Pre-WW1: US military attaché to Paris Embassy

[Trooper_D]

T. (Thomas) Bentley Mott, 1865-1952

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27942712

Amongst a list of military attachés attending the Grandes Manoeuvres of 1912, posted in this thread, was the name of the US military attaché, lieutenant colonel 'Bentley-Mott'. A career-Artillery officer, Captain Bentley Mott was posted to Paris as US military attaché in June, 1900. He served there until 1905, again from 1909 to 1913 and finally from 1919 to 1930. In 1937, he published his recollections of these postings in his book 'Twenty Years as Military Attache' (which included accounts of other postings, as well). For a quicker read, I can recommend an article he wrote in 1903 for Scribner's magazine entitled 'Work and Play of the Military Attachés', which can be found online, here,

https://archive.org/stream/scribnersmagazin34newy#page/293/mode/1up

According to an online source, he earned the following

Silver Star, 
Distinguished Service Medal, 
Legion of Merit (United States); 
Commander Legion of Honor (French); 
Officer de l’Ordre de Leopold (Belgian); 
Companion of St. Michael and St. George (British); 
Officer Order of St. Stanislas (Russian)

Source:  http://prabook.com/web/person-view.html?profileId=1409438

He can easily be picked out in photographs by his habit of wearing what might be an 1889 Campaign Hat but what is probably, I think, a private-purchase civilian 'Cowboy hat'. The photo below (and I am reasonably sure it is him), from my collection, of unknown date illustrates this.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Trooper_D

[Trooper_D]

Here is a group shot of the foreign officers attenting the Grandes Manoeuvres de l'Est of 1904, with Mott on the second row down, extreme left.

We know it's Mott because another version of this postcard helpfully prints the foreign officers' signatures below the group (but in rather small print so I am only showing two high resolution details from the original card). Compare this signature, immediately below on the left, with that on the portrait in the first post in this thread.

 

Edited September 4, 2017 by Trooper_D

[Bayern]

Interesting , very curious the mongolian boots of the chinese officer , the Argentine and the Bolivian attaches are still wearing full French type uniforms , the Chilean is nearly Prussian , not full yet .

[Trooper_D]

16 hours ago, Bayern said:

Interesting , very curious the mongolian boots of the chinese officer ...

Well spotted, Bayern. As the New York Times observed (11 Sep 1904, p. 4), in their report of the reception various of the military attaches received at the Grandes Manoeuvres, "A Chinese officer, in a quaint uniform, attracted marked attention".

 

[Bayern]

Trooper : Thanks , and in your last post is another pair of points to note , one the presence for the first time of the German attache . the other the contrast between the warm attitude with Russia and the hardly correct with Japan and Great Britain . Well ,Japan was besieging Port Arthur , in the hands of France ally , Russia . respct to Great Britain , Fachoda was not so far in the time 

[Trooper_D]

9 hours ago, Bayern said:

Trooper : Thanks , and in your last post is another pair of points to note , one the presence for the first time of the German attache . the other the contrast between the warm attitude with Russia and the hardly correct with Japan and Great Britain . Well ,Japan was besieging Port Arthur , in the hands of France ally , Russia . respct to Great Britain , Fachoda was not so far in the time 

Bayern

Thank you for your astute observation about the geopolitical problems of having officers from so many nations, some of whom shared an antipathy - which, as in the case of Japan and Russia, might well be out in the open. You may know that at the end of each day of the Grandes Manoeuvres, the French military authorities laid on lavish dinners for the military attaches. I would imagine that preparing the table plan was a diplomatic nightmare for the reasons you state!

[paja]

Thanks you very much for the "officiers etrangers" post card scans.
Serbian representative was colonel Petar Bojović (Петар Бојовић).

[paja]

Foreign officers who attended the maneuvers. I'll write their names down later, here's a list from newspapers for now.
 

[Trooper_D]

4 hours ago, paja said:

Foreign officers who attended the maneuvers. I'll write their names down later, here's a list from newspapers for now.

What a great contribution to the thread, Paja. May I ask where this comes from and is it the same publication you used to produce the names for the 1912 manoeuvres in the other thread? 

[Bayern]

14 hours ago, Trooper_D said:

Bayern

Thank you for your astute observation about the geopolitical problems of having officers from so many nations, some of whom shared an antipathy - which, as in the case of Japan and Russia, might well be out in the open. You may know that at the end of each day of the Grandes Manoeuvres, the French military authorities laid on lavish dinners for the military attaches. I would imagine that preparing the table plan was a diplomatic nightmare for the reasons you state!

My pleasure , yes , a delicate affaire de etiquette , complicated more with the other theme , the precedence ,based in the seniority of the the attaches in the appointment 

[Bayern]

Very very interesting Paja , thanks . I discovered the name of the Argentinian Attache , Vedia , might be the later General Agustin de Vedia .The Austrian , Herberstein , Count Herberstein was later ,General and Chief of the Militarkbinett or something similar of Archduke Friedrich , the Commander in chief of the Austro Hungarian forces during ww1 until 1917 when he was replaced by his cousin Archduke Joseph . Herberstein was a mix of soldier and courtier . Petar Bojovic if i am not wrong ,later became one of the most succesfulls Voivodas of the Serbian Army .

