Arthur MacArthur

Arthur MacArthur 1845-1912, American army officer, b. Springfield, Mass.; father of Douglas MacArthur . Raised in Wisconsin, he served with the 24th Wisconsin Volunteers in the Civil War and fought in many Western campaigns and in the Chattanooga campaign of 1863. He received the Medal of Honor for gallantry. Joining the regular army after the war, he fought in both Cuba and the Philippines in the Spanish-American War and was (1900-1901) military governor of the Philippines. He had risen (1906) to the rank of lieutenant general when he retired in 1909.

MacArthur, Arthur (1845–1912) army general, born in Springfield, Massachusetts. MacArthur first came to prominence as a member of a volunteer regiment during the Civil War, during which he was frequently promoted and cited for gallantry. At Missionary Ridge (1863) he led a daring charge that routed the Confederates and for which he eventually was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. En route from Tennessee to Atlanta (1864), he led his regiment in thirty battles. At the battle of Franklin (1864), the actions of his regiment turned the tide in favor of the Union, but MacArthur was wounded and did not again see combat. In 1866 he joined the regular army, serving mainly at frontier posts in the West until the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (1898), when he commanded a brigade in the capture of Manila. He subsequently headed operations against the Filipino insurgents and in 1900 was made overall commander of American forces in the Philippines as well as military governor.

The youngest of his three sons was Douglas MacArthur.