United States War Department Popular Books

United States War Department Biography & Facts

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947. The Secretary of War, a civilian with such responsibilities as finance and purchases and a minor role in directing military affairs, headed the War Department throughout its existence. The War Department existed from August 7, 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. The Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force later joined the Department of the Navy under the United States Department of Defense in 1949. History 18th century The Department of War traces its origins to the committees created by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to oversee the Revolutionary War. Individual committees were formed for each issue, including committees to secure ammunition, to raise funds for gunpowder, and to organize a national militia. These committees were consolidated into the Board of War and Ordnance in 1776, operated by members of Congress. A second board was created in 1777, the Board of War, to operate separately from Congress. The Congress of the Confederation eventually replaced the system of boards with the Department of War. Only five positions were created within the department upon its creation: the Secretary at War, an assistant, a secretary, and two clerks.Shortly after the establishment of a government under President George Washington in 1789, Congress reestablished the War Department as a civilian agency to administer the field army under the president (as commander-in-chief) and the secretary of war. Retired senior General Henry Knox, then in civilian life, served as the first United States Secretary of War. When the department was created, the president was authorized to appoint two inspectors to oversee the troops. Congress created several additional offices over the course of the 1790s, including the major general, brigadier general, quartermaster general, chaplain, surgeon general, adjutant general, superintendent of military stores, paymaster general, judge advocate, inspector general, physician general, apothecary general, purveyor, and accountant.Forming and organizing the department and the army fell to Secretary Knox, while direct field command of the small Regular Army fell to President Washington. In 1798, Congress authorized President John Adams to create a second provisional army under the command of former President Washington in anticipation of the Quasi-War, but this army was never utilized. The Department of War was also responsible for overseeing interactions with Native Americans in its early years.On November 8, 1800, the War Department building with its records and files was consumed by fire. 19th century The United States Military Academy at West Point and the Army Corps of Engineers were established in 1802. The Department of War was reduced in size following the end of the Quasi-War in 1802, but it was subsequently expanded in the years leading up to the War of 1812. To accommodate this expansion, sub-departments were created within the department, with each one led by a general staff officer. These sub-departments were reformed into a modern system of bureaus by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun in 1818. Secretary Calhoun created the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824, which served as the main agency within the War Department for addressing the issues regarding Native Americans until 1849, when Congress transferred it to the newly founded Department of the Interior. The U.S. Soldiers' Home was created in 1851.During the American Civil War, the War Department responsibilities expanded. It handled the recruiting, training, supply, medical care, transportation and pay of two million soldiers, comprising both the regular army and the much larger temporary volunteer army. A separate command structure took charge of military operations. In the late stages of the war, the department took charge of refugees and freedmen (freed slaves) in the American South through the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. During the Reconstruction era, this bureau played a major role in supporting the new Republican governments in the southern states. When military Reconstruction ended in 1877, the U.S. Army removed the last troops from military occupation of the American South, and the last Republican state governments in the region ended. The Army comprised hundreds of small detachments in forts around the West, dealing with Indians, and in coastal artillery units in port cities, dealing with the threat of a naval attack. 1898–1939 The United States Army, with 39,000 men in 1890 was the smallest and least powerful army of any major power in the late 19th century. By contrast, France had an army of 542,000. Temporary volunteers and state militia units mostly fought the Spanish–American War of 1898. This conflict demonstrated the need for more effective control over the department and its bureaus.Secretary of War Elihu Root (1899–1904) sought to appoint a chief of staff as general manager and a European-type general staff for planning, aiming to achieve this goal in a businesslike manner, but General Nelson A. Miles stymied his efforts. Root enlarged the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and established the United States Army War College and the General Staff. He changed the procedures for promotions and organized schools for the special branches of the service. He also devised the principle of rotating officers from staff to line. Concerned about the new territories acquired after the Spanish–American War, Root worked out the procedures for turning Cuba over to the Cubans, wrote the charter of government for the Philippines, and eliminated tariffs on goods imported to the United States from Puerto Rico. Root's successor as Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, returned to the traditional secretary-bureau chief alliance, subordinating the chief of staff to the adjutant general, a powerful office since its creation in 1775. Indeed, Secretary Taft exercised little power; President Theodore Roosevelt made the major decisions. In 1911, Secretary Henry L. Stimson and Major General Leonard Wood, his chief of staff, revived the Root reforms. The general staff assisted them in their efforts to rationalize the organization of the army along modern lines and in supervising the bureaus. World War I The Congress reversed these changes in support of the bureaus and in the National Defense Act of 1916 reduced the size and functions of the general staff to few members before America entered World War I on Apr.... Discover the United States War Department popular books. Find the top 100 most popular United States War Department books.

