Commemorating 232 Years of Service to the Nation

Army,  Jun 2007  by Nelson, Harold W

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

June 14, 2007, marks the Army's 232nd birthday. Our soldiers are fully engaged around the globe, so few may pause to remark on the special day. Unfortunately, when we look back over the Army's long history, that condition is not unusual-the bulk of our Army has served in distant outposts throughout most of its years.

If we look back to 1807, the Army had no "bulk." Total strength (officers and enlisted) was only 2,775. Harbor defenses were neglected, the frontier had inadequate garrisons and there were no resources for exploration (even though the nation glowed with pride on reading the reports of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which were widely circulated in the year following their return from the Pacific coast). The situation in Europe looked grim: Napoleon followed up his 1806 victories over the Prussians at Jena and Auerstedt with victories over the Russians at Eylau and Friedland, with the latter battle falling on the Army's 32nd birthday.

Americans began to wake up to the fact that they lived in a dangerous world, and the new year would see authorizations to expand the Army to 10,000. But authorizations are seldom matched by appropriations, and massive expansions are difficult, so the Army only doubled in size in ensuing months. The numbers were still laughably small by European standards, but capabilities began to improve.

Jumping forward 50 years, the Army had fought the British (not the French) in the War of 1812, struggled with the Indians in the Seminole Wars and many less protracted affairs on the frontier, conducted expeditionary operations in the Mexican-American War and had grown to a total strength of nearly 16,000 soldiers.

In 1857 a war in Utah was averted by careful negotiation after Mormon settlers had captured and burned supply trains serving the Army and then prepared their militia for armed resistance. Conditions were much worse in "Bleeding Kansas," where the Army was overstretched in attempting to maintain order as abolitionists and slaveholders resorted to violence in campaigns of intimidation, assassination and revenge. Back East, soldiers were summoned to several large cities to help police disperse mobs of unemployed workers after the financial panic of 1857.

The Army still had little bulk. Small coastal artillery garrisons manned harbor defenses, small detachments were scattered along the frontier and teams of topographical engineers mapped vast regions. Many infantrymen were becoming familiar with a new weapon: the model 1855 Springfield rifled musket, a muzzle-loader firing an expansible bullet. This was the famous "minnie ball rifle" of the War of the Rebellion and was the high-tech innovation of its day.

When we skip to 1907 we find Army units that have added streamers from the Civil War, lots more campaigns against the Indians, the SpanishAmerican War and the Philippine Insurrection. The Army then numbered 64,170, reflecting the increased manning required for policing an overseas empire, but down from nearly 69,000 the previous year because the fighting in the Philippines had virtually ended. Viewed from the national level, the Army was beginning to take a modern structure as the Root Reforms made provisions for a General Staff and an Army Chief of Staff, who would report to the secretary of War and provide executive direction for all Army agencies. The battles with the bureaus were far from finished, however, and there would still be years of struggle between the executive branch and Congress before the more centralized system prevailed.

At the same time, the Army was working out its relationships with a new partner. The National Guard Association had emerged from the efforts to transform ill-prepared state militias into properly trained and equipped units that could be responsive to the needs of state governors while also being available for federal service. In 1907 the National Guard Association was leading efforts to pass legislation authorizing the mobilization of Guardsmen for overseas duty, a controversial initiative in its day, but one that set the foundation for the modern National Guard to truly become a part of the national security team in the ensuing century.

Many governors had been supportive of improved militia in the last decade of the 19th century because local police had been overwhelmed in battles associated with strikes and lockouts. Labor unrest was widespread, elements supporting both management and labor often turned quickly to violence and the new National Guard was a governor's means of restoring order when police were outgunned or outnumbered. When state assets were insufficient, the Army was the final response force.

The Army was only called out once for this purpose in 1907. In November 1,900 miners went on strike in Goldfield, Nev. Since Nevada had not yet organized a militia force, the governor went directly to the President for assistance, and five companies of the 22nd Infantry Regiment were quickly deployed by rail from California. President Theodore Roosevelt explicitly directed use of "a sufficient number of troops wholly adequate to meet any emergency," because "it is far better to avoid conflict by sending too many troops than too few and run the risk of bloodshed." By maintaining careful neutrality in a super-heated environment, the Regulars provided the backdrop for calming gestures. In the meantime, the Nevada legislature met and authorized a special state police force to replace the Army until the crisis was fully resolved. Nevada would eventually add a National Guard force to its newly formed state police. In other states, the possibility that Guardsmen would deploy as federal forces led to the formation of comparable state police organizations to supplement local law enforcement agencies as the militia had done in the past.