Quartermaster General of the United States Army

The Quartermaster General of the United States Army is a general officer who is responsible for the Quartermaster Corps, the Quartermaster branch of the U.S. Army. The Quartermaster General does not command Quartermaster units, but is primarily focused on training, doctrine and professional development of Quartermaster soldiers. The Quartermaster General also serves as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Quartermaster Center and School, Fort Lee, Virginia and the traditional Quartermaster Corps. The office of the Quartermaster General was established by resolution of the Continental Congress on 16 June 1775, but the position was not filled until 14 August 1775. Perhaps the most famous Quartermaster General was Nathanael Greene, who was the third Quartermaster General, serving from March 1778 to August 1780. The first Quartermaster General to serve in the U.S. Army was Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania.

History

18th Century

The position of Quartermaster General originated in the Continental Army, under order of Congress. On 16 June 1775, 2 days after the birth of the Army, Congress ordered the creation of both a Quartermaster General and a Deputy Quartermaster General. During this period Quartermaster Generals would be act like chiefs of staff for the commanders of the Continental Army, acting as the prime supplier and businessmen for dealing with civilians, operated and repaired supply lines, which included the roads which they traveled upon, was responsible for transporting troops and furnished all the supplies needed to establish camps when the troops got there.^[1]

Upon the establishment of the position, Congress authorized George Washington to appoint the first Quartermaster General. He picked a man from amongst his aides-de-camp, Maj. Thomas Mifflin. Mifflin, an experienced merchant from Philadelphia, proved to be a prime choice, being reappointed several times to the position. They eventually promoted Mifflin to a Colonel in order to retain him in his position.^[2]

19th Century

Fifteen officers held the office of quartermaster general in the United States Army in the nineteenth century. The first of these officers, John Wilkins, Jr., was a major general. Two colonels, James Mullany and George Gibson, jointly held the office between April 29, 1816 and April 14, 1818. The other twelve quartermasters were brigadier generals. From 1860 to the end of the century, the quartermaster general office was held by officers who were to serve or had served in the American Civil War (Civil War).

Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston held the position from June 28, 1860 until his resignation as quartermaster general and brigadier general, U.S. Army, on April 22, 1861. Johnston was appointed a full general in the Confederate States Army on August 31, 1861. Adhering to the ideology of state's rights, quartermasters of each Confederate state exercised considerable autonomy from their national quartermaster general. Within their jurisdictions, these Confederate officers exercised powers equivalent to the Union quartermaster general. Georgia quartermaster general Ira Roe Foster is, perhaps, the best example of a Confederate quartermaster exercising considerable power over both production and supply within his state. Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs succeeded Johnston on May 15, 1861. Meigs was born in Augusta, Georgia but adhered to the Union during the Civil War. Meigs served throughout the Civil War and until 1882. He retired on February 6, 1882. Contemporaries such as U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and historians have given Meigs's work in keeping the Union Army adequately and timely supplied considerable credit for the Union victory.

For a period of ten days between February 13, 1882 and February 23, 1882, another Civil War veteran, Daniel H. Rucker, was quartermaster general. At the end of his brief tenure, Rucker retired from the U.S. Army. Rufus Ingalls, a brevet brigadier general and quartermaster for all Union Army forces during the Siege of Petersburg succeeded Rucker. Ingalls also had a brief tenure in office, serving between February 23, 1883 and July 1, 1883, when he also retired. Another brevet brigadier general of the Union Army, Samuel B. Holabird, who was chief quartermaster of the Union Department of the Gulf during much of the Civil War, succeeded Ingalls. Holabird was quartermaster general between July 1, 1883 and June 16, 1890. Richard Napoleon Batchelder, quartermaster for II Corps of the Union Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor, succeeded Holabird. He held the office between June 26, 1890 and July 27, 1896.

Another brevet brigadier general who had served as quartermaster for II Corps before Batchelder, as chief quartermaster of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, as quartermaster during the Red River Campaign and as chief quartermaster for the Military Division of West Mississippi, Charles G. Sawtelle, succeeded Batchelder. He served between August 19, 1896 and February 16, 1897. George H. Weeks, who served as quartermaster with the III Corps of the Union Army and in Albany, New York later in the war, held the office between February 6, 1897 and his retirement on February 3, 1898.

The last quartermaster general of the 19th century was Marshall I. Ludington, who assumed the office on February 3, 1898, three months before the Spanish–American War. Ludington had served as a division quartermaster for the Army of the Potomac. He was criticized for the general unpreparedness of the U.S. Army for the Spanish-American War but he had inherited the general state of unpreparedness of the army, which had been given meager funds and kept small during the long period of peace, except for the small American Indian Wars, after the Civil War. Ludington succeeded in improving the supply situation of the U.S. Army to an adequate state in a matter of months after the start of the war. On April 12, 1903, Ludington was promoted to major general and retired the next day.

20th Century

Quartermaster General Maj Gen Gregory discusses Army nurses' clothing with Lt. Alice Montgomery, Lt. Josephine Etz, and Lt. Leophile Bouchard, of Walter Reed Hospital. The Quartermaster General is responsible for supplying all branches of the Army.

