Recovering a Lost History: Colonel (Retired) Thomas R. Stone and the Unwritten Biography of General William H. Simpson

Abstract

General William H. Simpson served as commander of Ninth US Army during the Second World War but remains one of the only American field army commanders from that war without a published biography. Colonel (Retired) Thomas R. Stone, PhD, intended to write a biography of General Simpson after completion of his master’s and doctoral degrees at Rice University, but never completed it, leaving one to wonder why. The author’s search for an answer to this question has yielded a trove of previously lost archival data, a fruitful collaboration, and several insights about the unique nature of the path to historian and practice of history for the current or former US Army officer.