Arthur L. Wagner

Arthur Lockwood Wagner (March 16, 1853 – June 17, 1905) was a United States brigadier general and military instructor.

Biography

Born in Ottawa, Illinois, Wagner graduated from West Point in 1875 near the bottom of his class with a commission in the infantry. While serving on the frontier, Wagner saw action during campaigns against the Sioux and Nez Perce from 1876 until 1877, and the Utes in 1881. Entering military education while assigned as a professor of military science and tactics at the Louisiana State University and East Florida Seminary, Wagner would win high praise from the Military Service Institution of the United States, and greatly increased his prominence as one of the leading military scholars, for his monograph The Military Necessities of the United States, and the Best Method of Meeting Them in 1884.

Following his transfer to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas the next year, Wagner accepted a personal request by the commandant of the United States Infantry and Cavalry School to be an assistant instructor of tactics and the military arts. During this time, as the Infantry and Cavalry School became an official military training school with the establishment of regulations and training programs in 1888, Wagner would author several important military textbooks including The Campaign of Koniggratz (1889) and Organization and Tactics (1895).

Promoted to captain in 1892, Wagner was named head of the Military Arts Department two years later. Promoted to major in 1896, Wagner was transferred to the adjutant general's office of the War Department as Chief of the Military Information Division.