Graves married Katherine Pauline "Kate" Boyd, daughter of William Lang and Augusta Josephine (née Merriam) Boyd, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on February 9, 1891.[4][6] Katherine was the niece of his commanding officer, Henry C. Merriam.[4][7][8]
In 1918, the year after the American entry into World War I, he was given command of the 8th Division and sent to Siberia under direct orders from President Woodrow Wilson. He landed on September 1, 1918.[2] His orders were to remain strictly apolitical amidst a politically turbulent situation. As a result, he was frequently at odds with his Allied peers, the State Department, and various Russian groups.
Given some 7,000 soldiers in what was called the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.), and aided by Joseph D. Leitch as his chief of staff, he settled on the idea of making sure the Trans-Siberian railroad stayed operational and brought in a number of railroad experts to run the railway. His troops did not intervene in the Russian Civil War despite strong pressure brought on him to help the White army of Admiral Kolchak. Early on, Graves developed a strong distaste for Kolchak and his government.[9]
Graves thought that the British, French, and Japanese forces in Siberia were all following self-serving political ambitions beyond the stated goals of the Allies, which were to protect supplies provided by the powers to their erstwhile Tsarist allies and to provide for the safe conduct of foreign allied troops, primarily Czechs, who were to exit Russia via Vladivostok.[citation needed] Graves believed that the British and French were trying to suppress Bolshevik forces. He also believed that the Japanese had plans to annex part of Eastern Siberia (the Amur region, east of Lake Baikal).[citation needed] The Japanese deployed an estimated 72,000 soldiers—some 6 times the authorized troop level of 12,000 set by the Allies.[citation needed]
U.S. forces operated the Trans-Siberian railroad for almost two years, while bandits roamed the Siberian countryside and the political situation turned chaotic. The U.S. military did accomplish its main objective and the entire Czech Legion was evacuated out of Russia via Vladivostok. The last U.S. soldiers left Siberia on April 1, 1920. Historian Benson Bobrick wrote of Graves: "In the whole sad debacle, he may have been the only honorable man."[10]
General Graves was promoted to the rank of major general on July 11, 1925,[3] and retired from the army in 1928. He then wrote a book about his time in Siberia, entitled America's Siberian Adventure 1918-20.[11][2][12]
Family
William and Kate had four children, two of whom survived their parents. The first two children are buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado: a newborn infant (died October 27, 1891) and a girl, Marjorie (November 19, 1892 – February 24, 1894).[13]
A son, Sidney Carroll Graves (1893–1974) graduated from West Point in 1915 and followed his father into a military career, attaining the rank of major. He earned two Distinguished Service Crosses: the first during World War I, and the second while serving in the Russian Expeditionary Force. In 1921 he married Olga Roosevelt (Bayne), a relative of President Theodore Roosevelt. Olga's grandfather, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, and the president's father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., were brothers.[2]
The youngest child, Dorothy, married William R. Orton.[2]
Awards
His awards included 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 Sidney Graves, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, as an Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff and as Commanding General of the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia.[14]
^Cullum, George; Washington, and United States Military Academy. Association of Graduates (1901). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (3rd ed.). Houghton, Mifflin. p. 487.
^House, John M. (2016). Wolfhounds and Polar Bears: The American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, 1918-1920. The University of Alabama Press. p. 224. ISBN9780817318895.
Venzon, Anne Cipriano (2013). The United States in the First World War: an Encyclopedia. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis. ISBN978-1-135-68453-2. OCLC865332376.
