John Henry Parker is a name that often does not rise to the top during discussions of Missourians who made contributions to national defense.
This former soldier from the Show-Me State, however, began his professional life as a teacher and business owner before joining the military. He later studied law and then become a recognized expert on the application of machine guns in combat.
“The Illustrated History of Tipton, Missouri,” printed in 2008, explained Parker was born in Tipton on Sept. 19, 1866, moving with his “family to Clarksburg when he was a young boy …”
A young Parker trained as a printer’s devil while also working as a school teacher in Pettis County. In 1887, he became half-owner in a newspaper in Henry County called the “Calhoun Gleaner.” It was during this time frame he also chose to apply for an esteemed opportunity.
“Fifteen applicants from the Sixth Congressional District met at Sedalia a few days since, and underwent a competitive examination for the appointment of a cadet to the West Point Military Academy,” wrote the La Plata Home Press on Aug. 19, 1887. “John H. Parker, a school teacher from Green Ridge … was chosen, his grade being 8.35 in a total of 10.”
The following year, he entered the academy graduated in the class of 1892, scoring 49th in a class of 60 cadets. Following his graduation, he married Ida Burr of Sedalia. The new U.S. Army lieutenant was transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was later assigned to the 13th Infantry for special recruiting duty that carried him briefly back to Missouri.
Prior to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Parker demonstrated an academic inclination by studying law in his rare spare moments. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1896 but never practiced law; instead, he began to explore the combat application of a specific type of military weapon.
“So Parker drew up and submitted to the War Department the first outline ever conceived of the correct tactical employment of the machine gun in warfare,” explained a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article from Jan. 31, 1915. “It should advance on the offensive with the skirmish line itself … and should go wherever the infantry should go.”
Many military leaders of the period scoffed at Parker’s suggestion, but during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the value of the machine gun was revealed to the naysayers. It was during this conflict he was placed in command of a small machine gun detachment.
“During the fighting at El Caney, Parker’s men engaged four Gatlings, each carrying 10,000 rounds of ammunition …” explained the “Historical Dictionary of the Spanish-American War.” It continued, “At a distance of 600 to 800 yards, the guns fired 500 shots a minute upon the Spanish blockhouses at San Juan Hill.”
The authors went on to explain, “With the assistance of the 10th Cavalry and Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, the Gatlings flushed the Spaniards from their trenches. … After the war, the Gatling received enormous praise for the important role it played in the conflict.”
Theodore Roosevelt applauded Parker for his command of the Gatlings and maintained the machine-gun detachment deserved credit for the success of the campaign.
A few years later, Parker was appointed commander of the first Provisional Machine Gun Company of the U.S. Army. A biographical register from West Point notes that in August 1910, he was assigned to Kemper Military School in Boonville, spending nearly the next three years as the professor of military science and tactics.
By 1914, Maj. Parker was assigned to the Eighth Infantry and was serving in the Philippines. Then, in 1916, he was transferred to the 24th Infantry and served several months along the Mexican border during the Punitive Expedition as a judge advocate. When World War I unfolded in Europe, he was able to travel to Europe and share his knowledge of effective usage of the machine gun.
“In World War I … Parker was assigned to Gen. Pershing’s staff as a machine gun expert and went to France, organizing the A.E.F. Automatic Weapons School at Langress,” reported the St. Louis Star and Times on Oct. 14, 1942.
“He was thrice wounded in action,” the newspaper clarified. “Holder of many medals and service crosses … Parker was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with two oak leaves and in 1923 was awarded another leaf, making him the only holder of three oak leaves in the U.S. Army.”
When returning stateside after the war, Gen. Parker commanded the recruiting office in St. Louis and was later appointed commander of Jefferson Barracks. He made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 1922, and retired from the Army two years later.
“Gatling Gun” Parker, a name he earned during the Spanish-American War, lost his first wife in 1931. Four years later, he married Bertha Bortell. The combat veteran was 76 years old when he died in 1942, leaving behind a son and daughter from his first marriage.
He received a hero’s burial in the San Francisco National Cemetery.
“Long before the war with Spain … Parker grasped the tactical value of the machine gun, and became so insistently an advocate of the weapon that he talked about it upon every possible occasion,” noted a June 9, 1916, article in the Shannon County Democrat.
Summarizing his persistence in demonstrating the effectiveness of the machine gun, the aforementioned article added, “But his enthusiasm and theories have been fully justified, first by the work of his machine gun detachment in the Spanish-American War, and now, even more fully, by the developments of the great conflict in Europe.”
Jeremy P. Ämick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America.