Forrest Carlisle Pogue Jr. (1912–1996). Forrest C. Pogue was an official United States Army historian during World War II, and attained the rank of Master Sergeant. He may well have been one of the best-educated sergeants in the U.S. Army in World War II. He was a proponent of oral history techniques, and collected many oral histories from the war under the direction of chief Army historian S. L. A. Marshall.
Forrest Pogue was for many years the Executive Director of the George C. Marshall Foundation as well as Director of the Marshall Library located on the campus of Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia. Pogue's wife Christine (Brown) Pogue was the artist who painted the portrait of General George Marshall that hangs in the entry of the Marshall Library.
For many years, he was considered one of the six great historians of the world.[1]
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Forrest Carlisle Pogue Jr. (1912–1996) was born on September 17, 1912. He was the eldest son, out of six children, of Forrest and Fannie Pogue. Pogue and his siblings were brought up through the early years of the twentieth century, through World War I and the Great Depression. During those years, he experienced the good, but harsh life of rural people living in and around the small towns of Dycusburg and Frances, located in Crittenden County, Kentucky. His grandparents, Marion Forrest and Betty Matthews Pogue, owned property in Frances and a farm that enabled them to scratch out a living. Experiencing first hand the world of hard work, Forrest Pogue Jr. learned at an early age how to provide for himself and others.
At a very young age, he exhibited the academic promise that was to be his calling. Because of the intellect and the early age tutoring from his mother and grandfather, he moved quickly to advanced classes, which enabled him to graduate from high school and the age of fourteen. Money was scarce at the time, so he was unable to attend college his first year out of high school, but he managed to enroll at Murray State Teachers College in Murray, Kentucky the next year. At the age of eighteen, he had earned a bachelor's degree at Murray State Teachers College; at nineteen, he had a Master's degree in European history from the University of Kentucky; and at twenty-four, he had a Ph.D. in European history from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1937-38, he studied at the University of Paris and observed firsthand the rise of Nazism in Germany and was able to feel the effect those events had on the people of France and Europe. He also learned to speak and understand the French language fluently, which proved valuable to the American troops with whom he served. He left France and returned to the United States in 1939, just as Hitler and his Wehrmacht invaded Poland. He joined the faculty at Western Kentucky College and a year later became a teacher at Murray State Teachers College.[2]
Pogue's first time at the Normal School was as a student. After graduation, he returned to the school to fill a deficiency in the number of teachers the school had, along with another graduate student, Carman M. Graham. Both were meant to be employed only for a summer, but their work was so satisfactory that they were hired to be permanent staff members.[3]
With the declaration of war against Japan and Germany in December 1941, thousands of young American men and women volunteered for or were drafted into the armed forces. Pogue served in the European theater of operations. He returned home virtually unscratched, although he had been in harm's way many times. Pogue was selected to be a combat historian and served with V Corps. During D-Day, June 7, 1944, Pogue was aboard a hospital ship off Omaha Beach, interviewing the wounded about their recent experiences in battle. He went ashore at Omaha Beach on June 8, 1944 and continued to interview these troops until the end of the war. He became the first historian of D-Day. He lived in the field at or near the front from D-Day until after the breakout at Saint-Lo during the Battle of Normandy, and entered Paris very soon after the Allies recaptured that famous city. He returned to the field in September in time to record the Battle of Hürtgen Forest and then experienced the famous Battle of the Bulge. He was present at Torgau, Germany, when the U.S. army met the Soviet Red Army. Pogue was one of the first witnesses to part of the holocaust that had taken place at Buchenwald concentration camp. After the Germans surrendered in May 1945, he was ordered back to Paris to start writing the history that had been collected by the combat historians.[4]
Dr. Pogue mentored another WWII historian and author, Stephen Ambrose.[5] Pogue is perhaps best known for his authorized biography of WWII general George Marshall. He also authored the official WWII history of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, titled The Supreme Command. Another book he wrote was Pogue's War, Diaries of a Combat Historian. This book is an account of what is seen through the eyes of a historian and a GI. Pogue covered the American Armies V Corps campaign in Europe from the embarkation docks of Cornwall to Omaha Beach (D+3), the hedgerow battles in Normandy, the Saint-Lo breakout, the Liberation of Paris, the bloody battle for the Huertgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen, Germany, and the meeting of the American and Soviet Red Armies at Torgau.[6]
The original library, on the campus of Murray State University (Murray, Kentucky), was completed in 1931 at the discretion of the first president of the college, John Wesley Carr. It's a three-story building located on the southern end of campus before coming to Sparks Hall. The library was designed by G. Tandy Smith from Paducah, Kentucky in the Renaissance Revival style. The first library, known as the Normal School Library, was located in the local high school, as the Normal School campus only housed two buildings at that time.
