USMA Class of 1879. Cullum No. 2764.
Seventy-First Annual Report of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 10, 1940, Moore Printing Co., Newburgh, New York
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger
No. 2764. Class of 1879.
Died October 18, 1939, in Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., aged 81 years.
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger was born May 9th, 1858, at Akron, Ohio. He was the younger of two sons of Joseph and Rosalie Fiebeger, who came to this country from their native Austria after the troubles of 1848 and settled in Akron.
He entered West Point on July 1st, 1875 and graduated on June 18th, 1879, as an additional Second Lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers. He was, by special request retained on duty at West Point as Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy until August 28th.
He became a Second Lieutenant on October 31st, 1879 and was sent in December to take the course of instruction in Civil and Military Engineering at the Post Graduate Engineer School of Application, which was at that time at Willet’s Point, Long Island, New York, now Fort Totten. Here he had the privilege of being a student under General Henry L. Abbot, a most distinguished engineer, who was called the Father of our Submarine Mine defense. The course at Willet’s Point included troop service with the Battalion of Engineers and practical training in company administration.
Upon graduation from Willet’s Point in June 1882 and after having become a First Lieutenant, Fiebeger reported as Engineer Officer of the Department of Arizona, where he was engaged in scouting parties against the Chiricahua Apaches and as an aide to General Crook, in expeditions throughout New Mexico, Arizona and the provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua in the Republic of Mexico, in pursuit of the Indian chief Geronimo and his associates.
In August 1883, he returned to West Point to serve five years, first as Instructor and later as Assistant Professor of Civil and Military Engineering. From West Point he went to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1888 to work on River and Harbor Improvement in Virginia and North Carolina.
In November 1891, as a Captain, he became Assistant to the Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia and while on this duty was appointed Secretary of the Rock Creek Park Commission, which was charged with the task of purchasing land for the park. The Commission included Mr. Lamont, then Secretary of War, General Casey of the Engineers and Professor Langley of airplane fame.
When a vacancy occurred in the Chair of Engineering at West Point in April 1896, the Secretary of War, who had fortunately been in close association with Captain Fiebeger, was able to state that Captain Fiebeger was especially equipped by personality, mentality and training to become Professor of Engineering at the Academy. He was thereupon appointed to the Professorship on May 4, 1896 and filled the office, as Lieutenant Colonel and later as Colonel, until his retirement.
Colonel Fiebeger first revised and later rewrote all the textbooks on Engineering and Military Art in use of the Academy. These texts are well known and cover the subjects of Civil Engineering, Field Fortification, Permanent Fortification, Elements of Strategy, Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg and Campaigns of the American Civil War. Each book bears his imprint of accuracy, clarity and facility of expression. His Civil Engineering was especially noteworthy in that he standardized and unified the symbols in the various sub branches of the subject of the subject in such a happy manner that his system is now employed in practically every Civil Engineering textbook in use, instead of the polyglot systems previously current.
His Campaigns of the American Civil War is still and probably will always remain, the most concise and accurate description of that Great War. Students of history have been heard to relate how they had ascertained exact details of certain parts of that conflict after laborious days of research and had then learned that Colonel Fiebeger had been over the whole ground and had included all these facts. He was always keenly interested in all phases of military history and biography and was a great reader of memoirs and other works in this field. Besides the American Civil War, he was an authority on the campaigns of the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods.
Throughout his years at West Point Colonel Fiebeger kept in touch with important work then in progress in the Civil Engineering field. His close friendship with General George W. Goethals, his chum since Willet’s Point Days, made him especially interested in the development of the Panama Canal and he visited the Zone every summer during the construction period.
During his professorship Colonel Fiebeger was honored by selection to membership on the Board of Overseers of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth University. He was also on the Advisory Board on construction of new buildings at West Point during the renaissance of the Military Academy under Secretary Root and General Corbin after the conclusion of the War with Spain.
During the World War, he was sent to Europe as a special observer with the Expeditionary Forces. On his return, he wrote a textbook, Campaigns of the World War, another model of conciseness and accuracy.
On the occasion of his retirement he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal with the citation:
For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services in a position of great responsibility as head of the Department of Civil and Military Engineering, he for 26 years instructed, both personally and by text book, the officers of the Army in the principles of warfare, principles later fruitfully applied by many of these officers as commanders in the World War.
