James Harbord

Harbord was born on March 21, 1866, in Bloomington, Illinois, the son of George W. and Effie (Gault) Harbord. His family moved when he was four, and Harbord was raised in Pettis County, Missouri and Lyon County, Kansas. He graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College, later renamed Kansas State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1886. After unsuccessfully applying to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, Harbord taught school, and afterwards taught at the agricultural college. In January 1889, Harbord enlisted in the United States Army, joining the 4th Infantry Regiment as a private. He served in the enlisted ranks at Fort Spokane, Washington and Fort Sherman, Idaho until July 31, 1891, and advanced to corporal, sergeant, and regimental quartermaster sergeant. In August 1891, Harbord applied for a commission and was one of several non-commissioned officers selected to take a competitive examination. He finished first of the 12 successful candidates and received appointment as a second lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry Regiment, with which he served first at Fort Reno, Oklahoma, and later at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He received a Master of Science degree from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1895.

Harbord's first overseas experience came as a member of the occupation army in Cuba after the Spanish–American War. On January 21, 1899, during an extended leave, he married Emma Yeatman Overshine, daughter of Brigadier General Samuel Ovenshine. In 1901, he was promoted to captain and transferred from Cuba, where he has served initially as quartermaster and commissary for the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and later as aide-de-camp and adjutant-general of the department of Santiago and Puerto Principe.

After serving briefly in the Secretary of War office, he requested and received transfer to duty in the Philippines with the 11th Cavalry Regiment. He then served as Assistant Chief of the Philippine Constabulary from 1903 to 1909 and again from 1910 through 1913. By late April 1914 he was commanding the unit defending the California border at Calexico. In 1916, he was on the Mexican border with Brigadier General John J. Pershing, pursuing Pancho Villa.

Continued military career

After returning home to the United States Harbord took command of the 2nd Division, the same formation he had commanded in France in 1918. His stay was short-lived, as it had been back then, as in 1921, when Pershing succeeded General Peyton C. March as Chief of Staff of the United States Army, he requested Harbord to join him in Washington, D.C. to serve as his Assistant Chief of Staff. At the time it was only a major general's appointment, equivalent to the modern day position of Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army. While he was serving in this position Harbord "was instrumental in making the AEF's wartime G-staff system the standard model throughout the Army. That finally broke the bureaucratic power-lock of the old bureau chief system."