of the enemy rather than frontal attacks. Eddy's conservatism often irritated the hard-driving Patton, but the men serving under him appreciated his ability to win battles with a minimum of casualties.
On November 23, 1921, Eddy married Mamie Peabody Buttolph; they had one daughter.
