Ulysses G. McAlexander was an American army officer.
Background
Ulysses Grant McAlexander was born on 30 August 1864 in Dundas, Minnesota. He was the fifth of six children and the oldest son of C. P. McAlexander, a farmer, and Margaret (Tilton) McAlexander. Both parents were of old American stock, his mother a native of Indiana and his father of Ohio. He was named for the Civil War hero whom his father, a lieutenant of volunteers in the Union Army, greatly admired; to this enthusiasm McAlexander later attributed his long-standing ambition for a professional military career.
Education
In his youth the family moved to Kansas, from which state he received his appointment to the United States Military Academy. In 1887 he graduated as a second lieutenant of infantry.
Career
From 1891 to 1895 McAlexander was on detached service as professor of military science and tactics at Iowa Wesleyan University. During the Spanish-American War he was awarded the Silver Star for "gallantry in action" during the Santiago campaign. It was his only early claim to distinction, though from 1900 to 1907 he did duty in the Philippines and wrote a history of his regiment. From 1907 to 1911 and again in 1915-16 he was professor of military science and tactics at Oregon State Agricultural College. In 1916, when the United States was in the midst of the preparedness campaign generated by World War I, he was detailed as inspector and instructor of the Oregon National Guard. Immediately on American entry into the war, McAlexander was ordered to duty in France. He landed there on June 26, 1917, already old in grade for a colonel but determined to hold a battle command. His swift, though belated, rise to high rank and national fame was the result of a great battle crisis. When the final German offensive broke on the Western Front in mid-July 1918, inaugurating the Second Battle of the Marne, McAlexander and his regiment, the 38th Infantry, were holding the key position in the Surmelin Valley barring the road to Paris. From 3 A. M. July 15 until noon on July 16 the regiment bore the brunt of the attack. Although it was outflanked on both sides, the unit held its position for twenty-one hours until ordered back in a move to straighten the Allied lines. In addition to inflicting heavy casualties upon the enemy, it captured 200 German soldiers. As General Pershing later recalled, the "brilliant conduct" of the 38th Infantry threw the enemy's effort into confusion. On July 18 the Germans withdrew, their power spent, and the Allied counteroffensive against Soissons began, marking the turning point of the war. Thereafter, McAlexander became personally known as "the Rock of the Marne, " and the same tag was given to his regiment. Praised by Gen. Hunter Liggett, his corps commander, McAlexander was promoted to brigadier general and put in command of the 180th Brigade in the 90th Infantry Division. He served in that capacity until the end of the war. He had been wounded during the fighting on July 16. One week later, while still commanding the 38th Regiment, he was hit again. In 1920 he was given permament rank as brigadier general. Four years later, because of disabilities from his battle wounds, he was retired as a major general. Following his retirement McAlexander returned to Oregon to live. Intensely American, McAlexander seemed to possess full peace of mind only when his feet touched United States soil. In 1934 he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor of Oregon. His death, at his home in Portland, was attributed to acute hypertensive cardiovascular disease, with left ventricular failure. Burial was in the Arlington National Cemetery.
(History of the Thirteenth regiment United States infantry...)
Personality
McAlexander was of the quiet, studious type with more of the bearing of a small-town merchant than of a field commander; this may have limited the character of his assignments.
Connections
McAlexander married May Skinner of Toronto, Canada, by whom he had a son, Perry Harlan (Harry). On June 18, 1928, his first wife died. Later in the same year, on December 5, he married Mrs. Grace Palmer Craig at Quarry Heights in the Panama Canal Zone. It was one of his few trips outside the country, other than on military service.