John Ter Bush Bissell was born 18 November 1893 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the oldest of five children, three boys and two girls. His father, David Shields Bissell, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Heidelberg was active in the steel and chemical industries and had his own metallurgical laboratories in Pittsburgh. His ancestry was Scotch-Irish. His mother, Annie Ter Bush, from Niagara Falls, New York, was descended from the old Dutch families that settled in the Hudson River valley in pre-Revolutionary days. On both sides his forebears had played a part in all of our wars. His great-great uncle, Lewis Morris, graduated from West Point in 1821. He was brevetted major for gallant conduct in the Mexican War and was killed in action at Monterrey in September 1846. His son, a colonel of Volunteers was killed in the Civil War at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864. Perhaps one of John Bissell’s earliest motivations toward a military career was when as a small child he saw his Uncle Robert march off to the Spanish-American War in the uniform of a battery commander in the Pennsylvania National Guard. He attended grade school in Pittsburgh but in 1905, when he was twelve, his father retired from active business and took his family to Bermuda for a year. Here the boys were entered in the English Saltus Grammar School. After returning to Pittsburgh, Mr. Bissell, who yearned for Germany where he had spent two years of graduate study, took off again with his family and in September 1906 established them in the city of Hanover. The boys attended a German private school where much emphasis was placed on their learning the German language. Here Kaiser Wilhelm II put on a great display of his troops, foot soldiers, uhlans and horse artillery, and young John was mightily impressed and possibly again drawn to the idea of an Army career. There followed three years in the city of Darmstadt where the boys were again enrolled in German schools with hard study and long hours the rule. Here, John maintained his interest in la vie militaire; witnessed a zeppelin and a six minute flight of an airplane piloted by an army lieutenant. He also experimented with some German pals and a home-made glider. The summers were given up to strenuous tours on foot through Germany, the Austrian Tyrol and Switzerland. One effort to make 50 miles in one day affected his heart so as to require medical attention for a year but did not prevent his entering Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1911. He finished three and one half years there and then after a “cram” course enrolled as a cadet at West Point on 15 June 1914.
John Bissell’s class was graduated a year early, because of World War I, on 30 August 1917. He had a solid but not distinguished record as a cadet. His HOWITZER shows him as strikingly handsome and predicted a bright Army career. He was quiet, well liked by his classmates, not given to sports but a good horseman, an adequate student and a corporal and sergeant in the Corps. His habit of reading, especially history, was continued here and he spent many hours of free time in the library.
World War l. Shortly after graduation Second Lieutenant John Bissell, Infantry, was first assigned to the 4th Infantry for a short tour at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He then went to the recently organized 3d Division, Regular Army, then training at Camp Greene, North Carolina, in preparation for overseas service in France under General Pershing. In early spring of 1918 it was embarked, and young Bissell found himself already a first lieutenant and commanding a section of machine guns in the motorized 7th Machine Gun Battalion. First, they had a short period of service with French troops in a quiet sector of the Vosges. At this time, a critical situation developed along the front north and northwest of Paris, some fifty miles away. To block a massive German advance threatening that city, and at Marshal Foch’s urgent request, Pershing made certain untested divisions immediately available to the French high command. Among these was the 3d which arrived piecemeal on the south bank of the Marne River, opposite Chateau Thierry, beginning May 31st. First on the scene was the highly mobile 7th Machine Gun Battalion whose Hotchkiss guns were promptly emplaced in the brush along the river, eight covering the wagon bridge and the remainder the railroad trestle some 500 meters upstream leading into the town. Lieutenant Bissell with his section of fourteen men and two guns was dispatched across the wagon bridge to enter the town and support a French Senegalese unit which was retreating before the advancing Germans. On the night of 2 June, surrounded by the enemy, he had to abandon his guns but saved his command and some of the Colonials from death or capture by reaching the railroad trestle, the wagon bridge having been destroyed. By shouting and exposing himself he was able to quiet friendly fire and lead his men across the river to his own lines. He lost one man, killed in the town during this hazardous exploit. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm shortly after, upon recommendation of Pershing, by Field Marshal Petain, commanding the French Armies of the East. The citation read in translation;
“Lieutenant John T. Bissell, 7th Machine Gun Battalion, American. With coolness and courage beyond the line of duty he was able to rally the American machine gunners and French soldiers whose valor had led them to remain in the outskirts of a city, in the midst of enemy elements, and to lead them back within our lines under the most perilous circumstances, by the only passage left to him.”
At a somewhat later date the Silver Star was awarded him and pinned on his breast by General Pershing. A higher decoration had been recommended by his own commanders. So in his very first action under fire he had shown to a high degree qualities of leadership which augured well for a successful military career. On 20 June Lieutenant Bissell was assigned as an instructor in machine guns at the II Corps Schools, Chatillon-sur-Seine where he remained ten months, rejoining his 7th Machine Gun Battalion for five days during the Argonne offensive. He became a temporary captain in the Infantry 7 April 1919 and went on to command Company A of his battalion in the Army of Occupation at Coblenz. In the meantime, Cupid had displaced Mars. At Catillon, managing the officers Young Men’s Christian Association, he met Julia Hurlbut, a charming and intelligent young woman from an old Connecticut family. Before the war she had been an active suffragette; and had been jailed for three days for picketing the White House until pardoned by President Wilson. Their mutual attraction was immediate and strong and a year later, in May 1919, they were married at Dijon, France. Next an unusual opportunity presented itself at Coblenz. He had long been attracted by the Field Artillery and was able to transfer to that branch, but as a lieutenant again, on 1 July 1920. There followed in November, partly because of his fluency in French, a detail of one year to tire French Artillery School at Fontainebleau, just out of Paris; this was a delightful experience for the newlyweds and of high professional value.
Interesting as it was in diversity and solid achievement, the service of Lieutenant, Captain and Major John Bissell between the two World Wars must be summarized briefly. It included duty as instructor, Field Artillery School, Camp Knox, Kentucky; battery commander in the 7th Field Artillery, Madison Barracks, New York; student, Field Artillery School; instructor in French at the Military Academy, West Point (1924-1928). Here their only child, Barbara, was born in 1925; three years Reserve Officers Training Corps, instructor at Princeton; aide to Major General Sladen in Baltimore; student at the Command and General Staff School (1931-1933); student at the Army War College (1939-1940); and assignment to the G2 Division, War Department General Staff, from June of 1940 until March 1943. During this time he and one other officer were mainly responsible for the development and functioning of the Counter Intelligence Section, an exciting and important duty after Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war.
World War II. Now a full colonel and an artilleryman for twenty years, John Bissell succeeded in getting to Sill for a three months Advanced Course in the spring of 1943 and was then assigned as commanding officer of the 112th Armored Field Artillery Group which he trained until December when it was sent overseas as separate battalions. Next he became commanding officer of the XXI Corps Artillery at Camp Polk, Louisiana, another organizing and training task. Finally, on 1 June 1944 came the long desired opportunity pointing to combat; assignment as 89th Infantry Division Artillery Commander at Camp Butner, North Carolina; with it came promotion to brigadier general. By pleasant coincidence, a complete surprise to both of them, the Division commander, Thomas D. Finley, and John Bissell were brothers-in-law, the former having married Constance Bissell in 1931.
The 89th Division had been ordered to Butner for reorganization and reequipment as a standard infantry division after a year as an experimental light division; reduced in size, transportation and weaponry. Its artillery consisted of three battalions of 75mm pack howitzers and one of 4.7 inch mortars, pulled by jeeps. Following two exhaustive maneuvers, the War Department disapproved the concept.
So Bissell had a big job ahead of him to reequip and reorganize the much reduced artillery of the light division and to train the additional officers and men of the new four battalions of 105 and 155mm howitzers, and he did it well. Due to the pressure of time, intensive and realistic training of both artillery and infantry units with live ammunition was the rule. The Division passed all its tests and inspections and was ready for combat in Europe by the end of the year. With its weapons and combat vehicles, but less noncombat equipment, the Division made a stormy Atlantic crossing and after a few weeks final training and completion of supply, went into combat early in March as part of General Patton’s rapidly moving Third Army. General Bissell came to full stature as Division Artillery Commander in the weeks that followed. On 16 March at 3:30 a.m., his four battalions with two reinforcing battalions from Corps added, supported the infantry’s night assault crossing of the Moselle River at Alf-Bullay against light resistance. The artillery performance earned him the Bronze Star. This was a good rehearsal for future events. Ten days later, after an advance from the Moselle to the Rhine, the 89th, now part of the VIII Corps, made a major night assault crossing of the Rhine at 2:00 a.m., 26 March, in the region of St. Goar. The mission was accomplished with notable success and in spite of severe losses in the three assault battalions from German artillery and small arms fire and in spite of extremely difficult terrain conditions. The 89th was highly commended by Corps and Army Commanders. General Bissell’s four battalions, reinforced by VIII Corps and Third Army artillery, an antiaircraft battalion, some batteries of the 76th Division already in place, battalion of tank destroyers and access to tactical air strikes, constituted overwhelming fire power that was of decisive importance in supporting the assaulting infantry. Bissell and his staff had to plan, prepare, direct and control this fire. His S3 wrote: “...there was only about 24 hours for him to contact artillery groups of Corps and Army, tanks, antiaircraft, air strikes, a sound and flash battalion. In the time allotted the contacts were made, intelligence reports analyzed, fires planned and coordinated for 105mm and 155 mm howitzers to 8-inch howitzers and 155mm guns for all units. In the early morning hours when you gave the command to start firing he was ready.” General Bissell received the Legion of Merit for the part he and his command played in this operation.
John Bissell retired at his own request at age 53 and his retirement, lasting a full 30 years, was in fact a second career, leaving him free to pursue at will many activities which had interested him during his military service but also to engage in others. He had always been an omnivorous reader, particularly of works of historical significance, and his books on the Napoleonic wars and like military subjects have found a place in the United States Military Academy Library. While his life centered about Carmel and his attractive house and gardens fronting on the ocean, he maintained contacts with the East, visiting his brother and sisters and friends. He retained his membership of fifty years in the New York University Club and the Army and Navy Club in Washington. He and Julia were long time members of the Adirondack League Club and owned a hunting and fishing lodge there. During all his life he had loved the outdoors. Now this became almost an obsession. Together with his wife he fished the rivers of Maine and eastern Canada. With a Canadian guide he found excitement moose hunting in New Brunswick. In earlier days he had become an expert bird shot, owned and trained hunting dogs.
Eventually Carmel and the West absorbed his time. Not only his brother Leet lived there but a few West Point classmates and retired Army friends of the past. He joined and found a very rewarding activity in the “Carmel Associated Sportsmen” an exclusive group of like-minded hunters, fishermen and conservationists. His trips with these companions covered the Pacific Northwest, Wyoming, and the California mountains. The esteem in which he was held is reflected in these comments: “He had a gun collection that was the envy of most men who love firearms. He took a vigorous part in the activities...he left a cherished memory by word and deed. John was always there to give a nudge in the right direction. When the group acquired its own property and began to develop its own ranges it was his experience and enthusiasm that were the backbone of the effort. In those days he was very active...was a member of the board of directors...with John’s passing the club lost a loyal supporter, a knowledgeable advisor and a good friend.”
As the years went on, both John and his devoted wife became subject to periods of poor health. Julia was affected most and after many months of invalidism, involving hospitalization and nursing at home, she passed away at the Carmel Community Hospital on 30 October 1962 from a cerebral stroke. They had been married for forty-three years. This was a grievous blow and John Bissell was now a lonely man; his world was narrowing and his ability to go places and do things reduced. His eyes began to weaken and interfered with his lifelong love of reading, driving a car and shooting. His brother Leet, nearby, and his sister Constance with frequent visits from Colorado were a great help.
In 1964 he became acquainted with an attractive widow, Vada Ferguson, a realtor in Carmel, and in the fall of 1965 they were married. This proved to be a happy event for both; they were congenial and shared many common interests. They were able to make trips together, including attendance at two reunions of his World War II division, and visits east to his brother Phil and sister Catharine. But time took its toll. His infirmities increased; they affected his heart, and his eventful life of almost eighty-three years came to an end on 14 July 1976. Following an impressive memorial service at the Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula, his ashes were carried by his wife to the historic West Point Cemetery and interred with graveside services. A plaque was placed in the Bissell family plot in Pittsburgh.
His death brought these comments from two close associates and admirers of his service in the 89th Division: John Gaston, S3 of his Division Artillery staff wrote, “I held him in top place among all people I have known for courage, integrity and fairness and the steadfastness to make crucial and critical decisions in times of stress.” His Division commander wrote, “General Bissell was of vital assistance in the training and combat operations of the Division. He will be affectionately remembered by all who served under bim and by countless others. He was always considerate of the welfare of officers and men and his expertise in artillery matters was unquestioned.”
So we say farewell to this very courageous and able soldier and honorable gentleman. His memory will not fade.
—T.D.F. and L.W.B.