The Mexican-American War and the Civil War

One significant aspect of the Mexican-American War was the virtual abandonment of the militia concept for war purposes. The regular army was increased to more than 30,000 troops, and approximately 60,000 additional volunteers were recruited. Most of the new regulars and many volunteers actually served in Mexico during the war. The army acquitted itself exceptionally well during the campaign. The main invasion force under Gen. Winfield Scott landed at Veracruz in March 1847 and scored a string of victories culminating in the capture of Mexico City in September 1847. Many of the most-recognizable commanders of the American Civil War—including Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, James Longstreet, and George Pickett—served as junior officers during the Mexican-American War.

Approximately 12,000 militiamen had been called up at the beginning but served only three months and contributed nothing to the war effort. In 1848 the authorized strength of the army was reduced to 10,320, scattered over the immense area of the growing country. The task of dealing with Native Americans in the Far West, however, brought a gradual increase in strength. On December 20, 1860, when South Carolina seceded, the army numbered 16,367 officers and men.

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The U.S. Army underwent an enormous expansion during the Civil War (1861–65), growing from a peacetime strength of about 16,000 troops in December 1860 to a maximum size of 1,000,000 by 1865. The Confederate army may have reached a strength of 500,000 troops at its height. The volunteer system was again substituted for the unworkable militia concept, and most militiamen served as volunteers in federal service. Both sides initially relied on voluntary enlistments, but both had eventually to resort to conscription to maintain their vast armies in the field. On July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act, which, among other things, legalized the enlistment of African American soldiers in the Union army (Black volunteers were already serving in the United States Navy and had served with distinction in the American Revolution and the War of 1812). When Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, recruitment of Black soldiers began in earnest, and by the end of the war nearly 180,000 Black troops had enlisted.

The Army Reorganization Act of 1866 (formally, An Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States) provided for a regular army of 54,000 men, but this figure was gradually decreased until 1874, when authorized strength was set at 25,000, where it remained until the Spanish-American War. About 19,000 troops were stationed in the South to support the military governments of the Reconstruction period. Because of the threat posed by the rule of Maximilian in Mexico, Gen. Philip Sheridan was sent to the border with a large command. The remainder of the army dealt with increasingly violent Plains Wars in the West.

Doughboys abroad: the U.S. Army at the turn of the 20th century

Pay and other conditions of service were so poor in the U.S. Army that in 1878 its effective strength was less than 20,000 men, the smallest force in proportion to the total U S. population at any time since Washington’s first term. The army was well trained, however, because it saw almost constant combat service in the Indian Wars.

During the Spanish-American War, the army was again augmented by volunteers rather than militia units. Calls for volunteers increased its size to 216,029 troops by August 31, 1898; 50,000 of these were regulars. Because of the Philippine-American War (1899–1902), the president was authorized to keep the strength of the regular army at a maximum of 65,000 members, and in 1901 this figure was raised to 100,000. The hasty expansion of the army at the outset of the war with Spain had been chaotic. The War Department was revealed as scandalously inefficient in administration, organization, and operational direction.

In 1899, when Elihu Root was appointed secretary of war, he immediately set about correcting these deficiencies. He succeeded in reorganizing and revitalizing not only the War Department but U.S. military policy as a whole. In the process he strengthened the traditional concept of civilian control over the military. His greatest contribution was the establishment of an efficient general staff in 1903. Related to this was the development of an extensive and integrated system of postgraduate military education for all levels of responsibility from lieutenant to general. Root was also largely responsible for the establishment in 1903 of the Joint Board, comprising senior army and navy officers, to avoid future failures in coordination of strategic planning and tactical operations such as had occurred in the Spanish-American War.

When war came again in 1917, the U.S. Army was better prepared than at any previous time in American history. There were four main reasons: the existence of an efficient general staff for planning and coordination purposes; the combat experience which most American regular army officers had gained during the Philippine-American War; the mobilization of an expanded regular army and 65,000 national guardsmen for duty along the Mexican border; and the repeal of the Militia Act of 1792. A federally coordinated National Guard, with components in each state, was established, as was an Organized Reserve Corps, completely under federal authority. For all practical purposes, Washington’s Sentiments on a Peace Establishment had been adopted, in a modernized form.

During World War I the army expanded in 18 months to 3,685,000 troops, about three-fourths of whom were conscripted under the Selective Service Act of May 18, 1917. About 2,000,000 troops were sent to France to serve in Gen. John J. Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force. The efficiency of this tremendous expansion and the decisive role played by U.S. forces in the final Allied victory in November 1918 were clear evidence of the effectiveness of the innovations made by Root only 15 years earlier.