Best Seller United States War Department Books of 2024

  • The Complex synopsis, comments

    The Complex

    Nick Turse

    A mindboggling investigation of the allpervasive, constantly morphing presence of the Pentagon in daily lifea realworld Matrix come aliveHere is the new, hip, hightech militaryindu...

  • Vets Under Siege synopsis, comments

    Vets Under Siege

    Martin Schram

    A scathing exposé of the U.S. government's deplorable neglect of American servicemen and womenin the works before the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital scandal.After members of our...

  • Time of the Rangers synopsis, comments

    Time of the Rangers

    Mike Cox

    The second installment of a noholdsbarred look at the history of the famed Texas Rangers from western author Mike CoxFollowing up on his magnificent history of the 19th century Te...

  • On American Soil synopsis, comments

    On American Soil

    Jack Hamann

    On a hot August night in 1944, a soldier’s body was discovered hanging by a rope from a cable spanning an obstacle course at Seattle’s Fort Lawton. The body was identified as Priva...

  • Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society synopsis, comments

    Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society

    William Oldfield & Victoria Bruce

    The “fascinating…greatgrandson’s account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the US postal inspector who brought to justice the deadly Black Hand is “unputdownable” (Library Journal, sta...

  • The Iran Wars synopsis, comments

    The Iran Wars

    Jay Solomon

    From Qasem Soleimani to the nuclear deal, a deeply reported exploration of Iran’s decadeslong power struggle with the United Statesin the tradition of Steve Coll’s G...

  • Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States VOL.II synopsis, comments

    Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States VOL.II

    Henry Lee

    The HISTORY OF COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection refers to the European settlements in North Americ...

  • Judgment in Berlin synopsis, comments

    Judgment in Berlin

    Herbert J. Stern

    "Suspenseful...moving...equal to any fictional thriller." San Francisco Chronicle In August 1978, the Iron Curtain still hung heavily across Europe. To escape from oppressive ...

  • The Threat synopsis, comments

    The Threat

    Andrew G. McCabe

    #1 New York Times Bestseller#1 Washington Post Bestseller#1 Wall Street Journal BestsellerOn March 16, 2018, just twentysix hours before his scheduled retirement from the organizat...

  • The Grande Tour synopsis, comments

    The Grande Tour

    Nita Farrier

    In 1949, a twentysixyearold Iowa farm girl named Nita Farrier accepts a position as secretary to the Allied Occupation Force in Vienna, Austria. During her time off , she travels e...

  • Opening Arguments synopsis, comments

    Opening Arguments

    Jeffrey Toobin

    In January of 1987 Jeffrey Toobin is fresh out of Harvard Law School, and appointed the youngest lawyer on Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's team to investigate and try the leadi...

  • Escaping the Rabbit Hole synopsis, comments

    Escaping the Rabbit Hole

    Mick West

    Revised and updated for the first time in 2023Now includes strategies for debunking conspiracies regarding the coronavirus pandemic, election fraud, QAnon, UFOs, and more. The Eart...

  • The Burning of the World synopsis, comments

    The Burning of the World

    Scott W. Berg

    LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR  The "illuminating" (New Yorker) story of the Great Chicago Fire: a ...

  • Matchless Organization synopsis, comments

    Matchless Organization

    Guy R. Hasegawa

    The essential reference about a surprisingly wellorganized medical departmentDespite the many obstacles it had to overcomeincluding a naval blockade, lack of a strong industrial ba...

  • Waging War synopsis, comments

    Waging War

    David J Barron

    An “ambitious...deep history and a thoughtful inquiry into how the constitutional system of checks and balances has functioned when it comes to waging war and making peace” (The Wa...

  • The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton synopsis, comments

    The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton

    Allan Mclane Hamilton & Willard Sterne Randall

    The life of Alexander Hamilton is certainly one of great complexity and controversy and, as a result, has been of great interest to the general public for centuries. In the past tw...

  • President Garfield synopsis, comments

    President Garfield

    CW Goodyear

    An “ambitious, thorough, supremely researched” (The Washington Post) biography of the extraordinary, tragic life of America’s twentieth presidentJames Garfield.In “the most compreh...

  • The Ground Truth synopsis, comments

    The Ground Truth

    John Farmer

    From the senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, a mesmerizing realtime portrayal of that day, why we weren?t told the truth, and why our nation is still at risk. As one of the prim...

  • The Bomb synopsis, comments

    The Bomb

    Fred Kaplan

    From the author of the classic The Wizards of Armageddon and Pulitzer Prize finalist comes the definitive history of American policy on nuclear warand Presidents’ actions in nuclea...

  • Service and Style synopsis, comments

    Service and Style

    Jan Whitaker

    Downtown department stores were once the heart and soul of America's pulsing Broadways and Main Streets. With names such as City of Paris, Penn Traffic, The Maze, Maison Blanche, o...

  • Birth of the Bravest synopsis, comments

    Birth of the Bravest

    A. E. Costello

    Birth of the Bravest is a substantially abridged edition of Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments, Volunteer and Paid by A. E. Costello, which was originally publ...

  • Securing the City synopsis, comments

    Securing the City

    Christopher Dickey

    The NYPD is the best and most ambitious antiterror operation in the world. Its seatofthepants intelligence is the gold standard for all others. Christopher Dickey, who has reporte...

  • Official correspondence with the Department of War, relative to the military operations of the American Army under the command of Major-General Izard on the northern frontier of the United States, in the years 1814 and 1815. synopsis, comments

    Official correspondence with the Department of War, relative to the military operations of the American Army under the command of Major-General Izard on the northern frontier of the United States, in the years 1814 and 1815.

    George Izard

    The MILITARY HISTORY & WARFARE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This series offers titles on warfare from ancient to modern times. It...

  • Crimes and Cover-ups in American Politics synopsis, comments

    Crimes and Cover-ups in American Politics

    Donald Jeffries & Ron Paul

    The history that the textbooks left out. For far too long, American history has been left in the unreliable hands of those that author Donald Jeffries refers to as the court histo...

  • Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States Vol. I synopsis, comments

    Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States Vol. I

    Henry Lee

    The HISTORY OF COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection refers to the European settlements in North Americ...

  • The Mirror Test synopsis, comments

    The Mirror Test

    J. Kael Weston

    A New York Times Editors' ChoiceA Military Times Best Book of the YearA powerfully written firsthand account of the human costs of conflict.J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ...

  • Whitewash synopsis, comments

    Whitewash

    Harold Weisberg

    Harold Weisberg’s Whitewash was originally selfpublished in 1965, at a time when few publishing houses would consider a book challenging the Warren Report. Written in Harold’s fier...

  • The Art of Virtue synopsis, comments

    The Art of Virtue

    Benjamin Franklin

    An indispensable guide to right living from a Founding Father. Benjamin Franklin, one of our nation’s most revered founders, was a man of uncommonly fine common sense. Although he ...

  • American Conspiracies and Cover-ups synopsis, comments

    American Conspiracies and Cover-ups

    Douglas Cirignano

    Interviews with bestselling authors and conspiracy experts Jim Marrs, Noam Chomsky, G. Edward Griffin, and Others​ “Those intrepid souls seeking to peer deeper into America's great...

  • Harpoon synopsis, comments

    Harpoon

    Nitsana Darshan-Leitner & Samuel M. Katz

    A revelatory account of the cloakanddagger Israeli campaign to target the finances fueling terror organizationsan effort that became the blueprint for U.S. efforts to combat threat...

  • A Red Line in the Sand synopsis, comments

    A Red Line in the Sand

    David A. Andelman

    A longtime CNN columnist astutely combines history and global politics  to help us better understanding the exploding number of military, political, and diplomatic c...

  • The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual synopsis, comments

    The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual

    Michael A. Newton

    The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual: Commentary and Critique provides an irreplaceable resource for any politician, international expert, or military practiti...

  • The Art of Virtue synopsis, comments

    The Art of Virtue

    Benjamin Franklin

    An indispensable guide to right living from a Founding Father. Benjamin Franklin, one of our nation’s most revered founders, was a man of uncommonly fine common sense. Although he ...

  • Lincoln Clears a Path synopsis, comments

    Lincoln Clears a Path

    Peggy Thomas & Stacy Innerst

    Throughout his life, Abraham Lincoln tried to make life easier for others. Then during the darkest days of the Civil War, when everyone needed hope, President Lincoln cleared a pat...

  • I Got a Monster synopsis, comments

    I Got a Monster

    Baynard Woods & Brandon Soderberg

    The explosive true story of America's most corrupt police unit, the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), which terrorized the city of Baltimore for half a decade. When Baltimore police se...

  • Rescue Board synopsis, comments

    Rescue Board

    Rebecca Erbelding

    Featured historian in the Ken Burns documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust on PBS WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD  In this remarkable work of historical reclamation,...