Peyton Conway March (born
December 27,
1864 in
Easton, Pennsylvania -
April 13,
1955) was an American soldier and
Army Chief of Staff.
March was the son of Francis Andrew March, considered the principal founder of modern comparative linguistics in Anglo-Saxon and one of the first professors to advocate and teach English in colleges and universities. Peyton March attended Lafayette College, where his father occupied the first chair of English language and comparative philology in the United States. In 1884, he was appointed to West Point and graduated in 1888. He was assigned to the 3rd Artillery.
He married Josephine Smith Cunningham (d. 1904) in 1891. They had a son, Peyton, Jr. (b. 1896), who was killed in a plane crash during WWI.
In 1894, March was assigned to the 5th Artillery and promoted to 1st lieutenant. He was sent to the Artillery School in 1896. He organized the Astor Battery and was sent to the Philippines in the Spanish-American War. In 1899, March was the aide to Gen. Arthur MacArthur, Jr.. Later that year he was promoted to major. He continued to serve in the Philippines, and was a provincial governor and commissary of prisoners.