Pogue Library was named after Forrest C. Pogue. Considered to be one of the most handsome buildings in the south, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The school faced ridicule, however, because it was rumored that the doors on the east and west entrance cost $40,000. However, the brass doors cost only $14,000. Since the doors were constructed, they have never had to be replaced, and they are not expected to require maintenance for years to come.[7]
At the opening of the normal school library, there were two books in circulation - the Holy Bible and Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. By April 1924, approximately $300 had been expended for library Recollections of Murray State College.[8] On May 9, 1924, Imogene Greenaway of Louisville, Kentucky, was appointed librarian for a period of two months. Miss Greenaway was a trained librarian and at the time of her appointment was connected with the city library of Louisville. She was granted leave of absence during her stay at Murray. Under her supervision, the Dewey Decimal System of cataloging was adopted. By the end of the summer of 1924, more than 2,000 volumes of books were available in the library.[8] October 1980,FORREST C. POGUE LIBRARY DEDICATION Murray State University honored an outstanding alumnus and an eminent military historian when the Forrest C. Pogue Special Collections Library was dedicated on 26 April 1980. AMI Vice- President Edward M. Coffman gave the dedication address. A beautiful building with elegant brass doors, the Pogue Library houses the Legal Resources Collection and the Department of Library Science, in addition to the Special Collections, which feature materials on the history and culture of western Kentucky and the surrounding region as well as the university archives. Forrest Pogue, Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Dwight D. Eisenhower Institute for Historical Research, has had a wide-ranging and distinguished career. His important con- tributions to oral history have been recognized throughout the world, but he is probably best known for his excellent multi- volume biography of General George C. Marshall. Dr. Pogue was President of the American Military Institute from 1973 to 1975 and served on the AMI Board of Trustees.Forrest C. Pogue, Director of the Eisenhower Institute for Re- search at the National Museum of History and Technology, re- ceived the first annual award for outstanding, unique and con- tinuing contributions to oral history presented by Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region at its joint meeting with the Smithsonian Archives in November 1979. The award, to be presented annually to an outstanding scholar in the field, will be named after Pogue.> Title: Institute News Author(s): Romana Danysh Source: Military Affairs, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Oct., 1980), pp. 144–147 Publisher(s): Society for Military History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1987441
In 1978, the building was converted to the Special Collections Library for Murray State University. In 1980 it was rededicated in honor of Forrest C. Pogue, a former professor and Alumnus of the University. The library houses special collections relating to the history and culture of Western Kentucky and neighboring states. Included in these special collections are an extensive collection of materials pertaining to local history and genealogy, approximately 10,000 reels of microfilm containing census records held by the National Archives, Civil War pension and service files, as well as several local & regional newspapers. It also includes materials relating to local history during the Civil War as well as the 20th Century War and a Diplomacy Collection that includes personal books and papers of Dr. Pogue.
The current Special Collection & Archive Librarian at Pogue is Dieter Ulrich.[9]
In 2006, Pogue was honored in Marion, Kentucky with a memorial marker in front of the library there.[1]
Pogue was responsible for many war-related educational books, such as The Revolutionary Transformation of the Art of War and The Monroe Doctrine and the League of Nations.
Burial: Frances Presbyterian Church Cemetery Frances Crittenden County Kentucky, USA Birth: Sep. 17, 1912 Crittenden County Kentucky, USA Death: Oct. 6, 1996 Kentucky, USA [10]
Pogue Library's hours of operation are 8:00 am – 4:30 pm Mondays through Fridays.
Located at 817 N 12th St. Murray, KY 42071
Murray State Directory: (270) 809-3011 [11]
A partial list of books: