U.S. Major General Robert "Fighting Bob" Alexander. Often credited as the savior of the Eastern Theater in GWI, he was the commander of the U.S. 6th Infantry Division in the opening days of the war. Though his primary mission was to secure Baltimore, he constantly sought a way to take the fight to the Confederates. That opportunity came in August 1914. General Alexander noticed how the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (AoNVA), in its haste to push on to Philadelphia, had left its left flank unsecured. He would repeatedly communicate to Philadelphia the need for more troops, to "upset the current strategic situation." General Alexander was constantly rebuffed by the War Department with the rationale that the Susquehanna defensive line would be more than adequate to stop the AoNVA. Infuriated that he was being denied a potential strategic windfall, he telegraphed his opinions to the War Department in, as his aide would later say, "words that would make a conventry of nuns blush." By happenstance, President Theodore Roosevelt was visiting the War Department that day and saw General Alexander's message come through. In the next few weeks, General Alexander would receive two additional division and be promoted to commanding general of the newly activated U.S. Fifth Corps.
With these new reinforcements, General Alexander would attack the left flank of the AoNVA in October, 1914. That attack, in combination with the stout U.S. defense on the Susquehanna would end the threat to Philadelphia and force the Confederacy retreat. General Alexander would command the Fifth Corps from October, 1915 to December, 1916 as it liberated the Confederate held parts of Maryland. He would be promoted to command of the U.S. 7th Army in January, 1917. He would command the 7th Army during the U.S. invasion of Northern Virginia in the spring of 1917. Elements of the 7th Army would occupy Fredericksburg, Virginia in June, 1917; General Alexander himself would raise the stars and stripes over the city. Following the war, General Alexander would command U.S. occupation forces in the annexed parts of Northern Virginia. His attempts to pacify the region were generally successful, as he encouraged residents from West Virginia and Maryland to move area. He served until 19 when he requested retirement. In retirement, he would rail against the Sinclair and Blackford Administrations for lenient on the Confederacy. When Jake Featherson came top power in 1933, General Alexander stated to a friend: "If the U.S. isn't at war in 10 years, then I'll eat a boot." When the Confederacy invaded Ohio in 1941, General Alexander stated: "I'm sad to have been right, and wish I would be eating my boot." Although he volunteered for service, the War Department denied him due to poor health. General Alexander would be killed during a Confederate air raid on Baltimore in 1941.
Following GWII, Fort Alexander in Maryland would be named for him.
