ARTHUR LOCKWOOD WAGNER
WAGNER, ARTHUR LOCKWOOD, United States army officer, was born in Ottawa, Illinois, March 16, 1853. His parents were Joseph Henry and Gertrude Matilda (Hapeman) Wagner. His father was a surveyor. The earliest ancestor of the family in this country was Peter Wagner, a native of the Bavarian Palatinate, who settled in the Mohawk Valley, New York, in 1710. Of the five paternal ancestors in this country, four served in its various wars.
The early years of the life of Arthur Lockwood Wagner were passed in the small city in which he was born. As a boy his health was good. He was fond of reading and of the common out-of-door sports of boys. His mother had been left a widow with but limited means for support, and when he was thirteen years old he left the public schools and commenced work as clerk in a store. He continued his studies without a teacher until, at the age of seventeen, he received an appointment to the United States military academy at West Point, from which institution he was graduated in 1875. He commenced active field service (with the rank of second lieutenant) on the frontier, and served in various Indian campaigns in 1876-77 and 1881. He was professor of military science and tactics at the East Florida seminary in Gainesville, Florida, 1882-85, and was stationed at Fort Douglas, Utah, in 1885-86. In the year last named he was appointed instructor in the art of war at the United States infantry and cavalry school, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
While holding this position he visited Europe to investigate the military methods, schools and organizations of Germany, and to study the topography of the great battlefields in Germany, Austria, France and Belgium. In 1897 he was placed in charge of the military information division of the war department at Washington. In the meantime he had passed through the grades of first lieutenant and captain of infantry and major in the adjutant general's department, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel February 26, 1898. In the war with Spain he served on the staff of General Miles,
