a judge advocate, a surgeon, and a quartermaster, along with commissary, engineer, signal, ordnance, and muster officers. The senior artillery officer served ex officio as the chief of the division artillery.[1]
The cavalry division, also described in the regulations, consisted of three cavalry brigades (two or three cavalry regiments each), six horse artillery batteries, mounted engineer and signal companies, and two field hospitals. Civilians were to man ammunition and supply columns. Because mounted troops were likely to be employed in small detachments, the cavalry division had no prescribed staff.[2]
Above the division level, the regulations only sketched corps and armies. Two or three infantry divisions made up an army corps, and several army corps, along with one or more cavalry divisions, formed an army. Specific details regarding higher command and control were omitted.[3]
When the Field Service Regulations were published, General Chaffee harnessed them to training and readiness. First, he directed the garrison schools to use them as textbooks, taking precedence over any others then in use. Second, he applied the regulations to both the Regular Army and the Organized Militia when in the field.[4]
Militia, or National Guard, units had dual missions. Each served its state of origin but, when called upon, also served in national emergencies. Under the Dick Act of 1903, National Guard units had five years to achieve the same organizational standards as the Regular Army units. To accomplish that goal, the federal government increased the funds for arms and equipment and annual training and provided additional Regular Army officers to assist with training.[5]
Having an outline for field organizations and units available to prepare for war, the Army turned its attention to training. Combined arms training—artillery, cavalry, and infantry—had been a part of the school curriculum at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1881, but Secretary Root gave such training added meaning in 1899 when he noted that officers needed to see a corps, division, or brigade organized and on the march to perform their duties in war. In 1902 some state and federal units held maneuvers at Camp Root, Kansas,[6] but the first large drill took place two years later near Manassas, Virginia. At that time Guard units from eighteen states and selected Regular Army units trained together—a total of 26,000 men. Maneuvers on a lesser scale were held in 1906 and 1908. These biennial maneuvers proved beneficial to both professional and citizen soldiers. Regulars gained command experience, and guardsmen refined their military skills.[7]
Although periodic maneuvers had their merits, the General Staff soon realized that they fell short of preparing the Army for war. In 1906 the Regular Army was still dispersed among posts that accommodated anywhere from two companies to a regiment. To provide for more sustained training, the staff urged Secretary of War William Howard Taft to concentrate the regulars at brigade-size posts. Taft proved receptive, but most members of Congress opposed the reform, particularly if closing a post might affect their constituents adversely.[8]
- ↑ Field Service Regulations, 1905, pp. 25–26.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 12.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ WD Cirs 28, 50, and 61, 1905. In 1903 Congress revised the militia system, dividing the militia into Organized Militia and Reserve Militia classes. The Reserve Militia consisted of an unorganized manpower pool, while the Organized Militia, commonly known as the National Guard, included those units maintained by the states, territories, and District of Columbia. When discussing the National Guard, the District of Columbia is treated as a state unless otherwise noted.
- ↑ WD GO 7, 1903.
- ↑ Timothy K. Nenninger, The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1978), p. 22–23; Rpt of the Sec. of War, ARWD, 1899, pp. 48–49, ARWD, 1902, pp. 50–52; Jamieson, Crossing the Deadly Ground, pp. 60–62. Camp Root, Kansas, today is Camp Whiteside, a subpost of Fort Riley.
- ↑ ARWD, 1904, p. 30, ARWD, 1906, p. 47, ARWD, 1908, p. 37, ARWD, 1909, pp. 28–32; Rpt of the Chief of Staff, ARWD, 1904,' p. 223.
- ↑ Rpt of the Chief of Staff, ARWD, 1906, pp. 552–53; Ltr. Brig Gen J. Franklin Bell to Gen Leonard Wood, 18 Apr 12, Wood Papers, Library of Congress (hereafter cited as LC).