On July 30, 1999, Major General Hawthorne L. Proctor was named the 46th Quartermaster General. He was the first African-American to hold the position.^[3]

21st Century

Colonel Gwendolyn Bingham became the Army's first female Quartermaster General when she assumed command of the Quartermaster Corps from Brigadier General Jesse Cross on November 23, 2010.^[4] Bingham was promoted to brigadier general in April 2011.^[5]

List of Army Quartermaster Generals

	Name	Photo	Term began	Term ended
1.	MG Thomas Mifflin		August 14, 1775	May 16, 1776
2.	COL Stephen Moylan		June 5, 1776	September 27, 1776
1.	MG Thomas Mifflin		October 1, 1776	November 17, 1777
3.	MG Nathanael Greene		March 2, 1778	August 5, 1780
4.	COL Timothy Pickering		August 5, 1780	July 25, 1785
5.	Samuel Hodgdon		March 4, 1791	April 19, 1792
6.	James O'Hara		April 19, 1792	May 1, 1796
7.	MG John Wilkins, Jr.		June 1, 1796	June 1, 1802
8.	BG Morgan Lewis		April 3, 1812	March 2, 1813
9.	BG Robert Swartwout		March 21, 1813	June 5, 1816
10.	COL James Mullany		April 29, 1816	April 14, 1818
11.	COL George Gibson		April 29, 1816	April 14, 1818
12.	BG Thomas S. Jesup		May 8, 1818	June 10, 1860
13.	BG Joseph E. Johnston		June 20, 1860	April 22, 1861
14.	BG Montgomery C. Meigs		May 15, 1861	February 6, 1882
15.	BG Daniel H. Rucker		February 13, 1882	February 23, 1882
16.	BG Rufus Ingalls		February 23, 1882	July 1, 1883
17.	BG Samuel B. Holabird		July 1, 1883	June 16, 1890
18.	BG Richard Batchelder		June 26, 1890	July 27, 1896
19.	BG Charles G. Sawtelle		August 19, 1896	February 16, 1897
20.	BG George H. Weeks		February 16, 1897	February 3, 1898
21.	BG Marshall I. Ludington		February 3, 1898	April 12, 1903
22.	BG Charles F. Humphrey		April 12, 1903	July 1, 1907
23.	MG James B. Aleshire		July 1, 1907	September 12, 1916
24.	MG Henry G. Sharpe		September 16, 1916	July 21, 1918
25.	MG Harry L. Rogers		July 22, 1918	August 27, 1922
26.	MG William H. Hart		August 28, 1922	January 2, 1926
27.	MG B. Frank Cheatham		January 3, 1926	January 17, 1930
28.	MG John L. DeWitt		February 3, 1930	February 3, 1934
29.	MG Louis H. Bash		February 3, 1934	March 31, 1936
30.	MG Henry Gibbins		April 1, 1936	March 31, 1940
31.	LTG Edmund B. Gregory		April 1, 1940	January 31, 1946
32.	MG Thomas B. Larkin		February 1, 1946	March 21, 1949
33.	MG Herman Feldman		March 21, 1949	September 28, 1951
34.	MG George A. Horkan		October 5, 1951	January 31, 1954
35.	MG Kester L. Hastings		February 5, 1954	March 31, 1957
36.	MG Andrew T. McNamara		June 12, 1957	June 12, 1961
37.	MG Webster Anderson		June 12, 1961	July 31, 1962
38.	MG Harry L. Dukes, Jr.		July 15, 1981	March 29, 1984
39.	MG Eugene L. Stillions, Jr.		March 29, 1984	June 4, 1987
40.	MG William T. McLean		June 15, 1987	July 14, 1989
41.	MG Paul J. Vanderploog		July 14, 1989	June 3, 1991
42.	BG John J. Cusick		July 24, 1991	August 3, 1993
43.	MG Robert K. Guest		August 3, 1993	June 21, 1996
44.	MG Henry T. Glisson		June 21, 1996	June 10, 1997
45.	MG James M. Wright		June 10, 1997	July 30, 1999
46.	MG Hawthorne L. Proctor		July 30, 1999	July 11, 2001
47.	MG Terry E. Juskowiak		July 11, 2001	May 16, 2003
48.	BG Scott G. West		May 16, 2003	August 11, 2005
49.	BG Mark A. Bellini		August 11, 2005	October 26, 2007
50.	BG Jesse R. Cross		October 26, 2007	November 22, 2010[6]
51.	BG Gwen Bingham		November 22, 2010	August 30, 2012
52.	BG John E. O'Neil IV		June 14, 2013	June 9, 2014
53.	BG Ronald Kirklin		June 9, 2014	Present

References

Sources

• Risch, Erna (1981). Supplying Washington's Army. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. 

External links

• Union Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs - New York Times (America’s Quartermaster) April 12, 2013
• The Act of Congress Establishing the position of Quartermaster General at the United States Army Center of Military History