Funston, Frederick, 1865–1917, U.S. general, b. New Carlisle, Ohio. He was a newspaper reporter and a field agent (1888–95) of the Dept. of Agriculture, exploring Death Valley and the Yukon. Love of adventure led him to enlist in the army of Máximo Gómez y Báez to help win Cuban independence from Spain. As a result of this experience, he was called to head a Kansas regiment in the Spanish-American War. Although his troops took no active part in the war itself, they were sent to the Philippine Islands to help put down the insurrection there. When his army discharge papers were already made out, Funston by a daring feat captured the insurgent leader, Emilio Aguinaldo. Instead of leaving the army he became a brigadier general. In 1914 when U.S. troops entered the city of Veracruz, he was given command of the occupying troops, and as major general he commanded later in wars on the Mexican border. He wrote Memories of Two Wars (1911).
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