Name Henry Reilly | ||
Died 1963, New York City, New York, United States | ||
Henry J. Reilly (1881–1963) was an American soldier and journalist.
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Early life and education
Born in Fort Barrancas, Florida, Reilly was the son of an artillery officer. His father died in the 1900 Battle of Peking during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, and his family moved to Winnetka, Illinois, soon afterward. Reilly attended West Point Military Academy and graduated in 1904. In the years leading up to World War I, Reilly served in Asia and Europe, and he also started writing a weekly military column for the Chicago Tribune.
World War I
When World War I broke out, Reilly served in British and French ambulance units. When America entered the war in 1917, Reilly, by then a colonel, assumed command of the 149th Field Artillery Regiment. 42nd ("Rainbow") Division. His regiment saw combat in France, and soon became known as "Reilly's Bucks." For his actions, he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal in 1919. His citation reads, "Through his tireless energy and technical skill as an artillerist, his regiment gave most effective assistance to the Infantry which it supported."
Post-war life
After the war, Reilly became a brigadier general in the Officer Reserve Corps, as well as a well-known speaker, writer, journalist, and editor on military affairs. He served as a war correspondent, covering conflicts in Poland, Spain, Albania, and France. He edited the Army and Navy Journal from 1921 to 1925. He wrote several books, including Why Preparedness? (1916), based on what he had seen on Europe's eastern and western fronts in 1914 and 1915; America's Part (1926); and Americans All: History of the Rainbow Division (1936), which described the division's military actions, including stories about soldiers and officers from private to general.
In 1922, he helped found the Reserve Officers Association and served as its first president. Today, the association has a scholarship named after him. However, the scholarship was temporarily suspended in April 2009.
Reilly amassed a large personal library, now part of the collection of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library in Chicago, Illinois.