He was retired at the age of sixty-four on May 9, 1922. After a year spent in Europe he settled in Washington, where for a year he was on active duty with the Historical Section of the General Staff. The remainder of his life was spent at ease in his home, with occasional travel in this country and abroad.
Colonel Fiebeger was married on June 29, 1887, to Anna Perkins Upson, the daughter of Judge William H. Upson and Julia Ford Upson of Akron, Ohio. Judge Upson was a distinguished member of the Ohio judiciary and was named by President Lincoln as a member of a commission which resulted in the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Mrs. Fiebeger had her father’s dignity and intellect, but withal a charm and social tact that was a perfect complement to her husband’s serious absorption in his profession. Colonel Fiebeger had a genial smile and enjoyed a good game of chess or bridge, but he was eminently a scholar and had the scholar’s tendency to reserve. He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve. His wife’s talent, however, brought him during his leisure hours continuously into intimate contact with the cadets and officers around him and enabled them to esteem the value of his wisdom and to cultivate his friendship; so much that it became instinctive for his associate officers to consult him on important and perhaps troublesome and usually confidential matters that arose and which needed and received his calm and well considered advice. This habit persisted among them beyond the local field and only to his closest intimates is it known that his judgment was sought and oftentimes accepted in recent years upon questions of policy touching the welfare of the Military Academy; the results for our Alma Mater were happy.
We graduates of West Point who treasure Colonel Fiebeger’s friendship know how much of it we owe to Mrs. Fiebeger and we feel that in this memorial we honor him in rendering this homage to her. She died first, but was always associated with him in the minds of his friends and even after her death her spirit seemed to hover near him. Their only daughter, Julia Ford Fiebeger, remained with him and now remains with us.
Colonel Fiebeger was buried at West Point beside his wife. His pallbearers were members of the Academic Board, many of whom were personal friends who had served with him at West Point. They have placed on the records of the Board this tribute:
*** His ability to impart knowledge, to awaken interest and to stimulate effort marked him as an able and inspiring teacher. *** And fortunate were we to have been his associates and to have felt the charm of his personality. His sincerity, his lack of affectation, his tolerance and his sympathetic understanding won our confidence, esteem and lasting affection.
C.P.E., W.A.M.
Seventy-First Annual Report of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 10, 1940, Moore Printing Co., Newburgh, New York
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger
No. 2764. Class of 1879.
Died October 18, 1939, in Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., aged 81 years.
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger was born May 9th, 1858, at Akron, Ohio. He was the younger of two sons of Joseph and Rosalie Fiebeger, who came to this country from their native Austria after the troubles of 1848 and settled in Akron.
He entered West Point on July 1st, 1875 and graduated on June 18th, 1879, as an additional Second Lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers. He was, by special request retained on duty at West Point as Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy until August 28th.
He became a Second Lieutenant on October 31st, 1879 and was sent in December to take the course of instruction in Civil and Military Engineering at the Post Graduate Engineer School of Application, which was at that time at Willet’s Point, Long Island, New York, now Fort Totten. Here he had the privilege of being a student under General Henry L. Abbot, a most distinguished engineer, who was called the Father of our Submarine Mine defense. The course at Willet’s Point included troop service with the Battalion of Engineers and practical training in company administration.
Upon graduation from Willet’s Point in June 1882 and after having become a First Lieutenant, Fiebeger reported as Engineer Officer of the Department of Arizona, where he was engaged in scouting parties against the Chiricahua Apaches and as an aide to General Crook, in expeditions throughout New Mexico, Arizona and the provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua in the Republic of Mexico, in pursuit of the Indian chief Geronimo and his associates.
In August 1883, he returned to West Point to serve five years, first as Instructor and later as Assistant Professor of Civil and Military Engineering. From West Point he went to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1888 to work on River and Harbor Improvement in Virginia and North Carolina.
In November 1891, as a Captain, he became Assistant to the Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia and while on this duty was appointed Secretary of the Rock Creek Park Commission, which was charged with the task of purchasing land for the park. The Commission included Mr. Lamont, then Secretary of War, General Casey of the Engineers and Professor Langley of airplane fame.
When a vacancy occurred in the Chair of Engineering at West Point in April 1896, the Secretary of War, who had fortunately been in close association with Captain Fiebeger, was able to state that Captain Fiebeger was especially equipped by personality, mentality and training to become Professor of Engineering at the Academy. He was thereupon appointed to the Professorship on May 4, 1896 and filled the office, as Lieutenant Colonel and later as Colonel, until his retirement.