[paja]

7 hours ago, Bayern said:

...Petar Bojovic if i am not wrong ,later became one of the most succesfulls Voivodas of the Serbian Army .

You are correct, that's the same person. He was one of the four, well actually five Serbian/Yugoslav vojvodas if you count d'Esperey.

[paja]

12 hours ago, Trooper_D said:

What a great contribution to the thread, Paja. May I ask where this comes from and is it the same publication you used to produce the names for the 1912 manoeuvres in the other thread? 

List from 1904 was published in the "Le Petit Parisien" journal and I think the other one is from "Le Gaulois". 
If you wish I can check which editions, unfortunately I saved just the cropped lists.

[paja]

Germany: von Hugo, squadron commander, 3rd guards uhlan regiment (?), military attache
England: Bonham, infantry lieutenant colonel, military attache
Argentina: de Vedia, general staff major, military attache
Austria-Hungary: count of Herberstein, general staff major, military attache
Belgium: Pioch, major general
Bolivia: Suarez, cavalry lieutenant colonel, military attache
Bulgaria: Neresov, general staff major
Chile: Gormaz, general staff major, military attache
China: Wang, colonel.
Denmark: de Hegermann-Lindencrone, major general
Spain: Echagüe y Santoyo, engineer major, military attache
United States: Bentley-Mott, artillery captain, military attache
Greece: Milioly, artillery major
Italy: Chaperon, general staff lieutenant colonel, military attache
Japan: count Hisamatsu, infantry battalion commander, military attache
Mexico: Mondragon, brigade general, military attache; Corarrubias, artillery captain
Netherlands: Bruce, general staff lieutenant colonel
Portugal: Ferreira, artillery captain
Romania: Miclesco, artillery captain, military attache
Russia: Lazarev, general staff colonel, military attache
Serbia: Petar Bojović, general staff colonel
Sweden and Norway: baron Odelsward, cavalry captain, military attache
Switzerland: Galiffe, general staff  lieutenant colonel; Van Berchern, artillery lieutenant colonel

French officers who accompanied them:
-Holender
-Chere
-Coste
-de Ribainse
-Boucabeille
-de Castelbajac
-Vide

If I miswrote some names or made other mistakes please fell free to correct me.

Edited September 7, 2017 by paja

[Great Dane]

Danish participant would be Johan Frederik (Fritz) Hegermann-Lindencrone. Note the 'H'...

/Michael

[paja]

Thank you, Michael, name corrected.

[Daffy Duck]

Paja, that was excellent! Thank you for your effort!

[paja]

Don't mention it, my pleasure!

[Bayern]

Paja: each day one learns something new ,i ignored until now that Franchet D Esperey was honoured as  Voivoda , Title that was something more if I am not wrong, than a mere military honour , 

[Ulsterman]

outstanding thread!

[Trooper_D]

8 hours ago, Ulsterman said:

outstanding thread!

As thread starter, thank you - as ever on GMIC, it's a great team effort.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Trooper_D

[paja]

10 hours ago, Bayern said:

Paja: each day one learns something new ,i ignored until now that Franchet D Esperey was honoured as  Voivoda , Title that was something more if I am not wrong, than a mere military honour , 

Apologies for not being more precise, there was a distinction between honorary vojvoda and "battle vojvoda". Battle vojvoda was the highest military rank in the Kingdom of Serbia/SCS/Yugoslavia and a general could become vojvoda only during the war for particularly successful work. d'Esperey was honorary vojvoda. 

[Bayern]

Thanks , A bit more of knowledge for me 

[paja]

Don''t mention it.
Looks like Bentley-Mott attended the "Grandes manœuvres de l'Est" in 1901 as well.



Switzerland: Secretan, colonel; Baumann, lieutenant colonel
Denmark: Kranold, general of the 1st Jutland brigade
Peru: Althaus, colonel
Italy: Barattieri di San Pietro, colonel,  embassy attache
Belgium: Theophile Wahis, colonel
Bulgaria: Nazlamov, colonel of the 1st cavalry regiment;
Portugal: Antonio Rodrigues Ribero, colonel
Serbia: Svetislav Isaković, engineer colonel
Mexico: Mondragon, artillery colonel
Russia: Lazarev, lieutenant colonel, military attache; Dmitri Oznobishin, captain
Greece: Soutzo,  lieutenant colonel, Cavalry school commander
England: Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley
Japan: Akachi, lieutenant colonel, military attache
Netherlands: Van Voorst, lieutenant colonel
Spain: Francisco Echagüe y Santoyo, military attache
Argentina: de Vedia, military attache
Germany: von Hugo, squadron commander, 3rd guards uhlan regiment
Austria-Hungary: count Herbenstein, military attache
Sweden: Heftye, military attache
Romania: Miclesco, military attache
Ecuador: Gagliardo, military attache
United States: Bentley-Mott, military attache

Photo and the list found HERE

Edited September 11, 2017 by paja

[Bayern]

Paja : De Vedia , Herbenstein, Mondragon , appears as in those years the duration of thepost of attache was longer .Mondragon is the inventor of the semiautomatic rifle of the same name , used to same extent by German flyers during WW1.Apart from this skills was a typical Mexican putschist militar .