Henry Pinckney McCain
United States general (1861–1941)

Henry Pinckney McCain (January 23, 1861 – July 25, 1941) was an American military officer who was Adjutant General of the United States Army from 1914 to 1918. He held the rank of Major General.
Early life
McCain was born in Carroll County, Mississippi, on January 23, 1861, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. McCain. He was born during the brief period of time between Mississippi's secession from the United States and its joining the Confederate States of America shortly before the beginning of the American Civil War. McCain's relatives included William A. McCain (1878–1960) and John S. McCain Sr., who were his nephews.
He graduated, 20th in a class of 37, from the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, in June 1885. Among his classmates there included several men who would later rise to the rank of brigadier general or higher in their military careers, such as Joseph E. Kuhn, Charles H. Muir, John D. Barrette, Robert A. Brown, John M. Carson, Willard A. Holbrook, Robert Michie, Robert L. Bullard, Daniel B. Devore, Beaumont B. Buck, and William F. Martin. Upon graduating, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Shaw, Montana.
“Henry Pinckney McCain” enters the record as united States general (1861–1941). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Henry, Pinckney and McCain can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry Pinckney McCain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.