General Tschappat was of Swiss descent from both his father and his mother. He certainly inherited all of the traditional Swiss conscience as regards performance of every task with exactitude and faithfulness.

 

A member of his family has furnished the following information corncerning his background:

 

“In the year 1812 one hundred families from the vicinity of Bern, Switzerland, under the leadership of two brothers, Jacob and John Tschappat, set out to make homes in a new country, the United States of America.

 

"They landed in Baltimore early in the summer and there transferred their families, and the many prized possessions they had brought with them from the homeland by those great Conestoga wagons which were built by the Pennsylvania Dutch. They started over the mountains with Pittsburgh their next objective. Late in the Fall they reached Pittsburgh and decided they had better winter there.

 

"In the Spring, being anxious to push on further West, they once more started out, this time on great rafts, which the men had built during the winter months. They started down the Ohio, and after many days reached that point on the Ohio where it forms the boundary between West Virginia and Ohio. The terrain here reminded them of Switzerland, and as they were weary and also anxious to get some crops planted so they could be ready for winter, they decided to land.

 

“They cleared the land, terraced the farms as in the homeland, and took up their occupations, mainly farming, wine and cheese making. This section of Ohio is not its best farm land, but it is very scenic and has been called the Switzerland of America. Even today the Swiss cheese produced in Monroe County is considered some of the best produced in this country.

 

"The Jacob Tschappat family settled near the little town of Cameron. There were several children, one of them being Philip Lewis. When a young man Philip Lewis married Mary Katherine Kinsey, the daughter of another Swiss family who had emigrated to this same territory at a later date. The young couple continued to live in this same area where Philip followed his occupation of farming. Here ten miles north of the little town of Cameron in a log cabin William, the tenth of eleven children, was born on August tenth 1874. All of the family are now deceased except one sister, Miss Malinda Tschappat of Beallsville, Ohio, and a brother George A. of Utica, Ohio.

 

“In 1881 the family purchased a farm near the town of Beallsville, Ohio. This farm is now in possession of a great grandson and has been continuously owned by some member of the family. Here in the town of Beallsville William attended school. It was a three-room schoolhouse with three teachers, the superintendent being one David McVay, a very well educated man and considered an excellent teacher. William graduated from this school at the age of fifteen and then took a teacher's examination which he passed and was issued a teaching certificate.

 

"He taught two terms at Jerusalem, a little town near Beallsville. He lived at home during this time and continued to help on the farm mornings, evenings and during vacations. As a young boy he had loved the farm animals, especially the little calves; and he and his young brother George had much fun training them in harness, and delighted in hitching them to their sled and driving them to town.”

 

In the summer of 1891 the Congressman from the Ohio congressional district in which Beallsville was located decided to have a competitive examination to fill a vacancy for a cadetship which would exist in June of the following year.

 

William H. Tschappat took the examination; and competing with twenty-three other young men he attained first place and was designated a candidate for admission to the Military Academy. He entered the Academy as a cadet on June 15th, 1892.

 

In each of his four years at West Point Tschappat stood in the first five in academic class rank. While he was always a diligent student and lived a quiet unobstrusive life he was genial in his contacts and had many friends.

 

On graduation Tschappat stood Number Five in a class of seventy-three members. He was assigned to the Fifth Artillery and was stationed successively at Forts Slocum, Hancock and Hamilton.

 

It was while he was stationed at Fort Slocum that Tschappat married Miss Alice McCrea, the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel (afterwards Brigadier General) Tully McCrea a distinguished officer of Civil War service. The wedding took place July 30th, 1898 at the residence of the bride’s parents, and it had a brilliant setting.

 

He took the examination for the Ordnance Department in which at that time the lowest commissioned grade was first lieutenant. The examination took several days. It was a very thorough one and covered both mechanical and chemical engineering.

 

Tschappat passed the examination and was commissioned a first lieutenant of the Ordnance Department October 4th, 1898. From then on his whole active service was in that staff corps, and in it he acquired every sort of distinction that it was possible for an officer to attain.

 

His first Ordnance assignment was at the Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts where he served for nearly two years. This was followed by over a year’s service in the Office of the Chief of Ordnance. Then came nearly two years experience at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground, followed by nearly three years duty as inspector of ordnance at the Bethlehem Steel Company at South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

 

While still a captain Tschappat served as Chief Ordnance Officer of the Army of Cuban Pacification and Depot Ordnance Officer at Havana, from September 1906 to May 1907.

 

Captain Tschappat was then transferred to Picatinny Arsenal. He became a major in September 1907. Because this arsenal was a powder plant it became a large laboratory for highly scientific investigation by Major Tschappat.

 

From August 1912 to July 1917 Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Tschappat served as Professor of Ordnance and the Science of Gunnery at the Military Academy. The following is quoted from a recent communication received from Brigadier General Earl McFarland who for several years was closely associated with Lieutenant Colonel Tschappat in the work of the Ordnance Department:

 

“Having had duty at the ordnance powder plant at Picatinny Arsenal for the five years prior to his detail at West Point, he was steeped in the science of powder design, and in the specific effect of the design on the action of the projectile before it left the gun.

