Hugh Aloysius Drum (September 19, 1879 – October 3, 1951) was a career United States Army officer who served in World War I and World War II and attained the rank of lieutenant general. He was notable for his service as chief of staff of the First United States Army during World War I, and commander of First Army during the initial days of World War II.
Drum was attending Boston College when his father, Captain John Drum, was killed in action in Cuba on July 1, 1898, during the Spanish–American War. Offered a direct commission in the United States Army, Drum was appointed a second lieutenant of Infantry. He served in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War, took part in the Battle of Bayan, and received the Silver Star for heroism. He continued to advance through positions of more rank and responsibility in the early 1900s, and took part in the Veracruz and Pancho Villa Expeditions.
Drum received promotion to lieutenant general in August 1939, and commanded the Eastern Defense Command during the early years of World War II. He reached the mandatory retirement age of 64 in 1943, after which he was commander of the New York Guard (1943–1948), and president of Empire State, Inc., the company that managed the Empire State Building (1944–1951).
In 1894, Drum graduated from Xavier High School in New York City, which he had attended while his father was an instructor at the school.[2] Initially intent upon a career as a Jesuit priest, he enrolled at Boston College.[3] Under the provisions of a recently passed law allowing recognition for sons of officers who displayed exceptional bravery during the Spanish–American War, Drum was offered a direct commission as a second lieutenant on September 9, 1898, which he accepted.[4] (He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College in 1921.)[1][5][6][7][8][9]
At the start of America's involvement in World War I, Pershing named Drum an assistant chief of staff of the First Army, commanded first by Pershing and later by Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett.[10] In 1918, he was promoted to colonel and became First Army chief of staff. He was promoted to temporary brigadier general[10] in the last weeks of the war.[16] Drum was commended for his work to assemble and organize First Army's staff, and for the planning of the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives in September 1918, for which he received the Army Distinguished Service Medal and awards from several foreign countries.[17][18][19][20] The citation for his Army DSM reads:
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Brigadier General Hugh Aloysius Drum, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. Upon General Drum, as Chief of Staff of the 1st Army, devolved the important duty of organizing the headquarters of this command and of coordinating the detailed staff work in its operations in the St. Mihiel and Argonne-Meuse offensives. His tact, zeal, and high professional attainments had a marked influence on the success that attended the operations of the 1st Army.[21]
Between the World Wars
After the war, Drum served as the director of training and assistant commandant for the School of the Line at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and commandant of the Command and General Staff College, where he taught the doctrine of open warfare—stressing maneuver and marksmanship over frontal attacks and firepower, using experienced troops, and supported by large artillery barrages—that the American Expeditionary Forces had attempted to practice in France.[22][23]
From there he went to the Army staff at the War Department in Washington, D.C., where he publicly clashed with General Billy Mitchell about the disposition of the U.S. Army Air Service.[24] During their repeated confrontations, which stretched over several years, Drum successfully lobbied Congress not to have the Air Service organized separately from the army.[24]
In 1931 Drum was assigned as commander of the Fifth Corps Area, based at Fort Hayes, Ohio.[29] Drum returned to Washington in 1933 to serve as deputy to the Army's Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur.[10] He headed a board of senior officers that again sought to suppress advocates of an independent air force by setting the ceiling on Air Corps requirements for numbers of aircraft and tying any funding for expansion of the Air Corps to prior funding of the other branches first.[30] In 1934, all the members of the Drum Board also sat on the presidential-initiated Baker Board, again setting its agenda to preclude any discussion of air force independence.[31]
In 1935, Drum was a candidate for chief of staff, but Malin Craig was selected.[32] From 1935 to 1937, Drum commanded the Hawaiian Department.[10] It was during Drum's posting in Hawaii that he renewed acquaintance with another ambitious officer, George S. Patton, who served as his assistant chief of staff for intelligence (G2), and with whom he had a contentious professional relationship.[33][34] At a polo match in which Patton was playing, Drum was among the spectators and rebuked Patton for his use of angry profanity during the game.[35] The civilian players, who were members of Hawaii's wealthy elite on friendly terms with the equally wealthy and elite Patton, humiliated Drum by standing up for Patton.[35]