Colonel Fiebeger first revised and later rewrote all the textbooks on Engineering and Military Art in use of the Academy. These texts are well known and cover the subjects of Civil Engineering, Field Fortification, Permanent Fortification, Elements of Strategy, Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg and Campaigns of the American Civil War. Each book bears his imprint of accuracy, clarity and facility of expression. His Civil Engineering was especially noteworthy in that he standardized and unified the symbols in the various sub branches of the subject of the subject in such a happy manner that his system is now employed in practically every Civil Engineering textbook in use, instead of the polyglot systems previously current.
His Campaigns of the American Civil War is still and probably will always remain, the most concise and accurate description of that Great War. Students of history have been heard to relate how they had ascertained exact details of certain parts of that conflict after laborious days of research and had then learned that Colonel Fiebeger had been over the whole ground and had included all these facts. He was always keenly interested in all phases of military history and biography and was a great reader of memoirs and other works in this field. Besides the American Civil War, he was an authority on the campaigns of the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods.
Throughout his years at West Point Colonel Fiebeger kept in touch with important work then in progress in the Civil Engineering field. His close friendship with General George W. Goethals, his chum since Willet’s Point Days, made him especially interested in the development of the Panama Canal and he visited the Zone every summer during the construction period.
During his professorship Colonel Fiebeger was honored by selection to membership on the Board of Overseers of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth University. He was also on the Advisory Board on construction of new buildings at West Point during the renaissance of the Military Academy under Secretary Root and General Corbin after the conclusion of the War with Spain.
During the World War, he was sent to Europe as a special observer with the Expeditionary Forces. On his return, he wrote a textbook, Campaigns of the World War, another model of conciseness and accuracy.
On the occasion of his retirement he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal with the citation:
For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services in a position of great responsibility as head of the Department of Civil and Military Engineering, he for 26 years instructed, both personally and by text book, the officers of the Army in the principles of warfare, principles later fruitfully applied by many of these officers as commanders in the World War.
He was retired at the age of sixty-four on May 9, 1922. After a year spent in Europe he settled in Washington, where for a year he was on active duty with the Historical Section of the General Staff. The remainder of his life was spent at ease in his home, with occasional travel in this country and abroad.
Colonel Fiebeger was married on June 29, 1887, to Anna Perkins Upson, the daughter of Judge William H. Upson and Julia Ford Upson of Akron, Ohio. Judge Upson was a distinguished member of the Ohio judiciary and was named by President Lincoln as a member of a commission which resulted in the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Mrs. Fiebeger had her father’s dignity and intellect, but withal a charm and social tact that was a perfect complement to her husband’s serious absorption in his profession. Colonel Fiebeger had a genial smile and enjoyed a good game of chess or bridge, but he was eminently a scholar and had the scholar’s tendency to reserve. He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve. His wife’s talent, however, brought him during his leisure hours continuously into intimate contact with the cadets and officers around him and enabled them to esteem the value of his wisdom and to cultivate his friendship; so much that it became instinctive for his associate officers to consult him on important and perhaps troublesome and usually confidential matters that arose and which needed and received his calm and well considered advice. This habit persisted among them beyond the local field and only to his closest intimates is it known that his judgment was sought and oftentimes accepted in recent years upon questions of policy touching the welfare of the Military Academy; the results for our Alma Mater were happy.
We graduates of West Point who treasure Colonel Fiebeger’s friendship know how much of it we owe to Mrs. Fiebeger and we feel that in this memorial we honor him in rendering this homage to her. She died first, but was always associated with him in the minds of his friends and even after her death her spirit seemed to hover near him. Their only daughter, Julia Ford Fiebeger, remained with him and now remains with us.
Colonel Fiebeger was buried at West Point beside his wife. His pallbearers were members of the Academic Board, many of whom were personal friends who had served with him at West Point. They have placed on the records of the Board this tribute:
*** His ability to impart knowledge, to awaken interest and to stimulate effort marked him as an able and inspiring teacher. *** And fortunate were we to have been his associates and to have felt the charm of his personality. His sincerity, his lack of affectation, his tolerance and his sympathetic understanding won our confidence, esteem and lasting affection.
C.P.E., W.A.M.
