Adelbert Cronkhite (January 6, 1861 – June 15, 1937)[1] was a career officer in the United States Army. He was notable for his command of the 80th Division during World War I. He also served as interim commander of IX Corps and commander of VI Corps after the war. In addition, his later command assignments included the Newport News Port of Debarkation, the Coast Artillery Training Center, and Third Corps Area.
Cronkhite was the subject of national attention in the early 1920s when he advocated publicly for the investigation into the death of his son to be reopened; Alexander P. Cronkhite was an Army major stationed at Camp Lewis, Washington in 1918 when he died as the result of a gunshot. An investigation determined that the wound was accidental and self-inflicted; Cronkhite's public campaign led to the indictment of two soldiers who had been with Alexander Cronkhite at the time of his death. The 1924 trial of one ended in an acquittal, and charges against the second were dropped. Cronkhite's public campaign to renew the investigation brought him into disfavor with senior Army leadership, and he was retired against his wishes in 1923.
After his retirement, Cronkhite lived in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and became active in veterans' groups. He was also a frequent speaker at military reunions and other public events.
From 1890 to 1891 Cronkhite served at Fort Riley, Kansas.[3] From January to August 1891 he served in South Dakota during operations against Native Americans at the end of the Sioux Wars.[3] He was Professor of Military Science at the Michigan Military Academy from 1891 to 1892.[3] Cronkhite then returned to Fort McPherson, where he performed garrison duty until May 1893.[3] He served at Fort McHenry, Maryland from 1893 to 1896, and then returned to Fort Riley, where he served until 1898.[3]
After taking an extended post-war leave, Cronkhite performed garrison duty at Fort Terry, New York.[3] From June 1899 to September 1901 he was assigned as adjutant of the School of Submarine Defense at Fort Totten, New York.[3] (The School of Submarine Defense taught the use of torpedoes and naval mines for protecting harbors.)[4] When the Artillery Corps was divided into Field Artillery and Coast Artillery, Cronkhite opted to serve with the Coast Artillery.[1]
From September 1901 to May 1904 Cronkhite was assigned to Fort Douglas, Utah as commander of the 22nd Field Artillery Battery.[3] He then performed temporary duty as a quartermaster until July 1906.[3] In November 1905, he received promotion to major.[3]
Cronkhite performed extended duty on the staff of the Army's Department of the East from 1906 to 1911, including inspector general, artillery officer, and coast defense officer.[3] He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in January 1909, and colonel in August 1911.[3]
From September 1911 to October 1914, Cronkhite commanded the garrison at Fort Totten.[3] He was then assigned to command the Panama Coast Artillery District—the coastal defenses of Panama and the Panama Canal Zone.[3]
World War I
Cronkhite as commander of the 80th Division in World War I.
Officers at 80th Division Headquarters at Boque Maison, France, July 20, 1918. From left to right: Brigadier General George H. Jamerson, commander of the 159th Brigade, Major General George W. Read, commander of II Corps, Major General Adelbert Cronkhite, commanding the 80th Division, and Brigadier General Lloyd M. Brett, commanding the 160th Brigade.
The army expanded after U.S. entry into the war, increasing from 128,000 regular army troops and 164,000 members of the Army National Guard in April 1917 to nearly 3.9 million soldiers by November 1918.[5] Cronkhite was appointed to command the 80th Division, an organization created with draftees from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey.[3][6][7] Like the other U.S. divisions fielded for World War I, the 80th was organized as a square division of two infantry brigades, the 159th and 160th.[8][9] Each Infantry brigade was composed of two infantry regiments and a machine gun battalion.[9] The division task organization also included an Artillery brigade and support units including Signal and Engineer battalions, a separate machine gun battalion, and a logistics trains.[9] At approximately 28,000 soldiers, U.S. divisions were roughly twice the size of the divisions fielded by the other Allies.[8]
The Armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918 brought hostilities to an end. Soon afterwards, Cronkhite took command of IX Corps, holding this command from November 1918 to January 1919, before commanding VI Corps from January to April 1919.[3] He returned to command of the 80th Division in May so that he could lead it home to the United States for demobilization.[3]
Post-World War I
Cronkhite returned to the United States in May 1919, and commanded the Newport News Port of Debarkation until September.[3] His other post-war assignments included chief of officer classification for the Coast Artillery Corps, commander of the Coast Artillery Training Center at Fort Monroe and the coastal defenses of the Chesapeake Bay, and member of the Army's General Selection Board that determined which officers would be retained in the Army after the post-World War I demobilization was complete.[3]
Alexander P. Cronkhite as a West Point senior in 1915.
