Henry Pinckney McCain Major General, United States Army

Henry Pinckney McCain of Mississippi

Appointed from Mississippi, Cadet, United States Military Academy, 1 July 1881 (20)
Second Lieutenant, 3rd U. S. Infantry, 14 June 1885
First Lieutenant, 21st U. S. Infantry, 24 February 1892
Transferred to 14th U. S. Infantry, 14 March 1892
Captain, March 1899
Major, Assistant Adjutant General, 9 November 1900
Lieutenant Colonel, Assistant Adjutant General, 30 June 1901

Some of John McCain’s (U. S. Senator, Arizona) forebears would go to West Point, among them a distant uncle, Major General Henry Pinckney McCain, who set up the World War I draft and became known as the father of Selective Service. Click here for more information on the McCain Family.

Camp McCain, in Elliott, Mississippi, is a Mississippi National Guard training site that covers 13,000 acres. Training at the facility includes tank maneuvers, artillery training and general training for National Guard troops.

Camp McCain was one of several training sites that sprang up throughout Mississippi during World War II. In 1942, the United States Army opened a major training facility on a 42,000-acre site at Elliott, Mississippi in Grenada County. The facility was named Camp McCain in honor of a famous family of military men from neighboring Carroll County, including Carroll county native Major General Henry P. McCain. Troops for the army’s 87th and 94th divisions trained at Camp McCain before being sent into combat in Europe. At the peak of its expansion, Camp McCain served as many as 50,000 troops.

Both commander of the 24th Infantry Brigade, Brigadier General John E. Woodward, and commander of the 12th Division, Major General Henry P. McCain, graduated from West Point, while McCain came from Mississippi (born in 1861) and Woodward from Vermont.

McCain “was in Alaska when the Spanish War began and took part in some of the severest fighting in the Philippine Insurrection.” From being a major in the Adjutant General’s Department, he became adjutant general of the Army as a brigadier general in 1914. He was assigned to the 12th Division in August 1918.

Of him, the book stated, “His example and inspiring personality is responsible for the rapid progress and marked efficiency of the command.”
NOTE: His son-in-law, Emery T. Smith, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army, was a 1924 suicide victim and is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

MCCAIN, HENRY P

MAJOR GEN U S ARMY RET
DATE OF DEATH: 07/25/1941
BURIED AT: SECTION 9 SITE 5831
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

MCCAIN, EMELINE D W/O HENRY P

DATE OF BIRTH: 10/24/1865
DATE OF DEATH: 03/30/1951
BURIED AT: SECTION 9 SITE 5831
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

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