COL Fitzhugh Lee Minnigerode
Commander - 1919
Born - November 10, 1978,
Died – 1947
He was a son of Charles Frederick Ernest
Minnigerode, an aide-de-camp to General Robert E.
Lee, veteran of Fitzhugh
Lee’s cavalry, and pastor of St. Paul’s
Protestant Episcopal Church in Richmond,
and a grandson of Reverend George Minnigerode,
Lutheran minister, and émigré to the United
States.
His brother, Cuthbert
Powell Minnigerode was a director of the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.
C. Born at the Oatlands,
Leesburg, Loudon County, Virginia,
he was baptized in honor of his father’s Civil War commander.
In May 1902 he enlisted as a private in Troop F, 12th
Cavalry and rose through the ranks to become a Second Lieutenant of
Infantry on October 15,
1904. He served under then
Brigadier General John
J. “Blackjack” Pershing fighting the Moros
in the Philippine
Insurrection. He was promoted to
First Lieutenant in March 1911 and to Captain on July 1, 1916. In
August 1917 he was promoted to Major and to Lieutenant Colonel within a year
after. He was awarded the Distinguished
Service Cross, Croix
de Guerre, and Legion of Honor
for his service with the 114th Infantry Regiment during WWI. He retired from active duty in 1920 due to
“mild” deafness resulting from gun fire.
He married the former Patricia O’Brien of San
Francisco and lived in Italy. He was a contributor to The Times
Magazine for which he was hired as European Correspondent on October 12, 1925. He remained in the London
office until 1928 when he returned to the United
States.
He wrote many features on military tactics and about Army generals. He became an assistant to Dr. John H. Finley,
editor in chief of The Times,
shortly after his return.
His health began to fail in 1934 and he moved to Arizona. He later lived in Texas,
New Mexico, Mexico and elsewhere in
the far west contributing articles about the Southwest. In June 1939, he published a book of poetry,
“Arrow in the Twilight”. COL
(Ret.) Minnigerode reported on Third Army maneuvers
in August 1938 and then retired to his home near Fort Sam Houston, San
Antonio, Texas on September 25, 1940.
Much of the material here was taken from his Obituary contributed by LTC
(USA Ret.) Joseph M. Massaro.
Home
Back to Regiment Commanders
Courtesy of the 116th
Infantry Regiment Foundation, Inc.
Last Updated September
21, 2003
Copyright 2001, 2003