Life
Bandholtz was born in Constantine, Michigan and a graduate of the United States Military Academy. In 1902 he served as Provincial Governor in Tayabas Province in the Philippines. As a Army captain assigned in the Philippines, he became an early patron of Manuel Quezon. He was promoted to Brigadier General and served as Chief of the Philippines Constabulary between 1907-1913 supporting America's colonial government during a period where violent rebellion to American rule still smoldered in the Philippines. After his Philippines service ended in 1913, he returned to serve in the infantry as a Major. He served in NY as Chief of Staff in the NY National Guard and went with it to the border in Mexico.
In 1917 he became commander of the 58th Brigade of the 29th Division. He went with his unit to France in June of that year and served with it for three months. On September 27 he was named United States Army Provost Marshal General to General John J. Pershing's American Expeditionary Force in France serving through the end of hostilities and beyond. General Bandholtz reorganized the Military Police Corps, established a Military Police school in Autun, France, and advocated a permanent Military Police Corps following the war. Major General Bandholtz is widely considered to be the "father" of the United States Army's Military Police Corps.
Between August 1919 and February 9, 1920, he was the US representative to the Inter-Allied Supreme Command's Military Mission in Hungary. The Military Mission was charged with disarming the Hungarian military and supervising the withdrawal of the Serbian and Romanian armies who were occupying the territory of Hungary. According to his own accounts, he is said to have prevented the arresting of Hungarian PM István Friedrich by the Romanians. He is also remembered for preventing Romanian soldiers from looting the Transylvanian collection of the Hungarian National Museum on 5 October 1919; yet the information has not been corroborated by any other source.
In 1920, when a rebellion among miners broke out in Mingo County, West Virginia after two mineworkers were assassinated on the McDowell County courthouse steps, President Warren G. Harding sent Gen. Bandholtz and Gen. Billy Mitchell(*) to control the situation. Bandholtz threatened marching mineworkers that they would be tried for treason. Mineworkers offered the compromise that they would stop fighting if federal troops would come and enforce the law evenhandedly but this was initially refused by Bandholtz. Eventually federal troops did deploy and mine workers quickly ceased fighting. Several treason trials eventually were held, at private expense, but they failed to procure convictions and scandalized US society.
Read more about this topic: Harry Hill Bandholtz
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