Harry Clay Hale – Major General, United States Army

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Harry Clay Hale of Illinois

  • Appointed from Illinois, Cadet, United States Military Academy, 1 July 1879 (36)
  • Second Lieutenant, 12th U. S. Infantry, 13 June 1883
  • First Lieutenant, 18th U. S. Infantry, 20 February 1891
  • Major, Assistant Adjutant General of U. S. Volunteers, 7 April 1898
  • Captain, 1st U. S. Infantry, 1 July 1898
  • Assigned to 20th U. S. Infantry, 1 January 1899
  • Major, 44th U. S. Volunteer Infantry, 17 August 1899
  • Honorably mustered out of the Volunteer service, 30 June 1901

In the United States on August 3, 1917 the War Department, in General Order 101 authorizes the creation of the 84th Infantry Division for the Army. This General Order also sets the foundation for the expansion of the Army in the current World War. The first commander of the 84th Division is Major General Harry C. Hale, who is a veteran of the Philippine campaign. The first Operations commander (G-3) is Major Walter Krueger, who will later rise to General’s rank in the Pacific campaign of the Second  World War. The men to fill out this division are drawn mainly from Kentucky, Indiana and southern Illinois, and the division is called, therefore, the “Lincoln Division.”

Army officer, born at Knoxville, Illinois, 10 July 1861. Parents: T. J. Hale and Sarah Pierce. Education: United States Military Academy; L.L.D. Member: University Club, New York City; South Shore Country Club, Chicago. Military career: Active service 1883 to 1925, United States Army.  Married: Elizabeth Smith, Buffalo, New York, 2 December 1886. Home address:  901 Flagler Avenue, Key West, Florida.

MAJOR GENERAL H. C. HALE, INDIAN FIGHTER, 84
Colorful Army Officer Dies – Failure To Use Gun Cost Him The Congressional Medal

PALO ALTO, California – March 22, 1946 – Major General Harry C. Hale, whose career in the Regular Army covered the period from Western Indian uprisings until after the first World War, died herel ast night at the age 84.

Appointed to West Point from Illinois, General Hale was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1883.  Successive promotions led to the MajorGeneralship in 1921, four years before his retirement.  His record, included engagement from the Sitting Bull era to the Vosges Pass.

He was an uncle of Major General Willis H. Hale, Commanding General of the Fourth Air Force.

General Hale, Indian fighter and veteran campaigner, was an army officer of the “old school.”  His record of distinguished service included participation in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Mexican Border troubles, action in China and the World War.

During the World War he helped to organize and commanded the Eighty-fourth (Lincoln) Division, and later assigned to command the Twenty-sixth (Yankee) Division.  In 1925, upon reaching the age limit if 64, he was retired from active service.  At that time he was commander of the Sixth Army Corps Area.

Born in Knoxville, Illinois, on July 10, 1861, the son of T. Judson Hale and Sarah Payne Pierce Hale, General Hale spent his boyhood in Galesburg, where he lived until 1879.

He was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1883 as the youngest member of his class, and joined the Twelfth Infantry as a Second Lieutenant, serving at Fort Niagara, New York, until 1886.

Later, while stationed at Fort Bennett, South Dakota, he took part in the Sioux Indian Campaign in the winter of 1890-91.  Here he was the central figure in a notable feat.  He went out alone in the frozen Bad Lands to hunt for the band of Sitting Bull, which had disappeared after a fight following their ghost dance and the death of their medicine man.  He located the Sioux, said to have numbered 150 men, on Cherry Creek, and brought them back captives two miles into the post  single-handed.

For this exploit the young Lieutenant was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor, but the very feature which made it most remarkable barred the award. He had accomplished his mission without firing of a shot, and the regulations call for actual combat in any case where the medal is to be awarded.

In 1924 Knox College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.  On July 10, 1925, his active military career, which had covered forty-six years, came to an end.

He married Elizabeth Smith in 1886.  She died in 1906.

HALE, HARRY CLAY

  • MAJOR GEN INF, USA
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 07/10/1861
  • DATE OF DEATH: 03/21/1946
  • BURIED AT: SECTION SOUTH  SITE 1713
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

HALE, ELIZABETH W/O H C

  • DATE OF DEATH: 10/22/1906
  • BURIED AT:   SITE LOT 1713
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  • WIFE OF HC HALE, MAJOR 13 US INF

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