USMA Class of 1879. Cullum No. 2764.
Seventy-First Annual Report of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 10, 1940, Moore Printing Co., Newburgh, New York
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger
No. 2764. Class of 1879.
Died October 18, 1939, in Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., aged 81 years.
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger was born May 9th, 1858, at Akron, Ohio. He was the younger of two sons of Joseph and Rosalie Fiebeger, who came to this country from their native Austria after the troubles of 1848 and settled in Akron.
He entered West Point on July 1st, 1875 and graduated on June 18th, 1879, as an additional Second Lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers. He was, by special request retained on duty at West Point as Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy until August 28th.
He became a Second Lieutenant on October 31st, 1879 and was sent in December to take the course of instruction in Civil and Military Engineering at the Post Graduate Engineer School of Application, which was at that time at Willet’s Point, Long Island, New York, now Fort Totten. Here he had the privilege of being a student under General Henry L. Abbot, a most distinguished engineer, who was called the Father of our Submarine Mine defense. The course at Willet’s Point included troop service with the Battalion of Engineers and practical training in company administration.
Upon graduation from Willet’s Point in June 1882 and after having become a First Lieutenant, Fiebeger reported as Engineer Officer of the Department of Arizona, where he was engaged in scouting parties against the Chiricahua Apaches and as an aide to General Crook, in expeditions throughout New Mexico, Arizona and the provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua in the Republic of Mexico, in pursuit of the Indian chief Geronimo and his associates.
In August 1883, he returned to West Point to serve five years, first as Instructor and later as Assistant Professor of Civil and Military Engineering. From West Point he went to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1888 to work on River and Harbor Improvement in Virginia and North Carolina.
In November 1891, as a Captain, he became Assistant to the Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia and while on this duty was appointed Secretary of the Rock Creek Park Commission, which was charged with the task of purchasing land for the park. The Commission included Mr. Lamont, then Secretary of War, General Casey of the Engineers and Professor Langley of airplane fame.
When a vacancy occurred in the Chair of Engineering at West Point in April 1896, the Secretary of War, who had fortunately been in close association with Captain Fiebeger, was able to state that Captain Fiebeger was especially equipped by personality, mentality and training to become Professor of Engineering at the Academy. He was thereupon appointed to the Professorship on May 4, 1896 and filled the office, as Lieutenant Colonel and later as Colonel, until his retirement.
Colonel Fiebeger first revised and later rewrote all the textbooks on Engineering and Military Art in use of the Academy. These texts are well known and cover the subjects of Civil Engineering, Field Fortification, Permanent Fortification, Elements of Strategy, Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg and Campaigns of the American Civil War. Each book bears his imprint of accuracy, clarity and facility of expression. His Civil Engineering was especially noteworthy in that he standardized and unified the symbols in the various sub branches of the subject of the subject in such a happy manner that his system is now employed in practically every Civil Engineering textbook in use, instead of the polyglot systems previously current.
His Campaigns of the American Civil War is still and probably will always remain, the most concise and accurate description of that Great War. Students of history have been heard to relate how they had ascertained exact details of certain parts of that conflict after laborious days of research and had then learned that Colonel Fiebeger had been over the whole ground and had included all these facts. He was always keenly interested in all phases of military history and biography and was a great reader of memoirs and other works in this field. Besides the American Civil War, he was an authority on the campaigns of the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods.
Throughout his years at West Point Colonel Fiebeger kept in touch with important work then in progress in the Civil Engineering field. His close friendship with General George W. Goethals, his chum since Willet’s Point Days, made him especially interested in the development of the Panama Canal and he visited the Zone every summer during the construction period.
During his professorship Colonel Fiebeger was honored by selection to membership on the Board of Overseers of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth University. He was also on the Advisory Board on construction of new buildings at West Point during the renaissance of the Military Academy under Secretary Root and General Corbin after the conclusion of the War with Spain.
During the World War, he was sent to Europe as a special observer with the Expeditionary Forces. On his return, he wrote a textbook, Campaigns of the World War, another model of conciseness and accuracy.
On the occasion of his retirement he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal with the citation:
For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services in a position of great responsibility as head of the Department of Civil and Military Engineering, he for 26 years instructed, both personally and by text book, the officers of the Army in the principles of warfare, principles later fruitfully applied by many of these officers as commanders in the World War.
