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United States Secretary of War

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United States Secretary of War
Official seal
Flag of the secretary
Longest serving
Henry Dearborn
March 5, 1801 – March 4, 1809
United States Department of War
StyleMr. Secretary
TypeSecretary
StatusAbolished
Member ofCabinet
Reports toPresident of the United States
SeatWashington, D.C.
AppointerThe President
with Senate advice and consent
Term lengthNo fixed term
PrecursorSecretary at War
FormationSeptember 12, 1789
First holderHenry Knox
Final holderKenneth C. Royall
AbolishedSeptember 18, 1947
Superseded bySecretary of Defense
Secretary of the Army
Secretary of the Air Force
Succession6th in the line of succession

The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. 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 as Secretary of War.

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 in the line of succession to the presidency, after the vice president of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate 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

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Secretary at War (1781–1789)

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The office of Secretary at War was modeled 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.

Image Name Home State Start End Appointer
Benjamin Lincoln Massachusetts March 1, 1781 November 2, 1783 Congress of the Confederation
Henry Knox Massachusetts March 8, 1785 September 12, 1789

Secretary of War (1789–1947)

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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

  Federalist (4)   Democratic-Republican (8)   Democratic (14)   Whig (5)   Republican (25)


Image Name Start End Duration Party Home State President(s)
Henry Knox September 12, 1789 December 31, 1794 5 years, 110 days Federalist Massachusetts George Washington
(1789–1797)
Timothy Pickering[1] January 2, 1795 December 10, 1795 342 days Federalist Pennsylvania
James McHenry[2] January 27, 1796 June 1, 1800 4 years, 125 days Federalist Maryland
John Adams
(1797–1801)
Samuel Dexter June 1, 1800 January 31, 1801 244 days Federalist Massachusetts
Henry Dearborn March 5, 1801 March 4, 1809 7 years, 364 days Democratic-Republican Massachusetts Thomas Jefferson
(1801–1809)
William Eustis March 7, 1809 January 13, 1813 3 years, 312 days Democratic-Republican Massachusetts James Madison
(1809–1817)
John Armstrong Jr. January 13, 1813 September 27, 1814 1 year, 257 days Democratic-Republican New York
John Monroe September 27, 1814 March 2, 1815 156 days Democratic-Republican Virginia
William H. Crawford August 1, 1815 October 22, 1816 1 year, 82 days Democratic-Republican Georgia
John C. Calhoun October 8, 1817 March 4, 1825 7 years, 147 days Democratic-Republican South Carolina James Monroe
(1817–1825)
James Barbour March 7, 1825 May 23, 1828 3 years, 77 days Democratic-Republican Virginia John Quincy Adams
(1825–1829)
Peter Buell Porter May 23, 1828 March 9, 1829 290 days Democratic-Republican New York
John Eaton March 9, 1829 June 18, 1831 2 years, 101 days Democratic Tennessee Andrew Jackson
(1829–1837)
Lewis Cass August 1, 1831 October 5, 1836 5 years, 65 days Democratic Ohio
Joel Roberts Poinsett March 7, 1837 March 4, 1841 3 years, 362 days Democratic South Carolina Martin Van Buren
(1837–1841)
John Bell March 5, 1841 September 13, 1841 193 days Whig South Carolina William Henry Harrison
(1841)
John Tyler
(1841–1845)
John Canfield Spencer October 12, 1841 March 4, 1843 1 year, 143 days Whig New York
James Madison Porter March 8, 1843 February 14, 1844 347 days Whig Pennsylvania
William Wilkins February 15, 1844 March 4, 1845 1 year, 17 days Democratic Pennsylvania
William Learned Marcy March 6, 1845 March 4, 1849 3 years, 363 days Democratic New York James K. Polk
(1845–1849)
George W. Crawford March 8, 1849 July 22, 1850 1 year, 136 days Whig Georgia Zachary Taylor
(1849–1850)
Charles Magill Conrad August 15, 1850 March 4, 1853 2 years, 201 days Whig Louisiana Millard Fillmore
(1850–1853)
Jefferson Davis March 7, 1853 March 4, 1857 3 years, 362 days Democratic Mississippi Franklin Pierce
(1853–1857)
John B. Floyd March 6, 1857 December 29, 1860 3 years, 298 days Democratic Virginia James Buchanan
(1857–1861)
Joseph Holt January 18, 1861 March 4, 1861 45 days Republican Kentucky
Simon Cameron March 5, 1861 January 14, 1862 315 days Republican Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln
(1861–1865)
Edwin M. Stanton January 20, 1862
Suspended: August 12, 1867 – January 14, 1868[3] 		May 28, 1868 6 years, 129 days Republican Pennsylvania
Andrew Johnson
(1865–1869)
Ulysses S. Grant
Acting[4] 		August 12, 1867 January 14, 1868 155 days Republican Pennsylvania
John McAllister Schofield June 1, 1868 March 13, 1869 285 days Republican Illinois
John Aaron Rawlins March 13, 1869 September 6, 1869 177 days Republican Illinois Ulysses S. Grant
(1869–1877)
William Sherman
Acting 		September 6, 1869 October 25, 1869 49 days Republican Ohio
William W. Belknap October 25, 1869 March 2, 1876 6 years, 129 days Republican Iowa
Alphonso Taft March 8, 1876 May 22, 1876 81 days Republican Ohio
J. Donald Cameron May 22, 1876 March 4, 1877 286 days Republican Pennsylvania
George W. McCrary March 12, 1877 December 10, 1879 2 years, 273 days Republican Iowa Rutherford B. Hayes
(1877–1881)
Alexander Ramsey December 10, 1879 March 4, 1881 1 year, 84 days Republican Minnesota
Robert Todd Lincoln March 5, 1881 March 4, 1885 3 years, 364 days Republican Illinois James A. Garfield
(1881)
Chester A. Arthur
(1881–1885)
William Crowninshield Endicott March 5, 1885 March 4, 1889 3 years, 364 days Democratic Massachusetts Grover Cleveland
(1885–1889)
Redfield Proctor March 5, 1889 November 5, 1891 2 years, 245 days Republican Vermont Benjamin Harrison
(1889–1893)
Stephen Benton Elkins December 17, 1891 March 4, 1893 1 year, 77 days Republican West Virginia
Daniel S. Lamont March 5, 1893 March 4, 1897 3 years, 364 days Democratic New York Grover Cleveland
(1885–1889)
Russell A. Alger March 5, 1897 August 1, 1899 2 years, 149 days Republican Michigan William McKinley
(1897–1901)
Elihu Root August 1, 1899 January 31, 1904 4 years, 183 days Republican New York
Theodore Roosevelt
(1901–1909)
William Howard Taft February 1, 1904 June 30, 1908 4 years, 150 days Republican Ohio
Luke Edward Wright July 1, 1908 March 4, 1909 246 days Republican Tennessee
Jacob M. Dickinson March 12, 1909 May 21, 1911 2 years, 70 days Democratic Tennessee William Howard Taft
(1909–1913)
Henry L. Stimson May 22, 1911 March 4, 1913 1 year, 286 days Republican New York
Lindley Miller Garrison March 5, 1913 February 10, 1916 2 years, 342 days Democratic New Jersey Woodrow Wilson
(1913–1921)
Newton D. Baker March 9, 1916 March 4, 1921 4 years, 360 days Democratic Ohio
John W. Weeks March 5, 1921 October 13, 1925 4 years, 223 days Republican Massachusetts Warren G. Harding
(1921–1923)
Calvin Coolidge
(1923–1929)
Dwight F. Davis October 14, 1925 March 4, 1929 3 years, 141 days Republican Missouri
James William Good March 6, 1929 November 18, 1929 257 days Republican Iowa Herbert Hoover
(1929–1933)
Patrick J. Hurley December 9, 1929 March 4, 1933 3 years, 85 days Republican Oklahoma
George Dern March 4, 1933 August 27, 1936 3 years, 176 days Democratic Utah Franklin D. Roosevelt
(1933–1945)
Harry Hines Woodring September 25, 1936 June 20, 1940 3 years, 298 days Democratic Kansas
Henry L. Stimson July 10, 1940 September 21, 1945 5 years, 73 days Republican New York
Harry S. Truman
(1945–1953)
Robert P. Patterson September 27, 1945 July 18, 1947 1 year, 294 days Republican New York
Kenneth Royall July 19, 1947 September 18, 1947 61 days Democratic North Carolina

See also

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References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Unknown[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ "Papers of the War Department". Wardepartmentpapers.org. Archived from the original on December 29, 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  3. ^ From August 12, 1867 until January 14, 1868, Stanton was suspended from office, and Ulysses S. Grant served as Acting Secretary of War. For more on President Johnson's attempts to remove Stanton from office, see impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
  4. ^ From August 12, 1867 until January 14, 1868, Stanton was suspended from office, and Ulysses S. Grant served as Acting Secretary of War. For more on President Johnson's attempts to remove Stanton from office, see impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Further reading

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