1781; the Marechaussee Corps at the end of the Revolution in 1783—their functions as well as their extraordinary mobility and communications capability established a legacy for the provost units that would follow.
No other military police units were formally organized in the U.S. Army until the outbreak of the Civil War, although commanders during that extended period often detailed certain officers and men to perform similar functions. This method, deemed unsatisfactory in many respects, nevertheless helped maintain order and discipline during the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and frequent clashes with Indian tribes along the frontier.
Increasingly during this period the Army came to assume new responsibilities that called for units capable of extending national security authority along the new nation's frontiers. Serving essentially as military police, federal troops played a vital role throughout the settlement of the trans-Appalachian West. Because of the proximity of Army outposts and the general scarcity of civil law enforcement authority, settlers looked to the military as the primary source of law and order.
Not only were federal units used to police many of the towns and lines of communications along the new American frontier, they also assumed responsibility for quelling some of the civil disturbances which occurred during the period. An important example of federal troops being used in this manner occurred in the summer of 1794 during the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. Faced with a large-scale threat to law and order by farmers in western Pennsylvania who were up in arms against the newly imposed excise tax on whiskey, President Washington ordered the federalization of militia units, which marched in force to the scene of the troubles.[1] While not military police in the strict sense of the term, these troops assumed police duties, made numerous arrests, and occupied several counties, performing provost marshal functions that would become standard in the future.
A commander's military police responsibilities received greater recognition in 1821 when the War Department tried, through a series of general regulations, to establish a uniformity of organizations within the Army. Article 58 of these regulations, entitled "General Police," outlined the duties of military police and recommended that commanders select personnel of superior intelligence and physical ability to perform these duties. Significantly, throughout the Army's history these qualities have always been identified as prerequisites for the soldiers selected to perform military police duties. But the regulation made no provision for special training for these provost troops, nor did it order the organization of military police units, maintaining that military police forces would, in usual circumstances, be assigned temporary status within larger military organizations.[2]
The Civil War created an urgent need for provost marshals and military police units within the federal Army. As early as 18 July 1861, Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, the Union Army's first field commander, authorized the commander of each regiment in the Department of Northeastern Virginia to select a commissioned officer as regimental provost marshal along with a permanent guard often enlisted men. McDowell was responding to reports of widespread
- ↑ For a recent account of the Whiskey Rebellion that describes the development of this military police function in great detail, see Robert W. Coakley, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1789–1878 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1988), pp. 28–68.
- ↑ Article 58, General Regulations for the United States Army, 1821.
