Major General Charles Trueman Lanham (September 14, 1902 – July 20, 1978), known as "Buck", was an author, poet, and professional soldier in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

, winning 14 decorations in his career. After retiring from the military, he was active in corporate business. He is the model for one of

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

's heroes, and in life was a close friend of the author.

Military life

Lanham was born in Washington D. C. He attended Eastern High School and 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 1924. He was a short story writer and published poet (writing sonnets for several magazines) as well as a soldier. He included among his many military adventures the command of the 22nd Infantry Regiment in Normandy in July 1944, and was the first American officer to lead a break through the

Siegfried Line The Siegfried Line, known in German as the ''Westwall (= western bulwark)'', was a German defensive line built during the late 1930s. Started in 1936, opposite the French Maginot Line, it stretched more than from Kleve on the border with the ...

on September 14, 1944, near Buchet. These developments were described by Hemingway in his article "War in the Siegfried Line". He led a breakout in the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Die Wacht am Rhein, Wacht am Rhein, was the last major German Offensive (military), offensive Military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western ...

after surviving a bloody ordeal in the

Battle of Hurtgen Forest A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

. Lanham earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in the Huertgen Forest. The citation for the medal reads: It was in the Normandy battles that Lanham and Ernest Hemingway first met, and Hemingway later went with Lanham to Huertgen. Hemingway was writing battlefield stories for the American audience for ''

Collier's } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'' and sought assignment with Lanham's regiment. Hemingway described Lanham as "The finest and bravest and most intelligent military commander I have known." Conversely, one of his least-admired decisions came with the awarding of the

Combat Infantryman Badge The Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) is a United States Army military decoration. The badge is awarded to infantrymen and Special Forces (United States Army), Special Forces soldiers in the rank of Colonel (United States), colonel and below, wh ...

to his men. Many men in the 22nd Infantry had landed on Omaha Beach on

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, but Lanham rejected this date and made awards of the badge effective no earlier than August 10, 1944, which deprived the men of an additional $10 per month for the full period in which they fought. His reason "What ever happened in this regiment before I took command does not concern me." While serving as Assistant Division Commander, 104th Infantry Division, Lanhan was decorated with the Order of the Patriotic War First Class when the division linked up with Soviet Red Army units in May 1945.

Post-military life

Lanham retired from the military at the end of 1954 as a major general, and joined the Pennsylvania-Texas Corporation of Colt's Patent Firearms. He resigned in 1958 and joined

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

in 1960 as vice president for Government Relations, retiring from that post at the end of 1970. He died on July 20, 1978, in

Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the colloquial name of an area that includes a town, several incorporated villages, and an unincorporated census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland; and one adjoining neighborhood in northwest Washington, D ...

, from cancer at the age of 76. He is buried in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

In fiction

Colonel "Buck" Lanham was one of the models for the character Colonel Cantwell in Hemingway's novel ''

Across the River and into the Trees ''Across the River and into the Trees'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1950, after first being serialized in ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine earlier that year. The titl ...

'', along with

Charles Sweeny Charles Michael Sweeny (January 26, 1882 – February 27, 1963) was an American Mercenary, soldier of fortune, United States Army lieutenant colonel, French Foreign Legion officer, Polish Land Forces, Polish army brigadier general, Royal Air ...

and Hemingway himself.

References

External links

Charles T. Lanham Papers, 1916–1978 (mostly 1944–1978)
archival collection at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Hell in the Forest: The 22d Infantry Regiment in the Battle of Hurtgen ForestJacob A. Stein
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanham, Charles T. 1902 births 1978 deaths Military personnel from Washington, D.C. Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) Burials at Arlington National Cemetery United States Military Academy alumni Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) United States Army generals of World War II United States Army generals Eastern High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni