Birth of a Military Legend:
General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur, one of the twentieth century's greatest war heroes, was also one of this country's most controversial military leaders. A brilliant soldier, MacArthur was one of the few American military leaders to challenge directly the authority of his civilian commander in chief. His role in national and international affairs, from World War I through Korea, made MacArthur an important historical figure.
Douglas MacArthur began his life much as he lived it, surrounded by the United States Army. Born into a family steeped in military traditions, MacArthur's earliest childhood memory was the sound of bugles. His father, Arthur, earned the Congressional Medal of Honor as a teenager fighting in the Civil War. After the war, the twenty-year-old veteran enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in the Indian wars on the western frontier.
As commander of Company K of the 13th U.S. Infantry, Captain MacArthur came to Little Rock in 1879 with his wife, Mary Pinckney Hardy, and two sons, Arthur and Malcolm. On January 26, 1880, a third son, Douglas, was born at the Little Rock Barracks. Capt. MacArthur's stay in Arkansas was brief, however; he was transferred to New Mexico the following summer. The MacArthurs left Little Rock when Douglas was less than six months old.
Donated to the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
in 2003 by John and Jill Ferguson