OBITUARIES OF GEN. WILLIAM SIDNEY GRAVES

Gen. W. S. Graves Dead; Siberia A.E.F. Leader

Special to the Herald Tribune

New York Herald-Tribune

Feb 28, 1940

Shrewsbury, N. J., Feb 27---Maj. Gen. William Sidney Graves, secretary of the United States Army General Staff Corps during the World War and commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia from 1918 to 1920, died of coronary thrombosis today at his home in Sycamore Avenue. He was seventy-four years old. He retired Sept. 4, 1928, after forty-three years of Army service.

True to Army tradition, Gen. Graves said nothing publicly of the intrigues and influences which made his Siberian command a trying task until after he had retired. Then he recorded his experiences in a book, "America’s Siberian Adventure," published in 1931.

When he was ordered to Vladivostok in September, 1918, to command the 7,500 troops of the A.E.F. Russia was torn by a revolution and threatened with a Japanese invasion. However, Gen. Graves wrote in his book, his mission was merely to protect Czecho-Slovakian troops which had been fighting in Siberia and had been ordered home. He was ordered not to interfere with Russian internal affairs or to impair Russian territorial integrity.

When he arrived at his post he found the Czechs needed no help to leave, because no one was obstructing them. He soon became convinced that the United States had been persuaded to send troops there to fight Bolshevism, unofficially cooperating with Japanese, French and British aims.

"I was disillusioned very fast," he wrote.

Gen. Graves reread his orders not to interfere, and throughout his command in Siberia he refused to be forced by political or military pressure groups to side with one faction against another. In 1919 he was accused by his opponents of having allowed a detachment on Japanese soldiers that attacked the Russians at Habarovsk to be destroyed. His report said that the Japanese had asked him to aid their attack and that when he refused, they attacked alone. He made it plain that he was not going to fight others’ battles with American troops.

In October, 1919, annoyed by anti-American articles in Vladivostok newspapers, he seized 14,000 rifles which had been shipped from America for the Russian government at Omsk He held them until he received satisfactory apologies. In his book, Gen. Graves charged that these rifles had been sent, with the connivance of the of the State Department, to aid Czarist attempts to overthrow the Bolsheviks.

"The action of he State Department representatives in helping Kolchak (Admiral Alexander Vasilovitch Kolchak, head of the White Russian government at Omsk), whose sole object was the destruction of the Soviets, justifies the conclusion that the United States was a party to the efforts to overthrow the Soviets, as Kolchak was unquestionably fighting them," he wrote.

The Japanese justified Gen. Graves’ suspicion that day they intended to invade Russia by seizing Vladivostok on April 2, 1920, the day after the last of the A.E.F. had departed for the Philippine Islands. The Japanese later withdrew.

In 1933 Lieut. Gen. Konstantin Sakharoff, commander of the armed forces under Admiral Kolchak from 1917 to 1920, challenged Gen. Graves to a duel after reading the General’s book. He charged that Gen. Grave had done everything in his power to thwart the White Russians, and "now mocks them for their failure." Gen. Graves, when he received the challenge by mail, said: "I’ll just ignore it. The book speaks for itself."

Gen. Graves was born at Mt. Calm, Texas. He was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1889. In 1899 he was ordered to the Philippine Islands, where he participated in several active campaigns. He received the official thanks of Gen. J.F. Bell for gallantry in action against insurgents at Caloocan in 1901. After the earthquake in 1906 he worked in San Francisco for several months aiding in restoration projects.

He was appointed to serve with the General Staff Corps in 1909, and was appointed its secretary for 1911 and 1912. He was appointed to the post again in 1914, and held it until he was sent to Siberia in 1918.

After leaving Vladivostok, Gen. Graves commanded Fort McKinley in the Philippine Islands until October, 1920, when he assumed command of the 1^st Brigade of the 1^st Division. From April to July, 1925, he commanded the 1^st Division, then went to Chicago to command the 6^th Corps Area. In December, 1926, he was appointed commander of the Panama Canal Department, which post he held until he retired.

