Allen James Greer (1878–1964) was an officer in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for actions near Majada, Laguna Province, Philippines, July 2, 1901. He was chief of staff of the 92nd Division during World War 1.
Military career
Medal of Honor He was awarded the Medal of Honor on March 10, 1902, for his action on July 2, 1901, during the Philippine Insurrection, when he charged alone against an insurgent outpost with his pistol, killing one, wounding two, and capturing three, with their rifles and equipment. The action took place near Majada, Laguna Province.
Infantry After his graduation from college, Greer, with J. Walter Canada, raised sixty volunteers for duty in the Spanish–American War (Company L), and he was made their lieutenant. The company, also known as the 4th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, did duty in Cuba under Captain Cordell Hull. It was composed of the members of Greer's college graduating class."McKellar on Defensive as He Opens Mid-Tennessee Drive," The Tennessean, July 7, 1922, page 12, column 5
Greer was commissioned in July 1898 as a second lieutenant in the Army.Army Register, 1941 During the Philippine Insurrection he commanded a company of Philippine Scouts in Cavite Province."Fort Bliss Match Shot," The El Paso Herald, July 29, 1902, page 4
In 1904, as a lieutenant, Greer moved from the 4th Infantry to the 28th Infantry, and in 1908, he was a recruiting officer with the 12th Cavalry Regiment, stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas."Soldiers Discharged," The Austin Statesman, March 20, 1903, page 1
Greer was an honorary graduate of the Army School of the Line in 1912. In 1913, he was a captain with the 16th Infantry Regiment,"In Army and Navy Circles," The San Francisco Examiner, image 43 and in August 1914, he was stationed in or near El Paso, Texas, with that regiment."Family of Captain Greer Arrives," El Paso Morning Times, Texas, August 15, 1914, page 7 Greer was a graduate of the Army Staff College in 1915, and in August of that year he was the adjutant at a new Army training camp at the Presidio."25 Recruits Added to Army Training Camp," The San Francisco Examiner, August 20, 1915, page 8
He served with John J. Pershing in the Punitive Expedition in Mexico in 1916.
At the beginning of United States involvement in World War One, Captain Greer was in Tennessee, where he and Lieutenant-Colonel Luke Lea began a volunteer light-artillery unit, which later became the 114th Field Artillery.Joe Hatcher, "Politics: First Camp Unit," The Tennessean, Nashville, December 17, 1941, page 6
In the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, Colonel Greer was chief of staff of the 92nd Infantry Division, composed of black troops, except for higher officers.Robert H. Ferrell, Unjustly Dishonored, (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press) Military historian Robert H. Ferrell wrote that Greer "took assignments because of the opportunity for promotion and perhaps opportunity to move out of the division to more attractive" positions.The General: Robert H. Bullard and Officership in the United States Army, 1881–1925, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1975; page 92
He was a graduate of the Field Artillery School Advanced Course in 1923, and he graduated from the Army War College in 1925.
In 1927 he transferred from the infantry to the artillery.
In postwar service, Greer was an instructor with the organized army reserves in Buffalo, New York."Conservation Headquarters in Drill Hall," Ithaca Journal-News, June 21, 1933, page 3
Legal duties In 1908 Greer was named an Army judge advocate."Promotion of Lieutenant Greer," Houston Daily Post, January 30, 1908, page 10 He was sent to Mindanao, Philippines, as part of the 28th Infantry."Army Orders," The San Francisco Call, January 25, 1908, page 3 He was later transferred to the 7th Infantry."Army Orders," San Francisco Examiner, August 19, 1909, page 17 In 1910, he was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was to be acting judge advocate in the Department of the Missouri."Captain Greer Will Return From Islands," Oakland Tribune, January 30, 1910, page 24
Around 1913 Greer was detailed to attend a military law school at Fort Leavenworth, after which he was selected to defend Colonel Lewis E. Goudier, who was accused of interfering with the administration of the Army's aviation school in San Diego, California."Captain Greer Returns Here," El Paso Morning Times, December 3, 1915, page 8Associated Press, "Son Injured, Father Faces Court-Martial," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 10, 1915, page 1
Civilian Conservation Corps In May 1933, Greer was appointed commandant of Group or District 4 of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Tompkins County, New York."Civilian Forest Camp Will Be Established in Enfield, Glen Park," Ithaca Journal-News, May 27, 1933, page 3
He was one of the officers who "helped restore order following a mutiny of Negro recruits" in the CCC camp at Preston, New York. He was at the camp for reveille on July 8, 1933, but "satisfied that the trouble was over, [he] left the camp early." The black corpsmen had protested when two Negro clerks were replaced by whites. Six were arrested and 34 others were "sent back to Harlem.""Ithaca Officer Aids in Restoring Order After C.C.C. Mutiny," Ithaca Journal-News, July 8, 1933, page 5"Forest Riot Ended; 6 Jailed, 34 Ousted," Sunday News, New York City, July 9, 1933, page 28
Retirement In April 1940, the "Army Orders" stated that "Col. Allen J. Greer, Field Artillery, [is] relieved from Fort Hayes, O., and, for the convenience of the government[,] will proceed to his home and await retirement."The El Paso Times, April 4, 1940, page 7
"Army Orders" stated in September 1940: "By direction of the President, Col. Allen J. Greer, Field Artillery, upon his own application[,] is retired from active service effective Sept. 30, 1940."The El Paso Times, September 21, 1940, page 7
Opinions and persuasion
Cavalry In 1915, Captain Greer, as an instructor at the Presidio training camp, paid tribute to the horse as a still-valid tool in twentieth-century warfare. In a class lecture, he said that despite the advent of the airplane, the cavalry was still best for gathering information, patrolling, reconnoitering, and harassing the enemy. The leader any given horse-mounted scouting unit had to be equipped with a compass, a map, field glasses, pencil and notebook, message blanks, and a watch.E.G.B. Fitzhamon, "Tribute Is Paid Cavalry for Its Value in Warfare," San Francisco Examiner, September 3, 1915, image 11
He noted the importance of the "getaway man" on the battlefield, a rider who would be detached from the scouting party but still be in touch with it.
