J. Franklin Bell - Service in America

Service in America

In July 1903, Bell was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he headed the Command and General Staff School until April 14, 1906; Bell was commissioned major-general, and in the spring of 1907, was appointed Chief of the Army General Staff. He served for four years, under Presidents Roosevelt and Taft.

When the United States military forces of the Western Pacific concentrated in the Philippines, he returned to Manila in 1911, as military commander, until war with Mexico seemed imminent. He was then ordered home to take command of the 4th Division. The 4th Division remained in Texas City as reserve, and although at several times, he seemed about to cross the Rio Grande, he was never a part of the Mexican expeditionary force.

After the Mexican situation quieted, Bell was relieved of the 4th Division, and placed in command of the Department of the West. He remained in command at San Francisco, where he had once been acting adjutant, until America entered World War I.

In the early spring of 1917, Bell was transferred to the Department of the East at Fort Jay, Governors Island in New York City, and as commander of that department, assuming responsibility for Officers' Training Camps created by his predecessor, Leonard Wood, at Plattsburgh, Madison Barracks, and Fort Niagara. Bell's aide, Captain George C. Marshall was most directly involved in the logistical support for these camps, battling a lethargic army supply supply system to properly equip the volunteer citizen soldiers. These camps, in August, 1917, graduated the large quota of new officers needed for the new National Army and, to a large extent, to officer the new divisions of the east and northeast.

In the same month, Bell was offered and promptly accepted the command of the National Army Division to be organized at Camp Upton. Bell's venerable figure, as he addressed the officers, and the men of the newly-formed 77th Division at Camp Upton, in September and the ensuing months of training, will be remembered among the first impressions of a life, strange and full of new conditions.

Bell commanded the Division when the first newly-appointed officers climbed the hill and reported to their first assignment, through that formative stage when barracks were thrown together at a miraculous speed, and being filled at the same rate. Then, in December, he sailed for France to make a tour of the front, and observe, first hand, actual fighting conditions. He did not return until the latter part of March, 1918.

On his return, Bell failed the physical examination required for active service overseas. When the doctors decreed that he would not take his division to France, Bell was again given command of the Department of the East, and returned to his old headquarters, Governors Island, which command he held until his death, January, 1919.