David Lloyd George access to the Cabinet so as to bypass Kitchener. However, he did succeed in securing the appointment of Sir Eric Geddes to take charge of military railways behind British lines in France, with the honorary rank of major-general. Lloyd George told a journalist, Roy W. Howard, in late September that "the fight must be to a finish – to a knockout", a rejection of President Wilson's offer to mediate. Lloyd George was increasingly frustrated at the limited gains of the Somme Offensive, criticising General Haig to Ferdinand Foch on a visit to the Western Front in September (British casualty ratios
Benjamin Lloyd Beall would remain for the next 18 years. Beall was born in 1801 in Washington, D.C., the son of Lloyd Beall, a career artillery officer in the United States Army. Benjamin Beall was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point on January 1, 1814. Beall would recount how he arrived at the Military Academy a brash youth, fully "equipped with a pointer and a liquor flask." Beall described his new cadet uniform as consisting of an "embroidered coat, tights, high top boots with tassels, cocked hat & sword" and mentioned how he almost got into a fist-fight in