in the service of the United States, except twenty-five privates to guard the stores at Fort Pitt and fifty-five to guard the stores at West Point and other magazines with a proportionable number of officers,” no officer to remain in service above the rank of captain.
War with a civilized power was no sooner ended than the need of provision against Indian hostilities became apparent; the Articles of Confederation framed for protection against the greater danger were found ineffective in dealing with the lesser evil. The recommendations of Congress fell upon deaf ears: each State was busy with its own immediate affairs, and the Continental legislature was compelled (June 3, 1784) to augment its nucleus of 80 enlisted men by the enrollment and equipment of a small regiment of foot soldiers; later (October 20, 1786), a battalion of artillery was added, and so by degrees the nucleus of a national force was formed which in 1788 amounted to 595 men, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General Josiah Harmar.
The establishment of a permanent land force for the national defense, otherwise known as the ‘Regular Army,’ legally dates from March, 1789, a few weeks before the inauguration of Washington as President under the Federal Constitution. The troops then in service already mentioned, now became the ‘Regiment of Infantry’ and ‘Battalion of Artillery,’ and eventually (1791) became known as the First Regiment of Infantry (Lieutenant-Colonel Harmar) and the Battalion of Artillery (Major Doughty), respectively.
Generals Commanding the Army of the United States
from the Founding of the Republic
| From | To | |
| George Washington[1] | 1775 | 1783 |
| Henry Knox[1] | 1783 | 1784 |
| Josiah Harmar[2] | 1788 | 1791 |
| Arthur St. Clair[1] | 1791 | 1796 |
| James Wilkinson[1] | 1796 | 1798 |
| George Washington[3] | 1798 | 1799 |
| James Wilkinson[2] | 1800 | 1812 |
| Henry Dearborn[1] | 1812 | 1815 |
| Jacob Brown[1] | 1815 | 1828 |
| Alexander Macomb[1] | 1828 | 1841 |
| Winfield Scott[1] | 1841 | 1861 |
| George B. McClellan[1] | 1861 | 1862 |
| Henry W. Halleck[1] | 1862 | 1864 |
| Ulysses S Grant[3] | 1864 | 1869 |
| William T. Sherman[3] | 1869 | 1883 |
| Philip H. Sheridan[3] | 1883 | 1888 |
| John M. Schofield[4] | 1888 | 1895 |
| Nelson A. Miles[4] | 1895 | 1903 |
| S. B. M. Young[4] | 1903 | 1903 |
For more than one hundred years after that date, the army served as the strong right arm of the Government: now engaged in holding back the Indians from border settlements; exploring unknown wilds and planting the flag for the honor and glory of the young nation; protecting the hardy settler and the advance guard of science; standing between the peace-loving citizen and the murderous mob; and in five wars forming the back-bone of the great forces called out to meet the emergencies. Withal, the Regular Army performed these varied duties quietly but effectually. It produced Grant, Lee, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Jackson, and a host of able commanders of less renown, but yet distinguished on the roll of fame. The conspicuous traits of the American regular are his individuality, fertility of resource, and unswerving loyalty to his Government; the officers especially exhibiting, since the Spanish-American War, an unexampled capacity for the administration of civil affairs, assuming at a moment's notice duties ranging in importance from those of Governor-General and Judge of the Supreme Court to collector of customs and chief of police, and discharging them with marked ability and fidelity.
The Staff. Next to the training and equipment of the line and the selection of competent leaders, the question of a general staff early received the attention of the Board of War. The value of the services of the foreign officers who as volunteers organized, drilled, and inspected the army and aided materially in achieving the success of the American operations had deeply impressed Washington, who upon the eve (1798) of his resuming the command of the army thus addressed the Secretary of War: “In forming an army, if a judicious choice is not made of the principal officers, and above all, of the general staff, it can never be rectified thereafter. The character then of the army would be lost in the superstructure. The reputation of the commander-in-chief would sink with it and the country be involved in inextricable expense.”
The first general staff officers appointed by Washington upon assuming command at Cambridge (1775) were an adjutant-general (Horatio Gates), a quartermaster-general (Thomas Mifflin), and a commissary-general (Joseph Trumbull). Under them from time to time during the war were temporarily appointed officers of the line as assistants. As far back as 1777, the Continental Congress had “Resolved, * * that it is essential to the promotion of discipline in the American army and to the reformation of the various abuses which prevail in the various departments that an appointment be made of inspectors general, agreeable to the practice of the best disciplined European armies.” The first practical result of this action was shown in the selection of Baron Steuben, who may justly be considered the originator of much that is admirable in the staff system of the United States army. Although he had held the rank of lieutenant-general in the Prussian Army, he did not hesitate to serve at first as a volunteer, pending his appointment as inspector-general with rank of major-general (May 5, 1778).
At the close of the war Baron Steuben resigned his commission, receiving the thanks of Congress “for the great zeal and abilities he has discovered in the discharge of the several duties of his office,” together with the gift of a ‘gold-hilted sword.’ Toward the close of his life Steuben prepared a manual of “Regulations for the order and discipline of the troops of the United States,” and for governing the militia (Portsmouth, N. H., 1794), still a model of its kind.
Although, from time to time during the American Revolution, suitable persons were appointed to perform staff duties, yet the existing staff departments date their permanent establishment as follows: Adjutant-general's, March 3, 1813; inspector-general's, March 3, 1813: judge advocate-general's (Bureau of Military Justice, 1864), July 5, 1884; quartermaster's, March 28, 1812; subsistence, April 14, 1818; medical, April 14,
