The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  Confederation officials worried that the insurgent groups foreshadowed a turn toward anarchy. Henry Knox, who served as the first Secretary of War, feared “a formidable rebellion against reason, the principle of all government.” He prodded Congress to issue a requisition of funds for national forces. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut eventually enlisted around 700 militiamen for deployment to western forts. However, every state except Virginia rejected his effort to strengthen the military in the midst of Shays' Rebellion. Congress mustered two artillery companies to guard West Point and the Springfield arsenal but did little to quell the domestic disturbances.

  With the approval of Congress, a special convention gathered that May in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to initiate governmental reforms. George Washington presided over the state delegations, but James Madison of Virginia set the agenda for their proceedings. Nearly one-third of the delegates previously held commissions in the Continental Army. Because of their prior service to win American independence, many shared a broader vision of the republic as a whole. They pledged to make the government “adequate to the exigencies of the union.” Some opposed any language that established a permanent military, though. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts compared the armed forces to a “standing member,” which seemed “an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure.” Over the summer, they scrapped the Articles of Confederation and crafted seven articles for a federal system. On September 17, 1787, 39 delegates signed the Constitution of the United States.

  The Constitution permitted a military establishment, although the exact phrase did not appear in the document. Whereas the preamble announced the formation of “a more perfect union,” the stated purpose was to “insure domestic tranquility” and to “provide for the common defense.” Assuming the necessity of military power, the articles divided civilian authority between a legislative branch, an executive branch, the judicial branch, and the various states.

  Article I enumerated the powers of Congress with respect to military affairs. Authorized to combat piracies and to declare wars, the legislative branch raised and supported an army as well as provided and maintained a navy. However, the clause imposed a two-year limitation on federal appropriations for the army. Another provision enabled the calling forth of the militia to execute laws, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions. The organizing, arming, and disciplining of the militia represented a federal responsibility, while the states appointed the officers and trained the rank and file. Through the legislative process, the House of Representatives and the Senate enacted all measures deemed “necessary and proper” for the American military.

  Regarding the executive branch, Article II vested the president with authority as the “commander in chief of the Army and the Navy.” His inherent powers included the command of the state militias when called into the “actual service” of the nation. Accordingly, he swore an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” While executing federal laws in war and peace, he commissioned officers for national service.

  Other articles circumscribed federal law in war and peace. Article III defined the crime of treason as “levying war” against the U.S. or giving “aid and comfort” to America's enemies. According to Article IV, every state was guaranteed a republican form of government in addition to protection against foreign invasions and domestic violence. Once ratified, the Constitution represented the “supreme law of the land.”

  While the states debated ratification, Alexander Hamilton of New York responded to critics of a federal system. Along with Madison and Jay, he composed essays that came to be known as the Federalist Papers. He made the largest contribution to their collective effort, writing 51 of the 85 essays. His essays often referenced issues of national security. “Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe,” he wrote in Federalist No. 24, the competition for North America meant that no citizen of the republic was “entirely out of the reach of danger.” In other words, the Constitution authorized the buildup of defenses to confront internal and external threats.

  After the states ratified the Constitution, Congress offered amendments known as the Bill of Rights. For example, the Second Amendment guaranteed that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” While stipulating the necessity of “a well-regulated militia” for “the security of a free state,” the language extolled individual liberties in opposition to the power of governing authorities. Likewise, the Third Amendment prohibited the quartering of troops in private homes without the “consent of the owner” and only in a manner “prescribed by law.” To address American fears about the presence of a standing military, the amendments restrained the federal government while legitimizing an armed citizenry.

  The federal government assembled in New York City on April 30, 1789, when Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. With his urging, the new Congress formalized the “dual-army” tradition of the American republic. The national forces mixed regulars with militia, albeit for limited periods of service. That summer, Knox assumed responsibility for administering the War Department. In the first annual message to Congress, the commander-in-chief proclaimed: “To be prepared for war is the most effectual means of preserving peace.”

  Legion

  The Constitution equipped the federal government with powerful tools for securing the nation. The checks and balances demanded that national leaders hold fast to their republican tenets while governing military affairs. By giving Congress power to levy taxes, the states no longer withheld resources and personnel from the armed forces. Under the authority of the executive branch, the War Department forged what Knox called the “sword of the republic.”

  Knox pressed Congress to create a uniform militia in order to meet any possible combination of enemies. Even the most ardent anti-militarists recognized that amateurs only complemented professionals in performing many tasks. Officers and enlisted men were needed to construct, to maintain, and to garrison coastal and inland fortifications. They thwarted the intrigues of Indian militants as well as British and Spanish agents. Militiamen enrolled separately by the various states, concluded Knox, seemed unprepared “to carry on and terminate the war in which we are engaged with honor and success.” Instead, national security in civil society required the organization of a more “energetic national militia.” To perform their assigned duties in military campaigns beyond the states, an armed citizenry needed “a competent knowledge of the military art.” He drafted a sweeping plan for the “General Arrangement of the Militia of the United States” and submitted it to Congress in early 1790.

  That fall, Knox ordered General Josiah Harmer to “extirpate utterly, if possible,” the Indian threats in the Northwest Territory. Little Turtle, a Miami leader, rallied the Shawnee, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi to defend villages north of the Ohio River. To coerce the Indians of the Miami Confederacy into signing a treaty, Harmer led a force of 1,453 regulars and militiamen northward from Fort Washington. Their punitive march ended in a military disaster, which resulted in more than 214 casualties at Indian hands.

  The following year, the governor of the Northwest Territory, General Arthur St. Clair, took command of a larger force. His command targeted the Indian village of Kekionga near the Wabash River. American troops erected new forts amid the woods and swamps. On November 4, 1791, Indian warriors attacked a military camp at dawn and caught them off guard. After two hours of fighting, St. Clair ordered a headlong retreat to Fort Washington. In the Battle of the Wabash, at least 623 soldiers perished and another 258 were wounded. Scores of camp followers and civilian contractors died as well. Nearly one-quarter of the entire army disappeared that day. The humiliating loss buoyed British efforts to block American expansion across the Ohio River, while the morale of service members in the scattered outposts fell. In the wake of St. Clair's defeat, a congressional investigation blamed the f
iasco on the “want of discipline and experience in the troops.”

  On May 2, 1792, Congress passed the Calling Forth Act to further refine the force structure. If the U.S. faced an invasion or an imminent threat from a foreign nation or an Indian tribe, then the commander-in-chief received blanket authority to call out the militia in an emergency. In case of “insurrections in any state,” the militiamen entered federal service under certain provisions for no more than three months in any one year.

  Six days later, Congress passed the Uniform Militia Act. As the basic militia law for more than a century, it required all able-bodied men from the ages of 18 to 45 to enroll for service. Even though the law incorporated much of Knox's plan, it revealed several shortcomings. It permitted states to add numerous exemptions for service requirements in the militia. It did not provide for a select corps from each state, as Knox previously envisioned, or for federal control of officer training. In fact, most troops provided their own weapons and accouterments when called to duty. While the states seldom complied fully with the federal mandates, the notion of a citizen soldier remained vital to national defense.

  Many volunteers joined the Legion of the United States, the nation's primary force thereafter. Invoking the ancient Roman system, Knox organized 5,280 officers and enlisted men into unique formations. The Legion involved four sub-legions, each commanded by a brigadier general and consisting of two battalions of infantry, a battalion of riflemen, a troop of dragoons, and a company of artillery. In a model for flexibility and efficiency, all combat arms served under a unified command.

  The Washington administration selected General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, whom the president called “active and enterprising,” as the new commander. Though critics called for an end to the war against the Indians, policymakers refused to accept British proposals for the establishment of an Indian buffer state. Under the direction of the War Department, peace commissioners opened separate negotiations with Indian leaders. At the same time, Wayne prepared the Legion to mount a military expedition to crush them. He made his headquarters near Pittsburgh, where deserters from camp faced death by firing squad. After months of drilling and training in a place he named Legionville, the commander moved his best troops down the Ohio River to Fort Washington. Eventually, Knox ordered Wayne “to make those audacious savages feel our superiority in arms.”

  In late 1793, Wayne marched the Legion into the heart of Indian country. While advancing slowly and methodically, troops erected Fort Greenville and Fort Recovery for winter quarters. Owing to the arrival of Kentucky volunteers, their numbers in the campaign grew to over 3,500 effectives. Reinforced by militiamen from Canadian provinces, Little Turtle gathered thousands of Indian warriors to confront them. The next summer, the Legion reached the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers. After building Fort Defiance, Wayne secured his supply lines before approaching Fort Miamis – a British outpost on American soil.

  On August 20, 1794, Wayne awaited an Indian attack within a clearing called Fallen Timbers. The Legion held their ground after the first wave, eventually breaking through with a bayonet charge. Troops maneuvered with skill while forcing their foes to flee the battlefield. They marched around Fort Miamis, insulting the Royal officers inside. Because the British refused to engage them, they proceeded to raze Indian villages and to destroy food supplies near Lake Erie. During the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Americans lost 33 killed in action with another 100 suffering wounds.

  Wayne moved to the headwaters of the Wabash, where the Legion erected Fort Wayne. The next year, Indian leaders from 12 tribes capitulated to American might. By signing the Treaty of Greenville, they ceded much of their homeland in exchange for annuity payments. Thanks to a smashing victory, the Legion secured federal control over the Northwest Territory.

  With the Legion preoccupied by Indian threats, farmers in western Pennsylvania rebelled against the federal government. Mobs opposed the federal excise tax on whiskey, which Congress passed in order to fund the national debt. While treating the tax collectors with contempt, they regarded a revenue policy that singled out a specific commodity as unfair. Moreover, the courts in the region ceased functioning. The Washington administration declared a state of emergency and called forth militia from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. In the fall of 1794, more than 12,500 troops marched toward Pittsburgh. The commander-in-chief actually rode with them, though he turned over command to General Henry “Light Horse” Lee, the governor of Virginia. That October, the Whiskey Rebellion collapsed without a fight. After arresting 20 rebels for treason, the federal government sentenced two to death. Washington pardoned both of them, because the show of force by the American military effectively ended the insurrection.

  Congress enacted other measures to strengthen the American military. In 1794, a new law authorized the “erecting and repairing of arsenals and magazines.” To manufacture and to stockpile weapons, the federal government established national armories in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, wanted the U.S. to procure arms from domestic sources rather than to acquire them from Europe.

  With European powers embroiled in another war, Washington decided “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” The Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, expressed affinity for France, but the president proclaimed American neutrality. He dispatched Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to resolve outstanding issues with London. Ratified by the Senate during 1795, Jay's Treaty facilitated commercial relations between the U.S. and Great Britain. Moreover, the latter vowed to evacuate forts on American soil within a year. Thomas Pinckney, a U.S. envoy to Spain, concluded a deal for navigating the Mississippi that allowed Americans to store goods in New Orleans. Furthermore, Pinckney's Treaty set the boundary for Spanish Florida in 1796. With its mission to secure the territories largely accomplished, the Legion shrank to a handful of regiments that year.

  A Quasi-War

  Congress funded the construction of six frigates with the Naval Act of 1794, but it took time to build the nation's first line of defense. The cost of the 44-gun warships rose above $300,000 for each, which created a minor scandal for the War Department. After retiring from office three years later, Washington bequeathed the administrative problems of an unfinished navy to his successor, John Adams, a Federalist.

  To command respect for the U.S. flag, a deep-water fleet of warships was necessary in an age of sail. Joshua Humphreys of Philadelphia, a naval architect, designed American vessels to outrun and to outfight their European counterparts. Among the best materials available, white pines harvested from the Maine wilderness formed the masts and spars. For the hull, beams of live oak measured about 2 feet in width and around 1 foot in thickness. The incurving sides placed the weight from the heavy guns upon the keel itself, thereby improving hydrodynamic efficiency. A three-layer construction method laid the planks horizontally across the ribs, which made a crossing or checkerboard pattern to absorb the blows of a rival. U.S. shipyards finished building the Constitution, the United States, and the Constellation during 1797.

  While the U.S. built more warships, France challenged American neutrality that year. The French Directory reasoned that food supplies and military stores shipped to the British Empire represented contraband of war. By decree, it denounced the principle that “free ships make free goods.” The French instead plundered hundreds of American merchantmen and broke off diplomatic relations with their former ally. As General Napoleon Bonaparte gained power, Paris ordered the U.S. ambassador to leave the country.

  The French government refused to meet U.S. envoys, demanding a bribe to open negotiations. France's Foreign Minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, directed three agents labeled anonymously as X, Y, and Z to insist upon advance payment. “No, no, not a sixpence,” the U.S. envoys retorted. The American press sensationalized the XYZ affair, which inspired a Federalist slogan: “Millions for defense but not
one cent for tribute.” In a huff, Adams asked Congress to consider a “naval establishment.” France soon closed its ports to neutral shipping and declared any vessels carrying trade with their enemies subject to capture. Word spread across the Atlantic that France planned to invade the U.S.

  In 1798, Federalists in Congress resolved to preempt the aggression of France. Even the Republican opposition in the House of Representatives and the Senate expected war, though Vice President Jefferson remained a Francophile. While authorizing the capture of French vessels, the legislative branch appropriated substantial funding for harbor fortifications and cannon foundries. Other measures armed merchant ships and abrogated previous French treaties. To maintain “wooden walls” beyond the continental shoreline, they established a Navy Department separate from the War Department. Benjamin Stoddert, a merchant from Georgetown, was appointed the first Secretary of the Navy. Another law formally organized the Marine Corps, which provided security guards and boarding parties for U.S. warships. Under the Adams administration, the Navy expanded to 50 vessels and more than 5,000 officers and sailors. Although Congress did not declare war on France, the federal government enacted over 20 bills to put the U.S. on a wartime footing.

  Legislation to expand the Army sailed through the federal government as well. Initially, Congress authorized the raising of a 10,000-man Provisional Army composed of volunteers. A few months later, another law permitted the commander-in-chief to raise the New Army, which included 12 infantry regiments and six dragoon companies. An even larger force, the Eventual Army, prepared for mobilization in case of an emergency. Federalists wanted to amass sufficient might to repulse a French invasion or possibly to conquer Florida and Louisiana. Some eyed the far-flung Spanish colonies in the Americas as potential prizes. Adams nominated Washington to take command of the regiments, while Hamilton became his second-in-command.