Major General Fox Conner

General Fox Conner was born on November 2, 1874and raised in Calhoun County Mississippi  about seven miles south of Calhoun City. He entered United States Military Academy at West Point in 1894 .  Soon after graduation from West Point he severed in the occupational forces in Cuba.  A memorial for General Conner is being planned at this time for presentation on the Town Square in Calhoun City.  General Dwight D. Eisenhower served under General Fox Conner and General Conner was his mentor.  When General Eisenhower was asked who was the greatest American soldier he knew, he replied MG Fox Conner, adding, "In sheer ability and character, he was the outstanding soldier of my time."

Conner's father served in the Confederate Army and was blinded at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.  In spite of his father's debilitating wounds, Conner wanted to become a soldier from a young age.  He graduated from West Point in 1898 and was commissioned in the artillery.  Soon after graduation he served in the occupational forces in Cuba.  He served in World War I and received  The Distinguished Service Metal with Citation as follows:

For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service as assistant chief of staff
in charge of operating sections, he has shown a masterful conception of the tactical
situations, which have confronted the American forces in Europe.

He was promoted to Major General in 1925.  Conner retired in 1938 on the eve of World War II, which he predicted nearly twenty years earlier.  Eisenhower and others continued to seek his counsel throughout the war, a testament to the great esteem in which they held him, "a born leader of men."

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