James Garesche Ord – Major General, United States Army

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Major General James Garesche Ord

Born October 18, 1886 at Fort Lewis, Colorado
Died April 17, 1960

Cadet US. Military Academy 1905-09
Graduated as No. 4799 Class of 1909

Second Lieutenant 1909
First Lieutenant 1916
Captain 1917
Major (National Army) 1918
Lieutenant Colonel (National Army) 1918
Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army,  1934
Colonel, United States Army, 1938
Brigadier General (Army of the United States) 1940
Major General (Army of the United States) 1942

Served with 30th Infantry Regiment 1909-16
Served in Mexico 1911
Served in Alaska 1911-14
Served at Eagle Pass, Texas 1916
Served at San Antonio 1916-17
Professor (Military Science & Tactics), Culver Military Academy 1917
Aide-de-Camp to Major General Hunter Liggett 1917
Observer, Flanders 1917
Served with General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Force, 1917
Served with 41st Division 1917-18
Provost Marshal, I Corps 1918
Aide-de-Camp to Lieutenant General Hunter Higgett 1918-19
Acting G-3 & Assistant G-3, 3rd Army 1919
Student, Command & General Staff School 1923-24
Student, Army War College 1928-29
Member G-4 (Supply) Section, War Department General Staff 1930-34
Commanding Officer, 12th Infantry Regiment 1934-36
Director of the Infantry Board, Fort Benning 1936-38
Commanding Officer, 57th Infantry Regiment 1938-40
Instructor, Pennsylvania National Guard 1940
Assistant Division Commander, 1st Infantry Division 1940-42
Commanding General, 28th Infantry Division February-June 1942
Member, Army Group, Washington D.C. 1942-43
Chairman, Joint Brazil-US. Defense Commission 1943-45
Hospitalized 1945-46
Retired as Colonel, February 28, 1946
Promoted Major General (Retired) August 16, 1946
Legion of Merit – Army Commendation Ribbon

Son of Captain E.O.C. Ord
Grandson of Major General E.O.C. Ord (Class of 1839)
Great-grandson of Captain James Ord

ALSO SEE: The Ord Family

Born at Fort Lewis, Washington, on October 18, 1886, the son of Major Edward Ortho Cresap Ord II, USA, and Mary Frances (Norton) Ord. Was the fourth in a direct line of army officers.

He graduated from West Point in 1909 and married Irene H. Walsh, April 19, 1910. He was on the Mexican Border and central Alaska, 1909-17. Instructor at the First Plattsburg Camp, 1916.

With the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France in World War I from 1917 to 1919 and took part in Aisne-Marne, St Mihiel, Argonne campaigns and in the occupation of the Rhineland.

He then served in the 9th Corps Area and in the War Plans Division of the General Staff. He commanded the 57th Infantry Regiment in the Philippines, 1938-40 and was appointed Senior Instructor with the Pennsylvania National Guard in June 1940. He was then promoted to Brigadier General and commanded the 1st Division Special Task Force dealing with the Atlantic Fleet in landing operations,1940-42. He commanded the 28th Infantry Division in June 1942 and served as Chairman of the joint US-Brazilian Inter-American Defense Board from 1943.

He died on April 15, 1960 and is buried near other family members in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery.

JAMES ORD DEAD; RETIRED GENERAL
Officer Was a Descendant Of A Family That Provided Army Leaders Since 1812

WASHINGTON, April 16, 1960 – Major General James Garesche Ord, U.S.A., retired, member of a family that has provided Regular Army officers since the War of 1812, died yesterday of a heart attack. He was 73 years old.

General Ord will be buried with military honors in the family plot in Arlington National Cemetery.

He was a descendant of James Ord, a high-born Englishman who went to Mayland early in the nineteenth century.  On his mother’s side, General Ord was descended from Colonial Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts.

Fort Ord, at Monterey, California, was named after his Grandfather, General, E.O.C. Ord, who fought in the Civil War.

General Ord served in France during World War I and in World War II he was briefly Assistant Commander of the First Division. Later he commanded the Twenty-eighth Division in the United States.

For the last three years of the war, General Ord was Chairman of the Joint Brazil-United States Defense Commission and was a member of the Inter-American DefenseBoard.  He retired in 1946 and lived in the District of Columbia with his family.

Surviving are hiswidow, the former Miss Irene Walsh of Memphis, two sons and a daughter.

ORD, JAMES GARESCHE

  • M/GEN USA
  • VETERAN SERVICE DATES: Unknown
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 10/18/1886
  • DATE OF DEATH: 04/15/1960
  • DATE OF INTERMENT: 04/19/1960
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 2  SITE 979 LH
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

jgord jgord2

From a contemporary press report

Irene W. Gage, 92, a former lawyer who was president of two Maryland historical societies, died August 12, 1997 at Sibley Memorial Hospital after a stroke. A resident of Washington, she had lived in the area off and on since 1934. She was a founder and past president of the Restorers of Mt. Carmel in Maryland, which worked to preserve the site of the first Carmelite monastery in the country, located in Port Tobacco, Md. She also was past president of another historical society, the Pilgrims of St. Mary’s County.

Mrs. Gage was a native of Memphis and an honors graduate of both West Tennessee College and the University of Tennessee law school. She practiced law in Memphis before her 1926 marriage to J. Garesche Ord, who was later an Army Major General. She accompanied him to military posts in the United States and the Philippines. General Ord died in 1960.

She was a member of the board of directors of the Missionary Vehicle Association, which supplies vehicles to missionaries abroad, and a member of Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Washington.

Mrs. Gage married Army Brigadier General Philip S. Gage in 1979. He died in 1987. Survivors include three children from her first marriage, James G. Ord of Dallas, Marian E. Ord of Washington and Edward O.C. Ord of Lafayette, Calif.; and two granddaughters.

jgord-gravesite-photo-august-2006

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