In 1938, Drum succeeded James K. Parsons as commander of First Army and assumed command of Second Corps Area headquartered at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York.[10] When Craig retired in 1939, Drum was again a candidate for chief of staff.[32][35] He wanted the position badly enough to set aside his feud with Patton and ask Patton to intercede with the retired but still influential John J. Pershing, their old mentor.[32][35] Despite these efforts, Drum was passed over in favor of George C. Marshall.[32][35] Though disappointed at not being selected, Drum was still highly enough regarded that he received promotion to lieutenant general in August 1939.[36]
World War II
With the onset of preparations for World War II, Drum assumed command of the Eastern Defense Command, responsible for domestic defense along the Atlantic seaboard.[10] During the 1941 Carolina Maneuvers, Drum commanded First Army.[37] He was embarrassed and became the subject of mockery when he was captured on the first day by troops of the 2nd Armored Division under Patton's command.[38] After soldiers from Isaac D. White's battalion detained Drum,[39] the exercise umpires ruled that the circumstances would not have transpired in combat, so he was allowed to return to his headquarters, enabling the exercise to continue and Drum to save face.[40] Despite the umpires' actions, the incident indicated to senior leaders that Drum might not be prepared to command large bodies of troops under the modern battlefield conditions the Army would face in World War II, so he was not considered for field command.[40][a]
Retirement
After the Carolina Maneuvers, Drum was disappointed with an offer from Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to go on what he perceived to be a low-profile assignment as chief of staff for the Chinese army of Chiang Kai-Shek.[42] After declining the China mission, Drum continued as head of the Eastern Defense Command, which was expanded into the Eastern Military Area with the inclusion of U.S. bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland.[43] He remained in this assignment until reaching the mandatory retirement age in September 1943.[44][45] At his retirement, Drum received a second award of the Army Distinguished Service medal; the award was presented by Stimson, and the citation was read by Marshall.[46]
As Commander of the First Army and Eastern Defense Command, Lieutenant General Hugh A. Drum has, by his leadership, judgment and high professional attainments, rendered exceptionally meritorious service during the period of the declared national emergency and the present war. He amalgamated the military and civilian elements in his theater into a smoothly operating organization, providing adequate defense for this critical area, with a minimum expenditure of military means. He directed large-scale maneuvers conspicuous for their reality and well-conceived execution, and participated as a commander in such maneuvers to the advantage of the troops concerned, whose training was reflected in their subsequent successes in battle. General Drum’s service in the exercise of his high command has made a material contribution to the development of the Army of the United States and the measures for the security of the eastern frontier of this continent. GENERAL ORDERS: War Department, General Orders No. 69 (1943)[47]
Post military career
Drum was the commander of the New York Guard from 1943 to 1948.[48][49] During the war, the New York Guard took on many responsibilities normally performed by the National Guard, in addition to internal security measures such as protecting key facilities from saboteurs and developing plans to respond if such an event occurred.[50] When Drum retired from command in September 1948, Governor Thomas E. Dewey promoted him to general (four stars) on the New York Guard's retired list.[51] From 1944 until his death, he was the president of Empire State, Inc., the company that managed the Empire State Building.[52]
In 1903, Drum married Mary Reaume (1877–1960).[56] They were the parents of a daughter, Anna Carroll Drum (1916–1996), nicknamed "Peaches," who was the wife of Army officer Thomas H. Johnson Jr.[57][58]
^"Death Notice, Captain John Drum". The Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society. Vol. 5. New York, NY: American-Irish Historical Society. 1905. p. 142.
^Hanson, Victor Davis (February 11, 2020). "George S. Patton: American Ajax". YouTube. Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College. 15:35. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved August 25, 2020. 1940 in war games in Louisiana, he captured the senior general Hugh Drum. You may have seen The Dirty Dozen, that old movie about how they played dirty. That was based on Patton's war maneuvers, about how he went on a 400-mile goose chase, they thought, and ended up capturing the red general. He was on the blue team.
^Official Register of Commissioned Officers of the United States Army. 1948. Vol. 2. pg. 2166.
Bibliography
Davis, Henry Blaine Jr. (1998). Generals in Khaki. Raleigh, NC: Pentland Press. ISBN1571970886. OCLC40298151.
Venzon, Anne Cipriano (2013). The United States in the First World War: an Encyclopedia. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis. ISBN978-1-135-68453-2. OCLC865332376.