Department of California
The Department of California was one of two Army Departments created September 13, 1858, replacing the original Department of the Pacific and was composed of the territory of the United States lying west of the Rocky Mountains and south of Oregon and Washington territories, except the Rogue River and Umpqua Districts of southwestern Oregon Territory, which were assigned to the Department of California and excluding the Utah Territory east of the 117th meridian west and New Mexico Territory east of the 110th meridian west. Its creation was authorized by General Orders, No. 10, of the War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, September 13, 1858. Headquarters as before remained at San Francisco; the Department of California was commanded first by Brevet Brigadier General Newman S. Clarke, Colonel U. S. 6th Infantry Regiment, until his death on October 17, 1860. It was next commanded by Lt. Colonel Benjamin L. Beall, U. S. 1st Dragoon Regiment, who had assumed command, by seniority of rank, on the death of General Clarke, on October 17, 1860.
It was merged into the restored Department of the Pacific on January 15, 1861, as the District of California administering the same territories, under Brevet Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston from January 15, 1861. When General Edwin Vose Sumner, relieved General Johnston in March 1861 he continued in command of the Department of California now renamed the District of California, his successor in October 1861, Brigadier General George Wright continued in command of the District after losing command of the Department of the Pacific, on July 1, 1864, to Gen. Irvin McDowell. In June 1865, Col. Edward McGarry was ordered to succeed Brigadier General George Wright, in command of the District of California until General McDowell could take command of the District, again raised to Department status once more under the Military Division of the Pacific, now commanded by Major General Henry W. Halleck; the territory encompassed by the new Department of California now consisted of the States of California and Nevada and the District of New Mexico and District of Arizona in the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona.
Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell, U. S. Army, assigned to command the Department of California; the Department of Arizona was established under the Division of the Pacific on April 15, 1870. It consisted of Arizona Territory and California south of a line from the northwest corner of Arizona to Point Conception so as to include most of Southern California. From December 7, 1871, the one general officer at San Francisco commanded both the Division of the Pacific and the Department of California and the separate staffs were consolidated into one. On July 1, 1878, Division of the Pacific headquarters moved from San Francisco to the Presidio of San Francisco; the Department of Arizona lost Southern California to the Department of California on February 14, 1883, but regained California south of the 35th parallel on December 15, 1886. The Department of California consisted of California north of the 35th parallel and Nevada; the Military Division of the Pacific was discontinued on July 3, 1891. Each of the three subordinate departments of Arizona and the Columbia reported directly to the War Department.
The Department of California, with its headquarters at San Francisco, consisted of California north of the 35th parallel and Nevada. The Hawaiian Islands were added to the department July 12, 1898, it became the District of Hawaii in 1910 under the Department of California. From 1904 to 1907, the Department of California, with the Department of Columbia was subordinate to a new Pacific Division was independent again until they were again under a new Western Division from 1911 to 1913. On February 15, 1913 the Department of California, with all the mainland territorial departments, was disbanded for a new organization of the Army; the territory of the former departments of the Columbia and California were now controlled by the Western Department, except for the District of Hawaii that now became the independent Department of Hawaii. General Irvin McDowell, July 27, 1865 - March 31, 1868 Major General Henry Halleck, March 31, 1868 - April 24, 1868 Major General E. O. C. Ord, April 24, 1868 - November 18, 1871 Major General John M. Schofield, December 7, 1871 - July 1, 1876 Major General Irvin McDowell, July 1, 1876 - October 15, 1882 Major General John M. Schofield, October 15, 1882 - November 30, 1883 Major General John Pope, November 30, 1883 - March 16, 1886 Major General Oliver Otis Howard, March 16, 1886 – 1888 Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, November 23, 1888 - September 1, 1890 Brigadier General John Gibbon September 1, 1890 - April 20, 1891 Brigadier General Thomas H. Ruger, April 20, 1891 - July, 1891 Brigadier General Thomas H. Ruger, July 3, 1891 - November 10, 1894 Brigadier General James W. Forsyth, November 10, 1894 - 1897 Major General William Rufus Shafter 1897 - May 1898?, May 1898 - September 1898 Major General William Rufus Shafter September 1898 - February 1901 Major General Samuel B. M. Young February 1901 - March 1902 Major General Robert P. Hughes March 1902 - April 1, 1903 Major General Arthur MacArthur, Jr.
