BG Hiram Iddings Bearss, USMC, CMOH,

Navy Historical Center ^

[robowombat]

Hiram Iddings Bearss--born on 13 April 1875 at Peru, Ind.--attended local public schools before attending the University of Notre Dame and Purdue and DePauw Universities in Indiana. Between 1894 and 1896, Bearss was a student at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt. On 26 May 1898, he was temporarily commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, by special act of Congress, for service in the Spanish-American War. Bearss served in the old side-wheel steamer Michigan, operating in the Great Lakes, until his honorable discharge on 21 February 1899. Four months later, on 26 May 1899, he was appointed a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

In the Philippines, meanwhile, because the McKinley Administration decided to annex the islands, Filipino insurgents, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, seized control of the countryside and set up their own government. When Commodore George Dewey refused to hand over Manila to him, Aguinaldo tried to seize the city by force in early February 1899, and open warfare broke out between the Americans and the Filipinos. On 1 November, Bearss arrived at the Marine Barracks, Cavite, as part of the two-battalion regiment of marines sent to protect the naval base at Cavite. He helped the garrison establish control of Olongapo on Subic Bay and gradually clear the surrounding countryside of insurgents and robbers. He was promoted to captain on 23 July 1900.

By mid-1901, because of the success of pacification efforts on Luzon, the Filipino "insurrecto" movement had shifted to the Moros on Samar. In September, the Moros surprised an Army company in barracks at Balangiga and massacred them to a man. A battalion of marines, under Major Littleton W. T. Waller, left Cavite and arrived at Catbalogan, Samar, on 24 October to help the Army crush this rebellion. Marine patrols, including those led by Bearss, conducted punitive expeditions along the coast and into the interior, burning huts and confiscating rebel food supplies.

In an attempt to destroy the "insurrecto" will to resist, Waller launched an expedition up the Sohoton River. His target was a fortified camp atop some volcanic cliffs along the river. Capt. Bearss, leading one of Waller's two columns, assaulted one enemy camp on the left bank of the river, killing 30 Moros and routing the rest. The columns then descended the cliffs, crossed the river, and scaled the cliffs on the opposite bank. In the face of intermittent sniper fire, the marines then destroyed the second camp, a powder magazine, 40 bamboo guns (lantacas), and the rebel food supply.

Over the next year, aggressive marine patrols among the coastal villages reduced "insurrecto" resistance and earned Bearss the nickname "Hiking Hiram." By the middle of 1902, the effort paid off, and the marines reverted to a peacetime routine. Transferred home in May, Capt. Bearss reported for duty at the Marine Barracks, Mare Island, Calif., on 19 June.

After a leave of absence, Bearss saw service in Panama, where the marines helped establish Panamanian independence from Colombia between December 1903 and March 1904. He then joined the receiving ship Hancock at New York on 2 April 1904 before returning to Cavite for duty with the 1st Marine Brigade on 4 December 1905. After 30 months in the Philippines, he returned home in July 1908 and reported for sea duty in Louisiana (Battleship No.19) in February 1909.

Later that year, on 6 November, Bearss assumed command of the newly established Marine Barracks, Guantanamo, Cuba. He stayed at Guantanamo until June 1912 when he left for the Marine Barracks, Philadelphia, Pa., to serve under Col. George Barnett in the 1st Brigade. From there, Bearss participated in a training expedition to Cuba between February and March 1913. That exercise, prompted by the growing civil war in Mexico, was put to good use the following year when a whaleboat crew from dispatch boat Dolphin was arrested by Mexican troops in Veracruz. In response, the Navy landed troops to secure their release. Bearss took part in the occupation of that city on 21 April, serving there until August. Promoted to major on 16 May 1915, he then studied at the Army School of the Line at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., into the next year.

Meanwhile, on 5 May 1916, because of continued government bankruptcy, civil unrest, and a recent coup attempt, a marine battalion landed at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to restore order and protect American lives and property. Maj. Bearss joined this expedition in June, bringing the marine detachment from New Jersey (Battleship No.16) ashore at Puerto Plata. Promoted to lieutenant colonel on 29 August, he took charge of the marine garrison at Santo Domingo. There, he helped install a temporary American military government, enforced martial law, and chased down rebels in the hinterland. These vigorous marine patrols eliminated most bandit resistance and revived Bearss’s sobriquet of "Hiking Hiram."

With the American entry into World War I on 6 April 1917, Bearss helped organize the transport of the 5th Marines to France in August. After the unit was diverted from front-line service to guarding French ports, he took command of Marine Base Section No. 2 at Bordeaux. On 25 October, he was relieved from this assignment at his own request and returned to the 5th Marines, helping to train his troops in trench warfare tactics.

Once units of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) began fighting at the front, Bearss received a series of temporary commands beginning on 26 February. First, he led the 3d Battalion of the Army's 9th Infantry in the fighting at Toulon-Troyen south of Verdun and on the Aisne during the German spring offensive. Then, beginning on 1 May, he served a tour of duty with 2d Marine Division headquarters, as the German attack stalled on the Marne. After helping to organize the counterattack on Belleau Wood, which began on 6 June, Bearss then took over as second in command of the 6th Marines on 13 June after that unit suffered heavy casualties conducting frontal assaults against the well fortified German positions in the forests.

On 26 August, he took command of the 102d Infantry Regiment, leading it during the first American counteroffensive in Lorraine. At the battle of St. Mihiel in early September, Bearss established his reputation as bold and imaginative. On the 11th, he led his men on a daring night march through the forest of Montagne. The next day, he entered the town of Vigneulles ahead of his men and single-handedly forced a column of German soldiers to surrender. The capture of the town and the later linkup with the American 1st Division were instrumental in pinching off the St. Mihiel salient.

On 26 September, as part of the general front-wide Allied offensive against Germany, American forces attacked in the Meuse-Argonne sector. During these operations, Bearss commanded both the 102d Infantry and the 51st Infantry Brigade of the 26th Division. Although the operation bogged down in the difficult terrain, the pressure exerted upon German troops helped the British break through the St. Quentin-Cambrai front in the direction of Maubeuge. These attacks helped to finally break the German government's will to resist, leading to the Armistice on 11 November.

Although Bearss was recommended for promotion to the grade of brigadier general by General Pershing, the War Department discontinued all promotions to the grade of general officer after the Armistice. “I regret,” Pershing later wrote, “that you will not receive the deserved recognition of your excellent services.” Placed on the retired list as a colonel on 22 November 1919, Bearss received advancement to the rank of brigadier general on 16 January 1936.

Bearss received numerous citations and decorations for his World War I service. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre, among others. Most dramatically, President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1934 “for extraordinary heroism and eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle at the junction of the Cadacan and Sohoton Rivers, Samar, P.I., 17 November 1901.” Sadly, Bearss, who had survived so much combat in his career, was killed in an automobile accident near Columbia City, Ind., on 27 August 1938

[Piedpiper 6 Actual]

There is a mistake in the article in re BGen Bearss. The mistake is in the location of the critical event that precipitated a crisis in US/Mexican relations in the 1915 period. The mistake is not robowombat's, but in the original article. For historical accuracy a correction should be made. History Student.