It was the biggest logistical undertaking in the history of the U.S. Army, before or since. In two weeks, six hundred thousand men, four thousand guns, ninety thousand horses, and almost a million tons of supplies would move sixty miles from St. Mihiel to the Meuse-Argonne, and relieve 220,000 troops of the French Second Army. Colonel George C. Marshall, a thirty-seven-year-old staff officer, ran the whole operation. Marshall, a serious, aloof, and methodical man with fiery red hair, had started the war as a lieutenant on the staff of the 1st Division. He soon became divisional operations officer, and his efficient staff work at Cantigny in May 1918 drew Pershingâ??s attention. Two months later he joined First Army headquarters as an assistant in the Operations Section, and in August he was given the acting rank of colonel. He performed well during the St. Mihiel offensive, but had never demonstrated any aptitude for managing large logistical operationsâ??especially nothing on the scale of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He never could figure out why Pershing chose him for the job.
Marshall learned of his new assignment sometime on September 8 or 9 (he couldnâ??t remember which), when Brigadier General Hugh A. Drum, Pershingâ??s chief of staff, called him to his office. Drum â??â??Drummieâ? to his friendsâ??was a prodigy. Thirty-nine years old, he was the son of Captain John Drum, who had been killed at San Juan Hill in July 1898. President McKinley appointed Hugh a first lieutenant shortly afterward, at the tender age of eighteen, and sent him to the Philippines, where he spent eleven years. While there he rose to the rank of captain, and on his return to the United States he joined the staff of the 2d Division. Querulous but extremely intelligent, Drum served as an instructor in military art at Leavenworth Staff College from 1914 to 1916 and organized the National Guard on the Mexican border as a member of Pershingâ??s staff during the expedition of 1916â??17. By September 1918, Drum had in effect become Pershingâ??s right-hand man. Marshall listened respectfully while he spoke.
After tersely outlining the Meuse-Argonne offensive scheduled to begin in two and a half weeks, Drum told Marshall that he would be responsible for moving the troops to the new battlefront after the St. Mihiel offensive ended. Preparations must begin immediately; there was little time to spare. Marshall had to plan the withdrawal of American forces from St. Mihiel and provide for their relief by other Allied and American units; designate the roads to be used on the way north; schedule traffic timetables; arrange for motorized and horse-drawn transport for troops, guns, equipment, and supplies; lay out camps and billets on the road and at the front; and work with the French to replace their units on the Meuse-Argonne front with the nine huge American divisions that would lead the attack. All of this would have to be done as secretly as possible, preferably at night, lest the Germans observe the movement and bombard the packed roads with their formidable artillery.
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