all funds appropriated under the act of Congress approved April 23, 1904, making appropriation for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, and for all subsequent appropriations of funds for the Army War College. All purchases and contracts pertaining to the appropriation for support of the Army War College for the fiscal year 1905, made by the secretary of the Army War College prior to the issuance of this order, are hereby approved and confirmed. By order of the Secretary of War: ADNA R. CHAFFEE, Lieutanent General, Chief of Staff. The Army War College was formerly established by paragraph 7, General Orders 155, November 27, 1901. This order provided for the executive head of the college to be an officer not below the grade of field officer and for a War College Board to prepare regulations for the government of the college, etc. The War College Board was detailed July 1, 1902 (General Order No. 64), and consisted of Maj. Gen. Young, Brig. Gens. Carter and Bliss, Maj. H. A. Greene, Asst. Adjt. Gen. and Maj. Wm. D. Beach, Tenth Cavalry; also the following ex officio members: Gen. Geo. L. Gillespie, Chief of Engineers; Gen. J. Franklin Bell, commandant of the General Service and Staff College; Col. W. F. Randolph, Chief of Artillery; and Col. A. L. Mills, Superintendent of the Military Academy. The War College Board was dissolved by the following order: GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 15, 1903. * * * * The War College Board appointed by paragraph 2 of General Orders, No. 64, Adjutant General's Office, 1902, is hereby dissolved, and hereafter the duties assigned to said board by paragraph 4 of General Orders, No. 155, Adjutant General's Office, 1901, will be performed by such section of the War Department General Staff as may be designated for the purpose by the Chief of Staff. By order of the Secretary of War: S. B. M. YOUNG, Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff. That part of General Orders, No. 115, War Department, 1904, which outlines the general character of work to be performed by the permanent personnel and students on duty at the War College was revoked by the following order: GENERAL ORDERS, No. 116. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 28, 1907. 1. Paragraphs 240 to 245, both inclusive, of General Orders, No. 115, June 27, 1904, War Department, are revoked. 2. The organization and work of the Army War College will hereafter be regulated by the following provisions: 3. The purpose of the War College is to make a practical application of knowledge already acquired, not to impart academic in struction. 4. The objects of the War College are (a) The direction and coordination of military education in the Army and in civil schools and colleges at which officers of the Army are detailed under acts of Congress and the extension of opportunities for investigation and study in the militia of the United States. (b) To provide facilities for and to promote advanced study of military subjects and to formulate the opinions of the college body on the subjects studied for the information of the Chief of Staff. 5. The personnel of the Army War College shall be in part permanent and in part temporary. 6. The permanent personnel shall consist of a president, to be assigned to that duty by the Secretary of War, and the officers for the time being of the third division, War Department General Staff. The chief and one other member of the division shall be directors of the college. The secretary of the college shall also be selected from the permanent personnel. The directors and secretary shall be designated in orders. 7. The temporary personnel of the Army War College shall consist of such officers, not below the grade of captain, as may be detailed to that duty by the War Department. 8. The tour of duty of the officers of the temporary personnel shall be for a period not exceeding 12 months, beginning on November 1 of each year. 9. The interior economy of the War College shall be regulated by the president and directors, subject to the approval of the Chief of Staff. By order of the Secretary of War: WILLIAM P. DUVALL, Brigadier General, Acting Chief of Staff. On June 24, 1908, General Orders, No. 116, 1907, was amended as follows: Paragraph 6, General Orders, No. 116, May 28, 1907, War Department, relating to the Army War College, is rescinded and the following substituted therefor: 6. The permanent personnel shall consist of a president, to be assigned to that duty by the Secretary of War, and the officers for the time being of the second section, War Department General Staff. Two directors and a secretary of the college shall be selected from the permanent personnel of the section. By order of the Secretary of War: WILLIAM P. DUVALL, Major General, Acting Chief of Staff. GENERAL STAFF CORPS. The Secretary of War (Mr. Root) in his annual report for 1901 stated that the creation of the War College Board is probably as near an approach to the establishment of a General Staff as is practicable under existing law, but that the amount of work which that board ought to do leads to the conclusion that it can not adequately perform all the duties of a General Staff, and that the whole subject should be treated by Congress in a broader way, and to that end he strongly urged the establishment by law of a General Staff, of which the War College shall form a part. This recommendation was further elaborated in the Secretary's report for 1902, in which, after going very fully into the subject, he suggested that in creating a General Staff the designation of the officer called the "Commanding General of the Army" should be changed to "Chief of Staff," and that the latter's powers be cnlarged by giving him the immediate direction of the supply departments, etc. The recommendations made by the Secretary of War in these reports and subsequently in the hearings had before the Committees on Military Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives in 1902 resulted in the passage of the act of February 14, 1903, creating a General Staff Corps, published in the following general order: GENERAL ORDERS, No. 15. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, The following act of Congress is published for the information and goverment of all concerned: AN ACT To increase the efficiency of the Army. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby established a General Staff Corps, to be composed of officers detailed from the Army at large, under such rules as may be prescribed by the President. SEC. 2. That the duties of the General Staff Corps shall be to prepare plans for the national defense and for the mobilization of the military forces in time of war; to investigate and report upon all questions affecting the efficiency of the Army and its state of preparation for military operations; to render professional aid and assistance to the Secretary of War and to general officers and other superior commanders, and to act as their agents in informing and coordinating the action of all the different officers who are subject under the terms of this act to the supervision of the Chief of Staff; and to perform such other military duties not otherwise assigned by law as may be from time to time prescribed by the President. SEC. 3. That the General Staff Corps shall consist of one Chief of Staff and two general officers, all to be detailed by the President from officers of the Army at large not below the grade of brigadier general; four colonels, six lieutenant colonels, and twelve majors, to be detailed from the corresponding grades in the Army at large, under such rules for selection as the President may prescribe; twenty captains, to be detailed from officers of the Army at large of the grades of captain or first lieutenant, who while so serving shall have the rank, pay, and allowances of captain mounted. All officers detailed in the General Staff Corps shall be detailed therein for periods of four years, unless sooner relieved. While serving in the General Staff Corps, officers may be temporarily assigned to duty with any branch of the Army. Upon being relieved from duty in the General Staff Corps, officers shall return to the branch of the Army in which they hold permanent commission, and no officer shall be eligible to a further detail in the General Staff Corps until he shall have served two years with the branch of the Army in which commissioned, except in case of emergency or in time of war. SEC. 4. That the Chief of Staff, under the direction of the President or of the Secretary of War, under the direction of the President, shall have supervision of all troops of the line and of the Adjutant General's Inspector General's, Judge Advocate's, Quartermaster's, Subsistence, Medical, Pay, and Ordnance Departments, the Corps of Engineers, and the Signal Corps, and shall perform such other military duties not otherwise assigned by law as may be assigned to him by the President. Duties now prescribed by statute for the Commanding General of the Army as a member of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification and of the Board of Commissioners of the Soldiers' Home shall be performed by the Chief of Staff or other officer designated by the President. Acts and parts of acts authorizing aids-de-camp and military secretaries shall not apply to general officers of the General Staff Corps. SEC. 5. That the Chief of Artillery shall hereafter serve as an additional member of the General Staff and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall have the rank, pay, and allowances of brigadier general and when the next vacancy occurs in the office of brigadier general of the line, it shall not be filled, and thereafter the number of brigadier generals of the line, exclusive of the Chief of Artillery, shall not exceed fourteen; and the provisions of the foregoing sections of this act shall take effect August fifteenth, nineteen hundred and three. Approved, February 14, 1903. By command of Lieut. Gen. Miles: H. C. CORBIN, Adjutant General, Major General, United States Army. Section 5 of the above act was by act of January 25, 1907, amended as follows: GENERAL ORDERS, No. 24. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 2, 1907. The following act of the Congress is published to the Army for the information and guidance of all concerned: AN ACT To reorganize and to increase the efficiency of the Artillery of the United States Army. * SEC. 2. That the Chief of Artillery or Chief of Coast Artillery shall be an additional member of the General Staff Corps, and his other duties shall be prescribed by the Secretary of War. THE WAR COLLEGE DIVISION.1 This division had its birth in 1885, when by administrative action the "Division of Military Information" was established in the Adjutant General's Office. It was reorganized as a separate division in 1889, and on March 18, 1892, orders of the Secretary of War were published (General Order 23) further prescribing its duties, of which the following are still in force: (a) The collection and classification of military information of our own and foreign countries, especially with respect to armed, reserved, and available strength, natural and artificial means of communication (rivers, canals, highways, and railroads); the manufacture of arms, ammunition, and other war material; supplies of food, horses, draft animals, etc. (b) The preparation of instructions for the guidance of officers of the Army serving or traveling abroad, or acting as military attachés, and the arrangement and digest of information contained in their reports. (c) The issuance to the Army of military maps, monographs, books, papers, and other publications, and the dissemination of valuable information on military subjects throughout all branches of the service. 1 Formerly second section. The Division of Military Information will also have charge of a museum to be established for the proper care and preservation of such military relics as are now in the several bureaus of the War Department, or as may hereafter be obtained. On January 27, 1894, the Secretary of War issued the following circular: CIRCULAR No. 1. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, January 27, 1894. Circular of April 19, 1889, is amended to read as follows: Upon the receipt at the War Department of reports, maps, plans, etc., from military attachés at United States embassies and legations in foreign countries, they will be sent, without formal entry, to the Military Information Division of the Adjutant General's Office, where the necessary notation will be made and registered. The reports will then be filed in the Military Information Division for preservation and future reference. Inclosures accompanying the reports may, at the discretion of the Adjutant General, be turned over to any bureau of the War Department to which they particularly relate. Chiefs of bureaus are invited to furnish the Military Information Division, from time to time, with lists of inquiries they may desire to have submitted to the military attachés for investigation and report. DANIEL S. LAMONT, By Special Order No. 210, Headquarters Division of the Philippines, Manila, P. I., December 13, 1900, a "Division of Military Information" was established in the adjutant general's office in Manila, and by direction of the Secretary of War was on June 18, 1902, annexed to and made a part of the Military Information Division of the Adjutant General's Office in the War Department, Washington, by operation of the following instructions: The COMMANDING GENERAL, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, June 18, 1902. Division of the Philippines, Manila, P. I. SIR: I have the honor to communicate the following instructions of the Secretary of War: With a view to increasing the facilities and rendering its operations broader and more effective, the Division of Military Information now existing in the office of the adjutant general, Headquarters Division of the Philippines, is, for the purposes hereinafter set forth, annexed to and made a part of the Military Information Division, Adjutant General's Office, War Department, and will hereafter be regarded as a branch of that division. The present organization and official status of the branch office. will remain the same as heretofore in the adjutant general's office, Division of the Philippines, and for all administrative and purely local purposes will be under the direct control of the commanding general, Division of the Philippines. |