The Alpha Tau Omega Palm

VOLUME XXXVIII

September, 1918

NUMBER 3

GENERAL ROBERT LEE BULLARD

When the Americans made their first important thrust at the Germans, at Cantigny, the honor and the good fortune to win this memorable distinction went to the First Division of the Regular Army, led by Major General Robert Lee Bullard, a "soldier of the Maltese cross.' General March called these troops a "thoroughly trained, high-grade unit, the first American Division to fight in France." "Of those American officers whose fighting qualities have been severely tested Gen. Robert L. Bullard, commanding the First Division, has had the greatest experience, and it is likely that one of the commissions as lieutenant general will go to him," said a writer in the Washington Post on July 27. "The First Division has been in almost constant fighting since May 4, when it went into action in Picardy, just west of Montdidier. In the big battle now in progress this division is in an active sector." At the end of July it was announced that General Bullard had been given command of the newly created second army corps. An army corps consists of six divisions, each of which numbers 27,000 combatants and 18,000 supply troops, a total of 270,000 men.

General Bullard is an Alabaman, is fifty-seven, years old, and has been an Alpha Tau since 1880, when he was initiated into Alabama Alpha Epsilon Chapter. It was a young chapter then and Robert Lee Bullard is the twenty-third name on the chapter roll. While in his sophomore year in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, a vacancy occurred at West Point, and was to be filled by competitive examination. Bullard entered the contest with many others and received the appoint

ment. "I have a delightful recollection of Bob Bullard as a college student," writes W. H. Lamar, a college companion. "He was regarded as one of the brightest men in the college, and of a lovable character, jovial and full of fun, always seeing the bright and agreeable side of life-one of those boys whom everybody liked and admired."

From West Point he graduated with high standing in 1885. In June of that year he was commissioned second lieutenant of infantry.

In 1892 he was promoted to be first lieutenant. When the Spanish war broke out he became, on June 1, 1898, major of an independent battalion of Alabama volunteers. After serving for a few months as captain commissary of subsistence, he became, on August 6, colonel of the 3rd Alabama infantry, and was mustered out of the volunteer service on March 20, 1899. He entered it again in August as colonel of the 39th U. S. volunteer infantry; later he was made major commissary of subsistence. In June, 1902, he was transferred to the 28th U. S. infantry, and he has had a continuously active career in the Regular Army since that time. On October 31, 1906, he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel and assigned to the 8th infantry; he became colonel on March 11, 1911. He was promoted to brigadier-general, and then major-general, in 1917.

General Bullard has seen service in every part of the world in which the American army has been active during his connection with it. He served in Cuba during the Spanish war; he was active in the Philippines during the period of insurrections; he built the Iligan-Lanao military road and served as governor of Lanao Moros, Mindinao in 1902-04; he was special aid and investigator for the U. S. provisional government in Cuba in 1907, and was supervisor of public instruction and fine arts there in 1908.

Three army officers who were asked by a reporter for the New York Times about General Robert L. Bullard, struck the same note that he was a tireless worker. He is a big man, but light of foot, a type of energy. He is a believer in young men, and persists in being a young man himself, though he was born in 1861. That was the point he emphasized-his belief in young

men when in the spring of 1917 he parted from his regiment, the 26th infantry, at San Benito, Texas, to take charge of the officers' training camp at Little Rock. The regiment gave him

a farewell dinner.

of

"It will take young men to stand the stress of this war," he said, in his brief speech, and

those who are

not as young as they once were must keep young in spirit if they expect to do their part and not be sidetracked. It

takes a young

man to pass the spark; by that, I mean to spread enthusiasm, to exert the

inspiration leadership. Without that

flows and carries all around him forward. He has the aggressiveness of the fighter, first notably shown in cleaning up insurrectos in the Philippines, and he has the agreeable, cordial manner of the southerner.

"General Bullard's energy and ability were shown in guarding the border in the late Mexican trouble, and there is no doubt that the activity he displayed there, from 1915 to 1917, was influential in his selection by Pershing for service in France. Pershing must have observed how Bullard handled the job around Brownsville. Mexican bandits were then raiding across the line. Because of lack of sufficient troops, which prevailed for some time, it became necessary to stretch that part of the border guarded by the 26th infantry further and further. At one time it extended from San Benito, near Brownsville, to Fort Ringgold. This thinned the force out, but it was thinned out still more when the menace of the Mexican raiders required that the