He was retired at the age of sixty-four on May 9, 1922. After a year spent in Europe he settled in Washington, where for a year he was on active duty with the Historical Section of the General Staff. The remainder of his life was spent at ease in his home, with occasional travel in this country and abroad.
Colonel Fiebeger was married on June 29, 1887, to Anna Perkins Upson, the daughter of Judge William H. Upson and Julia Ford Upson of Akron, Ohio. Judge Upson was a distinguished member of the Ohio judiciary and was named by President Lincoln as a member of a commission which resulted in the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Mrs. Fiebeger had her father’s dignity and intellect, but withal a charm and social tact that was a perfect complement to her husband’s serious absorption in his profession. Colonel Fiebeger had a genial smile and enjoyed a good game of chess or bridge, but he was eminently a scholar and had the scholar’s tendency to reserve. He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve. His wife’s talent, however, brought him during his leisure hours continuously into intimate contact with the cadets and officers around him and enabled them to esteem the value of his wisdom and to cultivate his friendship; so much that it became instinctive for his associate officers to consult him on important and perhaps troublesome and usually confidential matters that arose and which needed and received his calm and well considered advice. This habit persisted among them beyond the local field and only to his closest intimates is it known that his judgment was sought and oftentimes accepted in recent years upon questions of policy touching the welfare of the Military Academy; the results for our Alma Mater were happy.
We graduates of West Point who treasure Colonel Fiebeger’s friendship know how much of it we owe to Mrs. Fiebeger and we feel that in this memorial we honor him in rendering this homage to her. She died first, but was always associated with him in the minds of his friends and even after her death her spirit seemed to hover near him. Their only daughter, Julia Ford Fiebeger, remained with him and now remains with us.
Colonel Fiebeger was buried at West Point beside his wife. His pallbearers were members of the Academic Board, many of whom were personal friends who had served with him at West Point. They have placed on the records of the Board this tribute:
*** His ability to impart knowledge, to awaken interest and to stimulate effort marked him as an able and inspiring teacher. *** And fortunate were we to have been his associates and to have felt the charm of his personality. His sincerity, his lack of affectation, his tolerance and his sympathetic understanding won our confidence, esteem and lasting affection.
C.P.E., W.A.M.
Seventy-First Annual Report of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 10, 1940, Moore Printing Co., Newburgh, New York
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger
No. 2764. Class of 1879.
Died October 18, 1939, in Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., aged 81 years.
Gustav Joseph Fiebeger was born May 9th, 1858, at Akron, Ohio. He was the younger of two sons of Joseph and Rosalie Fiebeger, who came to this country from their native Austria after the troubles of 1848 and settled in Akron.
He entered West Point on July 1st, 1875 and graduated on June 18th, 1879, as an additional Second Lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers. He was, by special request retained on duty at West Point as Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy until August 28th.
He became a Second Lieutenant on October 31st, 1879 and was sent in December to take the course of instruction in Civil and Military Engineering at the Post Graduate Engineer School of Application, which was at that time at Willet’s Point, Long Island, New York, now Fort Totten. Here he had the privilege of being a student under General Henry L. Abbot, a most distinguished engineer, who was called the Father of our Submarine Mine defense. The course at Willet’s Point included troop service with the Battalion of Engineers and practical training in company administration.
Upon graduation from Willet’s Point in June 1882 and after having become a First Lieutenant, Fiebeger reported as Engineer Officer of the Department of Arizona, where he was engaged in scouting parties against the Chiricahua Apaches and as an aide to General Crook, in expeditions throughout New Mexico, Arizona and the provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua in the Republic of Mexico, in pursuit of the Indian chief Geronimo and his associates.
In August 1883, he returned to West Point to serve five years, first as Instructor and later as Assistant Professor of Civil and Military Engineering. From West Point he went to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1888 to work on River and Harbor Improvement in Virginia and North Carolina.
In November 1891, as a Captain, he became Assistant to the Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia and while on this duty was appointed Secretary of the Rock Creek Park Commission, which was charged with the task of purchasing land for the park. The Commission included Mr. Lamont, then Secretary of War, General Casey of the Engineers and Professor Langley of airplane fame.
When a vacancy occurred in the Chair of Engineering at West Point in April 1896, the Secretary of War, who had fortunately been in close association with Captain Fiebeger, was able to state that Captain Fiebeger was especially equipped by personality, mentality and training to become Professor of Engineering at the Academy. He was thereupon appointed to the Professorship on May 4, 1896 and filled the office, as Lieutenant Colonel and later as Colonel, until his retirement.
