Biography
Liggett was born March 21, 1857 in Reading, Pennsylvania. After his graduation from West Point as a second lieutenant in 1879, he was assigned to the Fifth Infantry, where he served in both the Montana and Dakota Territories, as well as Texas and Florida, during which time he reached the rank of first lieutenant in June 1884.
His field service in the American West, the Spanish American War, and the Philippine-American War honed his skills as a troop leader.
In 1907, he assumed command of a battalion of the 13th Infantry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth. From 1909 to 1914, he served as student, faculty member, and president at the Army War College.
Liggett's services in the Philippines included setting up a staff ride in 1914 to study possible invasion sites on Luzon. He was assisted in this by his Aide de Camp, Captain George Marshall. The Staff Ride established that the most likely invasion route would be through the Lingayen Gulf and that this would be all but unstoppable unless the US dramatically increased its Army and Navy forces in the Philippines. In 1941, the Japanese invaded through the Lingayen Gulf, as the US did in turn in 1945.
Success in brigade commands in Texas and in the Philippines led to his selection as commander of the 41st Infantry Division in France in 1917. When his division was disestablished, he took command of I Corps.
Under Liggett's leadership, the corps participated in the Second Battle of the Marne and in the reduction of the Saint-Mihiel Salient. In October 1918, as commander of the US First Army, he directed the final phases of the Meuse-Argonne offensive and the pursuit of German forces until the armistice. After commanding the U.S. Third Army also known as the Army of Occupation on the Rhein bridgeheads, Hunter Liggett retired in 1921. Congress promoted him to permanent lieutenant general in 1930. He died December 30, 1935 in San Francisco, California and is interred at the San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, California. His grave can be found in the officers section 3, plot 1.
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