Gen. Graves decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal; the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, 2^nd Class; Order of the Wen Hu (Striped Tiger) of China; the War Cross of Czecho-Slovakia; and Commander of the Crown in Italy.

Surviving are his wife, the former Katherine Boyd, of Fort Logan, Colo., a daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Orton, wife of Col. William G. Orton, USA, a son, Sidney C. Graves, of Washington.

---

GEN. GRAVES DEAD; LED U.S. TROOPS IN SIBERIA

New York Times

Feb. 28, 1940

SHREWSBURY, N. J., Feb. 27, Major Gen. William Sidney Graves, retired, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia from 1918 to 1920, died here shortly after midnight today at his home on Sycamore Avenue. He was 75 years old.

The body will be taken to Washington tomorrow for burial in Arlington National Cemetery after services in the Fort Meyer Chapel at 11:00 A.M. on Thursday.

The honorary pallbearers so far announced are General Peyton C. March, General Malin Craig, Brig. Gen. William M. Cruikshank, Captain Frank E. Powell a former aide, together with such members of his class of 1889 at the United States Military Academy as can be assembled. They are expected to include Major Gen. Charles D. Rhodes, Major Gen. Charles D. Bethel, Colonels J. R. M. Taylor, Harry Lee and E. C. Bookmiller.

He leaves a widow, Katherine Boyd Graves; a son Sidney C. Graves, and a daughter, Dorothy, who is the wife of Colonel William R. Orton, as well as four brothers and a sister in Texas.

The American Expeditionary Force which General Graves commanded in Siberia was sent there by President Wilson for a confusion of purposes never quite cleared up. Writing of it in 1931, General Graves entitled his book "America’s Siberian Adventure, 1918 - 1920."

In a foreword to his book, Newton D. Baker, who was Secretary of War at the time, wrote that "no one seemed to know what it was all about."

Perhaps the most explicit direction which General Graves had from President Wilson was not to interfere in the various attempts to put down the Bolsheviks, who were then spreading their power eastward from Moscow through Siberia.

The American Expeditionary Force of some 10,000 men thereupon settled down to policing a stretch of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which was being rehabilitated by an organization of American Engineers under John F. Stevens. Their sea terminus was at Vladivostok. The railroad, strangely enough, was then being used practically exclusively for military supplies in support of the allied attempt to prevent the spread of Bolshevism. Admiral Kolchak depended entirely on it.

The American troops had a few brisk skirmishes, notably when the Cossack chief Semenoff decided to wipe out a box car full of American soldiers in order to be able to accuse the Bolsheviks and thus bring the United States in against them.

At another time, General Graves refused to send a detachment to reinforce a Japanese battalion engaged in what the general considered a massacre of Russians. The Japanese battalion was shortly wiped out.

The general’s explanation of why he did not aid the Japanese caused considerable embarrassment to the State Department. Through the British, the Japanese pressed for his removal.

The War Department and President Wilson supported him, however; and the American Siberian "adventure" went on, form Sept. 2, 1918, until April 1, 1920, when bolshevism had taken control of Siberia, and the Kolchak forces were retreating toward evident disintegration. The Czech army had already refused to fight for Kolchak and had started home. The American forces followed.

Thirteen years later, when General Graves’ book reached Vienna, his explanation of his respect for the Russian right of self-determination provoked a challenge to a duel, by mail, from General Constantin Sakharoff, who had commanded the Kolchak White Russian forces. General Graves ignored it.

When he retired from active service, in 1928, General Graves had served in the Army forty years. He was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1889, was commissioned second lieutenant of infantry, and thereafter rose through the grades to major general in 1925.

He served in the Philippine campaigns of 1899, did a tour of duty on the general staff, and was commander of the Panama Canal Department from 1927 until his retirement.

[ed. Note: These obituaries were given to me by the Military Archives Department of the United States Military Academy and are transcribed as written. Modern grammar and word usage has changed over the years. Reading closely, each article is both a tribute and a subtle political statement reflecting the views of the individual newspapers.]

*Thank you to SGM Ron Graves for sending me these obituaries.*