John J. Pershing (General of the Armies)

John Joseph Pershing (1860–1948), nicknamed 'Black Jack' for commanding the African-American 10th Cavalry Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers), was the supreme commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front in World War I. Appointed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917, Pershing was promoted to General of the Armies, the highest possible military rank in the United States, held in his lifetime only by himself and posthumously by George Washington.

Pershing fiercely resisted enormous pressure from British and French leaders who wanted to amalgamate incoming American soldiers as piecemeal replacements into their own battered armies, insisting that the AEF fight as a unified, independent national force. Under his command, the AEF cleared the Saint-Mihiel salient in September 1918 and launched the colossal Meuse-Argonne Offensive—the largest and deadliest battle in US military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers—breaking the German front and compelling the Armistice.