William Murray Black

William Black
William Murray Black as colonel, circa 1915
Born	(1855-12-08)December 8, 1855 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US
Died	September 24, 1933(1933-09-24) (aged 77) Washington, D.C., US
Place of burial	West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army Corps of Engineers
Years of service	1877–1919
Rank	Major General
Service number	0-12992
Commands	Chief of Engineers
Awards	Distinguished Service Medal
Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia
In office March 2, 1897 – May 26, 1898
Preceded by	Charles Frances Powell
Succeeded by	Lansing Hoskins Beach

William Murray Black (December 8, 1855 – September 24, 1933) was a career officer in the United States Army, noted for his ability to organize and train young engineers.

Biography

Major general William Black in April 1918

Black, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, graduated first in the United States Military Academy class of 1877 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. From 1886 to 1891 Black headed the Jacksonville District, and in 1897-98 he was the Engineer Commissioner on the governing board of the District of Columbia. In the Spanish–American War, he was Chief Engineer, 3d and 5th Army Corps. As Chief Engineer under Generals William Ludlow and Leonard Wood (1899–1901), and six years later as advisor to the Cuban Department of Public Works, he modernized Havana's sanitary system. As commandant of the Army Engineer School (1901–03), Black moved it from the Fort at Willets Point, New York to Washington Barracks, D.C. After his return from Cuba in 1909, he was Northeast Division Engineer and chairman of a board to raise the battleship USS Maine. Devoted to training young engineer officers in the art of war, General Black's greatest responsibility came as Chief of Engineers during World War I in mobilizing and training some 300,000 engineer troops for a wide range of military engineering tasks. For this work he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the citation for which 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 Major General William Murray Black, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility as Chief of Engineers, in planning and administering the engineer and military railway services during World War I.

He retired October 31, 1919, and died in Washington, D.C., on September 24, 1933. He is buried at West Point Cemetery.

Legacy

The USS General W. M. Black (AP-135), launched July 1943, was named in his honor as was the dustpan dredge William M. Black.

Bibliography

• Davis, Henry Blaine Jr. (1998). Generals in Khaki. Raleigh, North Carolina: Pentland Press, Inc. pp. 38–39. ISBN 1-57197-088-6.

External links

This article contains public domain text from "Major General William Murray Black". Portraits and Profiles of Chief Engineers. Archived from the original on March 6, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2005.