Stephen Ogden Fuqua – Major General, United States Army

Born at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, December 25, 1874, Stephen Ogden Fuqua was a student at Tulane Univrsity in 1888-89, the University of Louisiana, 1889-92 and attended West Point in 1892-93.

He was also a Distinguished Graduate of the Army Infantry-Cavalry School in 1907; graduated from the Army Staff College, 1908 and the American Expeditionary Forces School, France, 1918; and of the Infantry School in 1924. He failed to graduate from West Point, but fought in the Spanish-American War as a Captain of Infantry and gained a Regular Army commission in 1901. He went on to become a Major General and Chief of Infantry, March 28, 1929. He married Pauline Stafford, April 25, 1906. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal.

He retired from the Army and was thereafter Military Affairs Editor, Newsweek Magazine in New York City.

He died on May 11, 1943 and was buried in Section 7 of Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Pauline (1886-1979), is buried with him.

His son, Stephen Ogden Fuqua, Jr. did graduate from West Point in 1933 and fought throughout both World War II and the Korean War.

NOTE: His father-in-law, Rowan Palmer Lemly, Colonel, United States Army, is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

There are some 200 Infantry Colonels in the U. S. Army. Every four years one of them becomes a Major General simultaneously with his appointment by the President to be Chief of Infantry. This promotion came, last week, to squat, solid Colonel Stephen O. Fuqua, 54, commander of the 16th Infantry, Governors Island, New York. He succeeds Major General Robert H. Allen of Bethesda, Maryland.

The new Chief, a Louisianan and not a West Pointer, entered military service in the Spanish War as Captain of Volunteers. In the Philippines his men were once demoralized by peppery fire while fording a stream. Drawing them up beneath a sheltering hill, Lieutenant Fuqua drilled them in the rudimentary manual of arms until their nerves were steadied. Again, plunging through Philippine underbrush, he found an orphan Filipino being flogged by his uncle. The Lieutenant bought the boy for 30 pesos ($17). gave him freedom, education, employed him as personal servant.

Major General Fuqua has been decorated by the U. S., England and France. As Chief of Infantry, he is its General Manager.

• FUQUA, STEPHEN O
• MAJ/GEN US ARMY RET
• DATE OF DEATH: 05/11/1943
• BURIED AT: SECTION 7  SITE 10062
• ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard