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The legislative origins of the twentieth century American Army
Abstract
For more than twenty years after Reconstruction the United States Army was, organizationally and numerically, in a condition of stasis. Throughout this period military reformers sought to change both conditions to no avail. Congress, Republican and Democrat, sat solidly on the status quo. Yet by 1903 America's legislators had not only permitted radical changes in the Army's organization, but had quadrupled its size. The events that altered congressional thinking occurred during a legislative watershed era between March, 1898 and February, 1901. Beginning with an overnight requirement to build an overseas Army for the Spanish-American War and ending with a need to control far flung colonies after the Philippine-American War congressional attitudes underwent a sea change. The Army's operational activities during these three years have been extensively examined, as has the impact of presidential policy upon the use of that organization. Congress' role in the development of new military policy during the era, however, has received scant attention. That perspective is the focus of this dissertation. To meet the new realities Congress readjusted its thinking on military policy during the debate over five major and six supplemental Army bills. The route to an enlarged and reorganized Army was not a straight, logical progression to a well understood policy goal, but was more often a response to social or political pressures that overrode military logic. Despite frequent setbacks a group of "Civil War Era," pro-reform congressmen led by the Chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs, John A. T. Hull, maintained a clear vision of the ultimate objectives and continuously realigned congressional direction when it wandered off course. This study concludes that the landmark passage of the 1903 "General Staff" Act was not just the result of a new generation of young leaders (civil and military) with new views coming to power, but the product of three years' concerted effort by a congressional "old guard" that had finally accepted the necessity for a modern American Army.
Subject Area
American history|Political science
Recommended Citation
Sherrard, William Ancel, "The legislative origins of the twentieth century American Army" (1993). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9415995.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9415995