United States Secretary of War

Secretary of War of the United States of America
Official seal
Flag of the Secretary of War
United States Department of War
Style	Mr. Secretary
Member of	Cabinet
Reports to	The President
Seat	Washington, D.C.
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Precursor	Secretary at War
Formation	1789
First holder	Henry Knox
Final holder	Kenneth C. Royall
Abolished	1947
Succession	Secretary of Defense Secretary of the Army Secretary of the Air Force

The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," had been appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1789. Benjamin Lincoln and later Henry Knox held the position. When Washington was inaugurated as the first president under the Constitution, he appointed Knox to continue serving.

The Secretary of War was the head of the War Department. At first, he was responsible for all military affairs, including naval affairs. In 1798, the Secretary of the Navy was created by statute, and the scope of responsibility for this office was reduced to the affairs of the United States Army. From 1886 onward, the Secretary of War was third in the line of succession to the presidency, after the Vice President of the United States and the Secretary of State.

In 1947, with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of War was replaced by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force, which, along with the Secretary of the Navy, have since 1949 been non-Cabinet subordinates under the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of the Army's office is generally considered the direct successor to the Secretary of War's office although the Secretary of Defense took the Secretary of War's position in the Cabinet, and the line of succession to the presidency.

List of Secretaries

Secretary at War (1781–1789)

The office of Secretary at War was modelled upon Great Britain's Secretary at War, who was William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, at the time of the American Revolution. The office of Secretary at War was meant to replace both the Commander-in-Chief and the Board of War, and like the President of the Board, the Secretary wore no special insignia. The Inspector General, Quartermaster General, Commissary General, and Adjutant General served on the Secretary's staff. However, the Army itself under Secretary Henry Knox only consisted of 700 men.

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	Congress
1		Benjamin Lincoln	Massachusetts	1781	1783	Congress of the Confederation
2		Henry Knox	Massachusetts	March 8, 1785	September 12, 1789	Congress of the Confederation

Secretary of War (1789–1947)

Swearing in of Dwight F. Davis as Secretary of War in 1925. Former Secretaries John W. Weeks and Chief Justice William Howard Taft are standing beside him.

Parties

No party (1) Federalist (3) Democratic-Republican (8) Democratic (14) Whig (5) Republican (25)

No.	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office
1	Henry Knox	Massachusetts	September 12, 1789	December 31, 1794	George Washington
2	Timothy Pickering	Pennsylvania^[1]	January 2, 1795	December 10, 1795
3	James McHenry	Maryland	January 27, 1796	June 1, 1800^[2]
3	James McHenry	Maryland	January 27, 1796	June 1, 1800^[2]	John Adams
4	Samuel Dexter	Massachusetts	June 1, 1800	January 31, 1801	John Adams
5	Henry Dearborn	Massachusetts	March 5, 1801	March 4, 1809	Thomas Jefferson
6	William Eustis	Massachusetts	March 7, 1809	January 13, 1813	James Madison
7	John Armstrong, Jr.	New York	January 13, 1813	September 27, 1814
8	James Monroe	Virginia	September 27, 1814	March 2, 1815
9	William H. Crawford	Georgia	August 1, 1815	October 22, 1816
10	John C. Calhoun	South Carolina	October 8, 1817	March 4, 1825	James Monroe
11	James Barbour	Virginia	March 7, 1825	May 23, 1828	John Quincy Adams
12	Peter Buell Porter	New York	May 23, 1828	March 9, 1829	John Quincy Adams
13	John H. Eaton	Tennessee	March 9, 1829	June 18, 1831	Andrew Jackson
14	Lewis Cass	Ohio	August 1, 1831	October 5, 1836	Andrew Jackson
15	Joel Roberts Poinsett	South Carolina	March 7, 1837	March 4, 1841	Martin Van Buren
16	John Bell	Tennessee	March 5, 1841	September 13, 1841	William Henry Harrison
16	John Bell	Tennessee	March 5, 1841	September 13, 1841	John Tyler
17	John Canfield Spencer	New York	October 12, 1841	March 4, 1843
18	James Madison Porter	Pennsylvania	March 8, 1843	February 14, 1844
19	William Wilkins	Pennsylvania	February 15, 1844	March 4, 1845
20	William Learned Marcy	New York	March 6, 1845	March 4, 1849	James K. Polk
21	George W. Crawford	Georgia	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850	Zachary Taylor
22	Charles Magill Conrad	Louisiana	August 15, 1850	March 4, 1853	Millard Fillmore
23	Jefferson Davis	Mississippi	March 7, 1853	March 4, 1857	Franklin Pierce
24	John B. Floyd	Virginia	March 6, 1857	December 29, 1860	James Buchanan
25	Joseph Holt	Kentucky	January 18, 1861	March 4, 1861	James Buchanan
26	Simon Cameron	Pennsylvania	March 5, 1861	January 14, 1862	Abraham Lincoln
27	Edwin M. Stanton	Pennsylvania	January 20, 1862	May 28, 1868	Abraham Lincoln
27	Edwin M. Stanton	Pennsylvania	January 20, 1862	May 28, 1868	Andrew Johnson
28	John McAllister Schofield	Illinois	June 1, 1868	March 13, 1869	Andrew Johnson
29	John Aaron Rawlins	Illinois	March 13, 1869	September 6, 1869	Ulysses S. Grant
30	William W. Belknap	Iowa	October 25, 1869	March 2, 1876
31	Alphonso Taft	Ohio	March 8, 1876	May 22, 1876
32	J. Donald Cameron	Pennsylvania	May 22, 1876	March 4, 1877
33	George W. McCrary	Iowa	March 12, 1877	December 10, 1879	Rutherford B. Hayes
34	Alexander Ramsey	Minnesota	December 10, 1879	March 4, 1881	Rutherford B. Hayes
35	Robert Todd Lincoln	Illinois	March 5, 1881	March 4, 1885	James A. Garfield
35	Robert Todd Lincoln	Illinois	March 5, 1881	March 4, 1885	Chester A. Arthur
36	William Crowninshield Endicott	Massachusetts	March 5, 1885	March 4, 1889	Grover Cleveland
37	Redfield Proctor	Vermont	March 5, 1889	November 5, 1891	Benjamin Harrison
38	Stephen Benton Elkins	West Virginia	December 17, 1891	March 4, 1893	Benjamin Harrison
39	Daniel S. Lamont	New York	March 5, 1893	March 4, 1897	Grover Cleveland
40	Russell A. Alger	Michigan	March 5, 1897	August 1, 1899	William McKinley
41	Elihu Root	New York	August 1, 1899	January 31, 1904	William McKinley
41	Elihu Root	New York	August 1, 1899	January 31, 1904	Theodore Roosevelt
42	William Howard Taft	Ohio	February 1, 1904	June 30, 1908
43	Luke Edward Wright	Tennessee	July 1, 1908	March 4, 1909
44	Jacob M. Dickinson	Tennessee	March 12, 1909	May 21, 1911	William Howard Taft
45	Henry L. Stimson	New York	May 22, 1911	March 4, 1913	William Howard Taft
46	Lindley Miller Garrison	New Jersey	March 5, 1913	February 10, 1916	Woodrow Wilson
47	Newton D. Baker	Ohio	March 9, 1916	March 4, 1921	Woodrow Wilson
48	John W. Weeks	Massachusetts	March 5, 1921	October 13, 1925	Warren G. Harding
48	John W. Weeks	Massachusetts	March 5, 1921	October 13, 1925	Calvin Coolidge
49	Dwight F. Davis	Missouri	October 14, 1925	March 4, 1929	Calvin Coolidge
50	James William Good	Illinois	March 6, 1929	November 18, 1929	Herbert Hoover
51	Patrick J. Hurley	Oklahoma	December 9, 1929	March 4, 1933	Herbert Hoover
52	George Dern	Utah	March 4, 1933	August 27, 1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt
53	Harry Hines Woodring	Kansas	September 25, 1936	June 20, 1940
54	Henry L. Stimson	New York	July 10, 1940	September 21, 1945
54	Henry L. Stimson	New York	July 10, 1940	September 21, 1945	Harry S. Truman
55	Robert P. Patterson	New York	September 27, 1945	July 18, 1947
56	Kenneth C. Royall	North Carolina	July 19, 1947	September 18, 1947

References

Footnotes

↑ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:7:./temp/~ammem_WqlO::
↑ "Papers of the War Department". Wardepartmentpapers.org. Retrieved 2012-05-15.

Bell, William Gardner (2005). Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff 1775-2005: Portraits and Biographical Sketches. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History.
Grossman, Mark (2010). Encyclopedia of the United States Cabinet 1789-2010. Armenia, New York: Greyhouse Publishing.
King, Archibald (1960) [1949]. Command of the Army (PDF). Military Affairs. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army.

United States Secretaries of War and the Army

Department
of War
(1789–1949)

Secretaries
of War

Assistant Secretaries
of War

Department
of the Army
(1949–present)

Secretaries of the Army	Royall Gray Pace Stevens Brucker Stahr Vance Ailes Resor Froehlke Callaway Hoffmann C. Alexander Marsh Stone West Caldera White Harvey Geren McHugh Fanning
Under Secretaries of the Army	Draper Gray Voorhees A. Alexander Bendetsen E. Johnson Slezak Finucane Milton Ailes Ignatius Resor McGiffert Beal BeLieu Staudt Augustine LaBerge Ambrose Stone Shannon Reeder Walker Rostker Dahlberg Brownlee Geren Ford Westphal Carson Murphy McCarthy

Leaders of the United States federal executive departments
Current	Agriculture Commerce Defense Education Energy Health and Human Services Homeland Security Housing and Urban Development Interior Justice Labor State Transportation Treasury Veterans Affairs
Past	Commerce and Labor Health, Education, and Welfare Navy Post Office War

Government of the United States under the Articles of Confederation
Congresses	1st Continental Congress 2nd Continental Congress The US in Congress Assembled Delegates Committee of the States
Congressional Officers	President Secretary
Civil Offices/Officers	Postmaster General Superintendent of Finance/Agent of the Marine Secretary at War Secretary of Foreign Affairs Court of Appeals
Military	Board of War Continental Army Commander in Chief Continental Navy Continental Marines

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