Colonel Fiebeger first revised and later rewrote all the textbooks on Engineering and Military Art in use of the Academy. These texts are well known and cover the subjects of Civil Engineering, Field Fortification, Permanent Fortification, Elements of Strategy, Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg and Campaigns of the American Civil War. Each book bears his imprint of accuracy, clarity and facility of expression. His Civil Engineering was especially noteworthy in that he standardized and unified the symbols in the various sub branches of the subject of the subject in such a happy manner that his system is now employed in practically every Civil Engineering textbook in use, instead of the polyglot systems previously current.
His Campaigns of the American Civil War is still and probably will always remain, the most concise and accurate description of that Great War. Students of history have been heard to relate how they had ascertained exact details of certain parts of that conflict after laborious days of research and had then learned that Colonel Fiebeger had been over the whole ground and had included all these facts. He was always keenly interested in all phases of military history and biography and was a great reader of memoirs and other works in this field. Besides the American Civil War, he was an authority on the campaigns of the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods.
Throughout his years at West Point Colonel Fiebeger kept in touch with important work then in progress in the Civil Engineering field. His close friendship with General George W. Goethals, his chum since Willet’s Point Days, made him especially interested in the development of the Panama Canal and he visited the Zone every summer during the construction period.
During his professorship Colonel Fiebeger was honored by selection to membership on the Board of Overseers of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth University. He was also on the Advisory Board on construction of new buildings at West Point during the renaissance of the Military Academy under Secretary Root and General Corbin after the conclusion of the War with Spain.
During the World War, he was sent to Europe as a special observer with the Expeditionary Forces. On his return, he wrote a textbook, Campaigns of the World War, another model of conciseness and accuracy.
On the occasion of his retirement he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal with the citation:
For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services in a position of great responsibility as head of the Department of Civil and Military Engineering, he for 26 years instructed, both personally and by text book, the officers of the Army in the principles of warfare, principles later fruitfully applied by many of these officers as commanders in the World War.
He was retired at the age of sixty-four on May 9, 1922. After a year spent in Europe he settled in Washington, where for a year he was on active duty with the Historical Section of the General Staff. The remainder of his life was spent at ease in his home, with occasional travel in this country and abroad.
Colonel Fiebeger was married on June 29, 1887, to Anna Perkins Upson, the daughter of Judge William H. Upson and Julia Ford Upson of Akron, Ohio. Judge Upson was a distinguished member of the Ohio judiciary and was named by President Lincoln as a member of a commission which resulted in the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Mrs. Fiebeger had her father’s dignity and intellect, but withal a charm and social tact that was a perfect complement to her husband’s serious absorption in his profession. Colonel Fiebeger had a genial smile and enjoyed a good game of chess or bridge, but he was eminently a scholar and had the scholar’s tendency to reserve. He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve. His wife’s talent, however, brought him during his leisure hours continuously into intimate contact with the cadets and officers around him and enabled them to esteem the value of his wisdom and to cultivate his friendship; so much that it became instinctive for his associate officers to consult him on important and perhaps troublesome and usually confidential matters that arose and which needed and received his calm and well considered advice. This habit persisted among them beyond the local field and only to his closest intimates is it known that his judgment was sought and oftentimes accepted in recent years upon questions of policy touching the welfare of the Military Academy; the results for our Alma Mater were happy.
We graduates of West Point who treasure Colonel Fiebeger’s friendship know how much of it we owe to Mrs. Fiebeger and we feel that in this memorial we honor him in rendering this homage to her. She died first, but was always associated with him in the minds of his friends and even after her death her spirit seemed to hover near him. Their only daughter, Julia Ford Fiebeger, remained with him and now remains with us.
Colonel Fiebeger was buried at West Point beside his wife. His pallbearers were members of the Academic Board, many of whom were personal friends who had served with him at West Point. They have placed on the records of the Board this tribute:
*** His ability to impart knowledge, to awaken interest and to stimulate effort marked him as an able and inspiring teacher. *** And fortunate were we to have been his associates and to have felt the charm of his personality. His sincerity, his lack of affectation, his tolerance and his sympathetic understanding won our confidence, esteem and lasting affection.
C.P.E., W.A.M.
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