Edgar A. Russel – Major General, United States Army

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Edgar Russel of Missouri

Appointed from Missouri, Cadet, United States Military Academy, 1 July 1883 (11)
Second Lieutenant, 3rd U. S. Artillery, 2 June 1887
First Lieutenant, 5th U. S. Artillery, 2 November 1893
Transferred to the 6th U. S. Artillery, 8 March 1898
Captain, Signal Officer of U. S. Volunteers, 20 June 1898 to 2 February 1901
First Lieutenant, Signal Corps, United States Army, 30 August 1900
Captain, 2 February 1901
Major, Signal Officer of U. S. Volunteers, 12 April 1901
Honorably discharged from the Volunteer Service, 30 June 1901

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Major General Edgar A. Russel was born in 1862 in Missouri.  He graduated from the United States Military Academy in the class of 1887 and served in the Army from 1887 to 1922.

He served as a First Lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Artillery and from 1893 to 1898 he was an instructor at West Point.

He served in the Spanish-American War, Philippines Insurrection and received two Silver Star Citations. As a Captain, in 1900-01, he was aboard the USS Burnside laying underwater cables in the Philippines.

He graduated, as a Major, from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1909.  He served in the office of the Chief Signal Officer, Washington, D.C. from 1912 to 1915. As a Brigadier General he was Chief Signal Officer of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under General John J. Pershing in 1917-1918.  He retired from active duty in 1922.

Russel Hall at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, is named for him.

He died in New York City on 26 April 1925 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

Courtesy of William M Brackney: November 2006

GENERAL EDGAR RUSSEL, LONG ILL, DIES AT 63
Chief Signal Officer of A.E.F. in France in World War Expires in City Home
He Served in Philippines
Decorated by French and British Governments for his Valor
Funeral in Washington

NEW YORK, New York, April 28, 1925 – Major General Edgar Russel, USA, retired, who was the Chief Signal Officer of the American Expeditionary Forces in France in the World War, died yesterday, at the age of 63, in his apartment at 1045 Park Avenue, of heart disease, after a lingering illness.  He left a widow, who was before her marriage Miss Florence Kimball, a daughter of the late General Amos F. Kimball, USA.

Funeral services will be held at 4 o’clock tomorrow afternoon in the Church of the Epiphany, in Washington, D.C. and the burial will be in the National Cemetery at Arlington.

General Russel was a native of Missouri.  He was graduated from the Military Academy at West Point with the class of ’87 and was assigned to the Field Artillery, remaining in that branch of the Army for eleven years.  He then began his career as a signal officer, serving in the capacity with various forces in the Philippines during the war with Spain and in the Philippine Insurrection that followed.  He was brevetted for gallantry in action at Manila and later at Calaacan.

After his later transference to the Signal Corps of the Regular Army, General Russel performed important work as office in charge of laying of the Sitka-Valdez cable. Subsequently he was made Chief Signal Officer in Hawaii and then director of the Army Signal School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

For his services in France General Russel received the Distinguished Service Medal on January 21, 1919.  He was also decorated by the British and French Governments for his achievements in the World War.  In 1922, he was made a Major General and in the same year retired from the Army because of physical disabilities incurred in the line of duty.

RUSSEL, EDGAR

  • MAJ GEN U S A RET
  • VETERAN SERVICE DATES: Unknown
  • DATE OF DEATH: 04/26/1925
  • DATE OF INTERMENT: Unknown
  • BURIED AT: SECTION D  SITE 2691
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

RUSSEL, FLORENCE K WIDOW OF EDGAR

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 01/26/1873
  • DATE OF DEATH: 05/04/1963
  • DATE OF INTERMENT: 05/10/1963
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 4  SITE 2691 WS
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  • WIFE OF EDGAR RUSSEL, M/GEN. U. S. A.

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