Arthur Lockwood Wagner (March 16, 1853 – June 17, 1905) was a United States brigadier general and military instructor.

Biography

Born in

Ottawa, Illinois Ottawa is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the confluence of the navigable Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River and Illinois River, the latter being a conduit for river barges and ...

, Wagner graduated from

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

in 1875 near the bottom of his class with a commission in the infantry. While serving on the frontier, Wagner saw action during campaigns against the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

and

Nez Perce The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...

from 1876 until 1877, and the

Utes Utes may refer to: *Ute people, indigenous people of North America *Students of the University of Utah *Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Uta ...

in 1881. Entering military education while assigned as a professor of military science and tactics at the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

and

East Florida Seminary The East Florida Seminary was an institution of higher learning established by the State of Florida in 1853, and absorbed into the newly established University of Florida in 1905. The school operated in Ocala from 1853 until 1861. After being clo ...

, Wagner would win high praise from the

Military Service Institution of the United States The Military Service Institution of the United States was "a voluntary organization of officers of the Army for mutual improvement (the privileges of which are extended to officers of the National Guards of the States), fostered by Generals Sherma ...

, and greatly increased his prominence as one of the leading military scholars, for his

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

''The Military Necessities of the United States, and the Best Method of Meeting Them'' in 1884. Following his transfer to

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...

the next year, Wagner accepted a personal request by the commandant of the United States Infantry and Cavalry School to be an assistant instructor of tactics and the military arts. During this time, as the Infantry and Cavalry School became an official military training school with the establishment of regulations and training programs in 1888, Wagner would author several important military textbooks including ''The Campaign of Koniggratz'' (1889) and ''Organization and Tactics'' (1895). Promoted to captain in 1892, Wagner was named head of the Military Arts Department two years later. Promoted to major in 1896, Wagner was transferred to the adjutant general's office of the War Department as Chief of the Military Information Division. During the Spanish–American War, Wagner served as a staff officer to Gen.

Henry Lawton Henry Ware Lawton (March 17, 1843 – December 19, 1899) was a U.S. Army officer who served with distinction in the American Civil War, Civil War, the Apache Wars, and the Spanish–American War. He received the Medal of Honor for heroism during ...

from June to July 1898 and Gen.

Nelson A. Miles Nelson Appleton Miles (August 8, 1839 – May 15, 1925) was a United States Army officer who served in the American Civil War (1861–1865), the later American Indian Wars (1840–1890), and the Spanish–American War, (1898). From 1895 to 1903 ...

until August, serving briefly as adjutant general of the

Department of Dakota A subdivision of the Division of the Missouri, the Department of Dakota was established by the United States Army on August 11, 1866, to encompass all military activities and forts within Minnesota, Dakota Territory and Montana Territory. The Dep ...

, before his transfer to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in December 1899. During the

Philippine–American War The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Philippine Insurrection, Filipino–American War, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged following the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in December 1898 when the United States annexed th ...

, Wagner served in various staff positions, reaching the rank of colonel before returning to the United States in 1902 as adjutant general of the

Department of the Lakes The Department of the Lakes was a military department of the United States Army that existed from 1866 to 1873 and again from 1898 to 1913. It was subordinate to the Military Division of the Atlantic and comprised posts in the Midwestern United Sta ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Wagner lived in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

as a staff officer for the recently established Army War College at the

Washington Barracks Fort Lesley J. McNair, also historically known as the Washington Arsenal, is a United States Army post located on the tip of Buzzard Point, the peninsula that lies at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C ...

(Fort Lesley McNair), until his death in

on June 17, 1905, the same day in which he had won promotion to brigadier general.

Bibliography

*''The Military Necessities of the United States, and the Best Method of Meeting Them''. 1884. (monograph) *''The Campaign of Koniggratz'' Leavenworth, Kansas, 1889. *''Organization and Tactics''. Kansas City, Missouri, 1895. *''The Security of Service and Information''. Kansas City, Missouri, 1896. *''The U.S. Army 1776–1899, An Historical Sketch''. Akron, Ohio, 1899

References

Sources

* Nenninger, Timothy K. ''The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army: Education, Professionalism, and the Officer Corps of the U.S. Army, 1818–1918''. Westport, Connecticut, 1978. * Blythe, Wilson C. Jr
"Arthur L. Wagner, Military Educator and Modernizer"
''Army History'', Winter, 2013

Biographies

* Brereton, T. R. "Educating the U.S. Army: Arthur L. Wagner and Reform, 1875–1905"
''Men of Mark in America''

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Arthur Lockwood 1853 births 1905 deaths American military personnel of the Philippine–American War American military personnel of the Spanish–American War American military personnel of the Indian Wars United States Army generals United States Military Academy alumni People from Ottawa, Illinois Military personnel from Illinois