African-American soldiers
Letter to senator In 1919, Colonel Greer was stationed in Washington, D.C., between assignments in Europe. Self-identified as "General Staff, U.S.A," he wrote a letter to U.S. Senator Kenneth D. McKellar of Tennessee which contained, according to a newspaper account, "startling revelations as to negro troops failing to measure up to the required standard of efficiency and valor while in active service."John D. Erwin, "Negro Troops Charged With Rank Cowardice," The Chattanooga News, Tennessee, May 26, 1919, page 9 According to historian Robert H. Ferrell, Greer also sent letters to "officers he thought might enlighten the department on the use of African-American troops" in the Army.
He gave out copies of his letter to reporters in Washington with the aim of getting publicity for his views, not only "from a military point of view but from that which all southerners have. I refer to the question of negro officers and negro troops." He noted that he had been chief of staff of the mostly black 92nd Division since it was organized in October 1917,
The letter stated: To start with, all company officers of infantry, machine guns and engineers were negroes, as were most of the artillery lieutenants and many of the doctors. Gradually as their incompetence became perfectly evident to all, the engineers and artillerymen were replaced by white officers. ...
The letter said that the black soldiers of an American regiment attached to a French corps failed "in all their missions, laid down and sneaked to the rear, until they were withdrawn. Thirty officers of this regiment alone were reported for cowardice or failure to prevent their men from retreating."
Greer claimed that the 92nd Division had "had about thirty cases of rape, among which was one where twenty-two men at Camp Grant (Illinois) raped one woman, and we have had eight (I believe) reported in France with about fifteen attempts besides."
There have been numerous accidental shootings, several murders, and also several cases of patrols or sentinels shooting at each other. . . . at the same time, so strict has been the supervision and training that many officers passing through our areas would remark that our men actually had the outer marks of better discipline than the other divisions. . . . Gen. Bullard asked me my estimate[,] and I said they could do anything but fight.
Of the black troops, Greer said, "Accuracy and the ability to describe facts is lacking in all[,] and most of them are just plain liars in addition." He stated: "They have, in fact, been dangerous to no one but themselves and women.""Calls Negroes Rank Cowards," The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina, May 15, 1919, page 3"War Department Asked to Dismiss Officer," The Gaffney Ledger, South Carolina, May 17, 1919, page 3"The Negro in the War," The Robesonian, Lumberton, North Carolina, page 3
Historian Ferrell wrote:
But what was surprising was his [Greer's] animus against African-Americans on the rape question. One might well ask how he could have said such things. On this point, he provided no answers, only statements. . . . The colonel blamed black misconduct of this sort entirely on black officers. In regiments of engineers and artillery where supervised by white officers there had been only a single case of rape.
He quoted Greer as writing: "The undoubted truth is that the colored officers neither control nor care to control the men. They themselves have been engaged largely in the pursuit of French women, it being their first opportunity to meet white women who did not treat them as servants."
Response Editors of black publications The Crisis of New York and The Eagle of Washington, D.C., began a movement to have Greer fired from the Army.
According to W. E. B. Du Bois, the publisher of The Crisis, the Post Office Department held up the magazine's distribution of its May 1919 issue because of "articles in the magazine related to prejudice alleged to have been shown toward American negro officers in France by white officers." That issue contained the full text of Greer's letter."'Crisis' Magazine Held Up in Mails Pending Query," New York Tribune, May 2, 1919, page 7
The League for Democracy, an organization of Negro officers, wrote an objection to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, stating: "We cannot permit our descendants to read this letter [Greer's] in future histories and look upon our graves with scorn and contempt. . . . In this matter our slogan is 'Greer must be tried and the race vindicated.'""The War," The Crisis, May 1919, page 151
Oath of allegiance Lieutenant-Colonel Greer was a prosecutor in the noted June 1922 court-martial of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who was convicted of violating the 96th Article of War in publishing an open letter to President Warren G. Harding critical of the Army's high command.Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson interview, p. 13