Adelbert Cronkhite's son Alexander Pennington Cronkhite, nicknamed "Buddy", was a 1915 graduate of West Point. In October 1918, he was serving as a major commanding a battalion in a Camp Lewis, Washington engineer regiment.[12] Major Cronkhite died of a gunshot wound while at a Camp Lewis training area; subsequent investigation determined that the wound was self-inflicted, and that it was accidental.[12]
Some members of Alexander Cronkhite's regiment talked among themselves and raised the possibility of suicide.[12] Others suggested that a sergeant who was with Cronkhite at the time of his death might have been the shooter.[12]
Adelbert Cronkhite and his wife refused to accept the finding that the shooting was accidental.[12] After hiring private detectives to re-interview witnesses and having a second autopsy performed, they were convinced that their son had been murdered.[12] In Adelbert Cronkhite's view, the sergeant who was with his son on the day of the shooting (Roland Pothier) and the captain in temporary command of Alexander Cronkhite's troops at the time of the shooting (Robert Rosenbluth) were responsible.[12] (Alexander Cronkhite was not in command on the day of his death because he was recovering after having been hospitalized with influenza.)[12]
For two years, Adelbert Cronkhite attempted to have the War Department re-open the investigation.[12] When this did not happen, he tried to convince the Justice Department to pursue the investigation and prosecute the two soldiers he believed to be guilty.[12] The Justice Department eventually took up the investigation, and law enforcement agents were able to obtain multiple confessions from the sergeant who had been with Alexander Cronkhite at the time of the shooting; the sergeant implicated the captain who had been in temporary command.[12] With no motive immediately obvious, Adelbert Cronkhite suggested that the killing of his son was part of a plot to ruin his, Adelbert's, reputation.[12] Because the captain who was implicated was Jewish, members of the right wing press, led by Henry Ford's newspaper The Dearborn Independent, claimed that the shooting was murder, and that the captain had forced the sergeant to carry it out in the captain's supposed role as a "'German Jew Spy' and also a Bolshevik agent".[12]
The sergeant eventually repudiated his confessions, claiming they had been coerced.[12] The agents who obtained them admitted to harsh interrogation techniques, so the confessions were excluded at the sergeant's trial in October 1924.[12] With the prosecution case largely consisting of the argument that it was impossible for Alexander Cronkhite to have shot himself by accident, given the angle of the shot and the distance of the gun from his body when it was fired, their central claim collapsed when a friend of Alexander Cronkhite's, Eugene M. Caffey, and a second officer each demonstrated in court that an accidental shooting that fit the circumstances was not only possible, but that it was simple to recreate a plausible series of events which could have resulted in Alexander Cronkhite pulling the trigger by mistake.[12] The sergeant was quickly acquitted; charges against the captain were soon dropped.[12]
Adelbert Cronkhite had refused to accept assignment as commander of the Panama Canal Zone so that he could continue to pursue the investigation into his son's death.[12] This refusal, coupled with his public denunciation of the Attorney General for not pursuing the case rapidly enough, brought him into disfavor with the Secretary of War John W. Weeks and John J. Pershing, the Army Chief of Staff.[12] As a result, Cronkhite was retired against his will "for the convenience of the government" in 1923.[3]
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 Major General Adelbert Cronkhite, 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. General Cronkhite commanded the 80th Division during the Argonne-Meuse offensive, where he demonstrated great ability as a leader and proved himself a commander of initiative and courage.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 12 (1919) Action Date: World War I Service: Army Rank: Major General Company: Commanding General Division: 80th Division, American Expeditionary Forces[14]
Later life
After retiring, Cronkhite lived in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, was active in several veterans' organizations, and was a sought after speaker for reunions, Independence Day commemorations, and other ceremonies.[15] Until the end of his life he argued that his son had not died accidentally, and that the murderers had gone unpunished.[16]
Adelbert Cronkhite's father was Henry M. Cronkhite, a physician and Union Army veteran of the American Civil War who remained in the Army until retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1895.[17] His mother was Eleanor (Nellis) Cronkhite (1837–1892).[19]
In addition to their son Alexander, Adelbert and Annie Cronkhite were the parents of a daughter, Dorothy (1890-1954).[21][22]
Following the death of his first wife, in 1933 Cronkhite married Gertrude E. Horne of Pittsburgh.[23] Gertrude Horne Cronkhite was active in veterans' organizations, and died in Pittsburgh on February 3, 1954.[24]
Published works
In 1893, Cronkhite authored Gunnery for Non-commissioned Officers.[25] This work was a compilation of information on cannons, ammunition, fuses, and other details necessary to master the use of artillery in combat.[25]
State of Virginia (1933). Annual Reports of Officers, Boards and Institutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richmond, VA: Superintendent of Public Printing. pp. 6, 17. ...during the ceremony in honor of ex-Governor Harry Flood Byrd at Hampton, Va., on October 4, 1932, at which time he was presented the Distinguished Service Medal by The Adjutant General ...In addition, the Military Board has directed that the same honor be extended to the following War Commanders under whom Virginia troops served in action: Maréchal Henri Pétain, General John J. Pershing, Major General Chas. G. Morton, Commander 29th Division, Major General Adelbert Cronkhite, Commander 80th Division
"Burial Record, Adelbert Cronkhite". Nationwide Gravesite Locator. United States Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. Archived from the original on June 1, 2019. Retrieved August 27, 2016.