Early Career

George C. Marshall was born December 31, 1880, in Uniontown, PA, into the family of a prominent local businessman whose company manufactured coke ovens and who participated in real estate ventures. His comfortable childhood was filled with episodes of fun and mischief, shaped by the love and discipline of his parents.

In his early education he was a lackluster student, but later when he overheard his older brother Stuart beg his mother not to let George go to the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) because he thought it would disgrace the family name, George was inspired to outshine his brother.

His career at VMI was marked by an uncommon determination to excel, and in his senior year he was selected as First Captain of the Cadet Corps, the most honored position in that institution.

1902 – 1929, The Beginning of a Military Career

George C. Marshall obtained his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1902. Immediately after receiving his commission he married Elizabeth “Lily” Carter Coles, his college sweetheart from Lexington, VA.

His first assignment was with the 30th Infantry in the Philippines, part of the U.S. occupation to quell an insurrection by natives. This assignment in leading troops in combat was the beginning of a long career of learning the many duties and functions of an Army officer, vital to an officer destined to achieve the highest rank in the service. His duties prior to World War I included service in mapping remote parts of Texas, a stint as student, and later as instructor at Fort Leavenworth’s officer Staff School. As the top student in his class, his subsequent assignment as a Leavenworth instructor was a distinct honor indicative of his evident potential. This was the first of many key teaching assignments that marked his military career.

His assignment with the Massachusetts National Guard, and duty with the 4th Infantry at three different military bases gave him insight into the range and structure of the U.S. Army in peacetime. His duty as aide-de-camp to Gen. Hunter Liggett in the Philippines and later to Gen. James Bell in the U.S. afforded him invaluable experience in effective staff work that would eventually propel him to a position that proved to be his forte in World War I and later years.

His assignment as Assistant Chief of Operations for the 1st Division in France in 1917 gave him the opportunity to distinguish himself amongst the senior Army leadership as one of the most promising staff officers in the command. Ironically this opportunity arose as the result of a characteristically Marshall reaction to what he perceived as an injustice. His challenge of the formidable Gen. John J. Pershing in front of the 1st Division staff for his unfair criticism of the division and its commander (Maj. Gen. William Sibert) was unprecedented conduct for a middle-grade officer. His crisp and meticulous critique of the failings of Pershing’s General Staff that had undermined the division’s performance stunned General Pershing and the assembled staff.

Pershing said nothing. He departed abruptly, and Marshall’s peers thought that his career was over. But Marshall’s determination to speak “truth to power” proved an incalculable asset to his superiors and belied the pervasive belief that unvarnished candor to superiors was career suicide. Marshall’s honesty and intellectual rigor soon earned him appointment to the Operations Staff of the General Headquarters. He drafted the operations order moving 400,000 American troops from the St. Mihiel salient to the Meuse-Argonne offensive to join some 200,000 Americans already engaged in a complex 72-hour movement. Marshall’s order was viewed as a masterstroke of brilliant staff work and marked him as a likely future Chief of Staff of the Army though he was then only a lieutenant colonel.

After the Armistice, Marshall remained in France as Chief of Staff of the 8th Army until he was selected to be General Pershing’s Aide-de-Camp. As such, he accompanied Pershing on a victory tour of the Allies’ capitals that which gave him the opportunity to meet several of the individuals who became prominent leaders in World War II. His service as Pershing’s ADC while the latter served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army provided Marshall insight into the Army’s dealing with a presidential administration, the federal bureaucracy and, most importantly, with the Congress. In 1924 when General Pershing stepped down as Chief of Staff, Marshall was named Deputy Commander of the elite 15th Infantry in Tientsin, China.This was one more assignment during which he could expand the scope of his acquaintance with promising officers and evaluate those who did measure up, a sort of virtual “black book.”

This methodical process of observation became a part of the critical personnel decisions that Marshall would have to make when he rose to command the U.S. Army as it mobilized for World War II. It was at the end of this tour in 1927 that Lily Coles, his beloved but frail first wife, died. After her death, he was given the choice of three posts, and he opted to be Assistant Commandant at the Fort Benning Infantry School, another excellent vantage point to expand and refine his “black book.”

It was in that assignment that George Marshall made one of his most enduring contributions to the Army by promoting the reformed infantry doctrine and training to replace infantry attacks in mass formations with assault by small units by fire and maneuver. He revamped training methods to keep operations and orders simple, to provide officers flexibility in responding to changing situations, and to concentrate on field exercises in lieu of lectures. This change in tactics and training saved thousands of American infantrymen’s lives in World War II, which was a war of movement, as opposed to one of static defense that he had observed from the front in World War I. During Marshall’s five years at Fort Benning, 150 future World War II generals passed through in training, and some 50 more future generals served on the Infantry School’s staff.