 

“An explanation of the new method had never before been printed: but Tschappat had his tabulations of Picatinny’s tests and proceeded to build up and explain this new system which differed widely from that of the French scientist Le Due.

 

"Colonel Beverly W. Dunn (Class of 1883 U.S.M.A.) also an Ordnance Officer of great distinction, having tried from various sources to secure a mathematical solution to a ballistic problem said that he would refer it to Tschappat, and that if Tschappat couldn’t do it he would have to send it to some mathematician in Germany.

 

“It was during 1913 and 1914 that General Tschappat prepared a great part of the manuscript for the new textbook on Ordnance and Gunnery, which was published in 1917 ‘For the use of the senior class of the U.S. Military Academy. The preceding text was that written by Major Ormond M. Lissak, and many new methods and items of equipment had been introduced into the Army since Lissak’s book. General Tschappat worked long and hard in the preparation—he enjoyed doing the original work himself—and one of the outstanding features of the text was the first exposition of a new method of solving the essential problems of Interior Ballistics.”

 

As soon as his tour of duty at West Point was completed Tschappat was given the important assignment of ordnance officer at the Port of Embarkation at Newport News in Virginia. He was on duty there until February 1918. After serving a few months again as Professor of Ordnance and the Science of Gunnery at West Point he was transferred to the Office of the Chief of Ordnance in July 1918. He reached his colonelcy in September 1919.

 

From July 1922 to May 1925 he held the important post of commanding officer of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Tschappat’s next assignment was as chief of the Technical Staff in the Office of the Chief of Ordnance for four years until May 1929.

 

Tschappat served as Ordnance Officer of the Philippine Department and commanding officer of the Philippine Ordnance Depot for several months until June 1930.

 

Tschappat became Assistant Chief of Ordnance with the rank of brigadier general June 10th, 1933 and he was designated as Chief of the Manufacturing Service. He was appointed Chief of Ordnance with the rank of major general June 3rd, 1934. He served in this capacity for four years. He was retired from active service on account of physical disability August 31st, 1938.

 

During World War II Tschappat assisted the War Department in the problems concerning civilian employment.

 

Colonel Leo A. Codd of the Army Ordnance Association has recently written the following tribute;

 

"General Tschappat was recognized as an international authority in the science of ballistics and a leader in the development and improvement of artillery, particularly anti-aircraft guns. His influence in artillery design is evident in many of today’s modern weapons.

 

"General Tschappat was acknowledged to be one of the foremost mathematicians and ballisticians in the history of ordnance in the United States. While Professor of Ordnance at the United States Military Academy he was the author of ‘Ordance and Gunnery' the standard text-book used at the Academy for many years.

 

"His prowess as a mathematician was instrumental in solving many of the most complex engineering problems which faced the Ordnance Department during a transition period when the strength of metals, range of weapons, and striking power of missiles were undergoing basic advancements. His kindly, quiet manner of engineering application and administration befitted his intellectual genius.”

 

The following is quoted from Brigadier General Earl McFarland's recent communication :

 

“Some three or four years prior to his retirement General and Mrs. Tschappat bought a plot of twenty acres of ground about two miles northeast of Falls Church, Virginia. Here in the woods they built a very comfortable brick house which they thought exactly fulfilled their specifications, and almost immediately added rooms to it. In this house they lived busily for the next twenty years, improving the native trees, planting dogwoods and other trees and plants, many of which were sent to them from the old Ordnance arsenals, creating an apple orchard, making a large strawberry patch each year, and raising all types of vegetables.

 

“General Tschappat’s mechancial interest did not wane. He had all sorts of farm machinery and did his own plowing and cultivating, made most of his own repairs, bought new models of equipment, and during the months of good weather spent all of the daylight hours out of doors. He built up a good workshop in his basement, procured many power tools, and took great delight in making articles of utility to meet various needs.

 

“He constructed new wooden gutters for the entire house and installed them without an assistant: wooden gutters because he thought they were better than metal. He made a china closet that was a professional job as were all his works. He put up shelves, book cases and desks wherever they would add to the convenience of living. It was in this basement workshop that he fell, in 1953, and broke a knee-cap. In a few months however he was walking with a strightly step and with no limp whatever.

 

“His life was full, contented, joyful. Quiet and retiring, of many, many fine qualities, never talking of himself or his accomplishments, never forwarding his interests, always pleasant to others, he led a direct, positive, purposeful life that must have held great personal satisfaction. I never heard him find fault with anyone nor fail to be sympathetic and helpful to every friend with a problem.

 

“When General Tschappat was Chief of Ordnance The Assistant Secretary of War was heard to say: ‘I like General Tschappat. When he comes to my office to see me I enjoy the visit more than that of almost any other person who regularly comes in.’

 

“General Tschappat exemplified the best traditions of the Military Academy and the Service in fineness of character, in soundness of thought and judgment, and in loyal devotion to duty.”

 

And likewise thought all his classmates.

 

The funeral with full military honors including an artillery salute of thirteen guns, took place at the cemetery at West Point September 27th, 1955. Tschappat's grave is close to that of his gallant father-in-law. Brigadier General Tully McCrea.

 

Mrs. Tschappat is continuing to reside at their home near Falls Church, Virginia.

 

—Lanydon '96