Thomas H. Rees – Brigadier General, United States Army

by

MRS. THOMAS H. REES

PARIS, France, December 7, 1932 – Mrs. Blanche Baxter Rees, wife of Brigadier General Tomas H. Rees, retired, died at her home here yesterday of heart disease.

GENERAL T. H. REES DIES; RETIRED ENGINEER

Taught at West Point From 1893 to 1898
Served With Fifth Army in Spanish War
Expert on Fortification
Commanded River and Harbor Works in the Philippines, Hawaii and Chicago

WAHINGTON, September 21, 1942 – Brigadier General Thomas H. Rees, who retired from the Army in 1922, died yesterday at Walter Reed Hospital.  He was 78 years old.

General Rees was born October 18, 1863 at Houghton, Michigan. He entered the Military Academy in 1882 and was appointed a Second Lieutenant of Engineers on July 1, 1886.  He reached the rank of Colonel in 1916 and during World War I held the temporary rank of Brigadier General, returning to his permanent rank of Colonel in 1919.  Under the act of June 21, 1930, he received the rank of Brigadier General, retired.

Survivors are a son, Colonel Thomas H. Reese, Jr., and four daughters, Mrs. Dorothy Cramer, Miss Frances Rees, and Mrs. Margaret Rees Price all of Washington and Mrs. T. H. Jones of Fort Williams, Maine.

Burial will be tomorrow in Arlington National Cemetery.

General Rees was the son of Seth and Eugenie Livermore Rees.  He taught civil and military engineering at West Point in 1893-98.  In 1898, when we were at war with Spain, General Rees served with the Fifth Army Corps Battalion of Engineers in the Santiago campaign in Cuba.  Later in 1898 he commanded the battalion.

General Rees commanded Company C of Engineers at Willets Point, New York, in 1898-99, was in charge of fortification work and rive and harbor improvements in Florida in 1899-1901 and was on duty with the Departments of Engineering of the Infantry and Cavalry School and the Army Staff College, Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1902-05.

He did engineering work on river and harbor works in Chicago in 1908-10, in San Francisco in 1911-17 and in the Philippines and Hawaii in 1917.

He commanded the 152nd Field Artillery Brigade at Camp Upton, Yaphank, New York, in 1918.

He was a graduate of the Engineering School of Application and the Army War College.

NOTE: The General’s brother, Robert Irwin Rees, Brigadier General, United States Army, is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

REES, THOMAS H

  • BRIG GEN US ARMY RET MICH
  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/20/1942
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 7  SITE 8009-A-1
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

REES, FRANCES R D/O THOMAS H

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 10/31/1899
  • DATE OF DEATH: 05/05/1959
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 7  SITE 8009-A-1
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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