April 1, 1903 - September 30, 1904 Brigadier General Francis Moore, September 30, 1904 - March 31, 1905 Brigadier-General Frederick Funston March 31, 1905 - 1907 Col. Marion F. Maus, Aug. 10, 1908 - Brigadier General John Joseph Pershing, 1907 - October 1908 Brigadier General Frederick A. Smith, October 1908 - January 13, 1909 Major General John F. Weston, January 13, 1909 - June 30, 1909 Major General Thomas H. Barry, June 30, 1909 - August 12, 1910 Brigadier General Tasker H. Bliss August 12, 1910 - August 13, 1911 Brig. Gen. Daniel H. Brush, from July 1, 1911, to April 7, 1912 Colonel John
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Peninsula Campaign
The Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement against the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia, intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. McClellan was successful against the cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the more aggressive General Robert E. Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat. McClellan moved northwest, up the Virginia Peninsula. Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder's defensive position on the Warwick Line caught McClellan by surprise, his hopes for a quick advance foiled, McClellan ordered his army to prepare for a siege of Yorktown. Just before the siege preparations were completed, the Confederates, now under the direct command of Johnston, began a withdrawal toward Richmond.
The first heavy fighting of the campaign occurred in the Battle of Williamsburg, in which the Union troops managed some tactical victories, but the Confederates continued their withdrawal. An amphibious flanking movement to Eltham's Landing was ineffective in cutting off the Confederate retreat. In the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, an attempt by the U. S. Navy to reach Richmond by way of the James River was repulsed; as McClellan's army reached the outskirts of Richmond, a minor battle occurred at Hanover Court House, but it was followed by a surprise attack by Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks. The battle was inconclusive, with heavy casualties. Johnston was wounded by a Union artillery shell fragment on May 31 and replaced the next day by the more aggressive Robert E. Lee, who reorganized his army and prepared for offensive action in the final battles of June 25 to July 1, which are popularly known as the Seven Days Battles. On August 20, 1861, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan formed the Army of the Potomac, with himself as its first commander.
During the summer and fall, McClellan brought a high degree of organization to his new army, improved its morale by his frequent trips to review and encourage his units. It was a remarkable achievement, in which he came to personify the Army of the Potomac and reaped the adulation of his men, he created defenses for Washington that were impregnable, consisting of 48 forts and strong points, with 480 guns manned by 7,200 artillerists. On November 1, 1861, Gen. Winfield Scott retired and McClellan became general in chief of all the Union armies; the president expressed his concern about the "vast labor" involved in the dual role of army commander and general in chief, but McClellan responded, "I can do it all."On January 12, 1862, McClellan revealed his intentions to transport the Army of the Potomac by ship to Urbanna, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River, outflanking the Confederate forces near Washington, proceeding 50 miles overland to capture Richmond. On January 27, Lincoln issued an order that required all of his armies to begin offensive operations by February 22, Washington's birthday.
On January 31, he issued a supplementary order for the Army of the Potomac to move overland to attack the Confederates at Manassas Junction and Centreville. McClellan replied with a 22-page letter objecting in detail to the president's plan and advocating instead his Urbanna plan, the first written instance of the plan's details being presented to the president. Although Lincoln believed his plan was superior, he was relieved that McClellan agreed to begin moving, reluctantly approved. On March 8, doubting McClellan's resolve, Lincoln called a council of war at the White House in which McClellan's subordinates were asked about their confidence in the Urbanna plan, they expressed their confidence to varying degrees. After the meeting, Lincoln issued another order, naming specific officers as corps commanders to report to McClellan. Before McClellan could implement his plans, the Confederate forces under General Joseph E. Johnston withdrew from their positions before Washington on March 9, assuming new positions south of the Rappahannock, which nullified the Urbanna strategy.
McClellan retooled his plan so that his troops would disembark at Fort Monroe and advance up the Virginia Peninsula to Richmond. However, McClellan came under extreme criticism from the press and the Congress when it was found that Johnston's forces had not only slipped away unnoticed, but had for months fooled the Union Army through the use of Quaker Guns. A further complication for the campaign planning was the emergence of the first Confederate ironclad warship, CSS Virginia, which threw Washington into a panic and made naval support operations on the James River seem problematic. In the Battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia defeated wooden U. S. Navy ships blockading the harbor of Hampton Roads, including the frigates USS Cumberland and USS Congress on March 8, calling into question the viability of any of the wooden ships in the world; the following day, the USS Monitor ironclad arrived at the scene and engaged with the Virginia, the famous first duel of the ironclads. The battle, although inconclusive, received worldwide publicity.
After the battle, it was clear. Neither ship damaged the other. On
Texas
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U. S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U. S. while San Antonio is the second-most populous in the state and seventh largest in the U. S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, respectively. Other major cities include Austin, the second-most populous state capital in the U. S. and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed "The Lone Star State" to signify its former status as an independent republic, as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico; the "Lone Star" can be found on the Texan state seal.
The origin of Texas's name is from the word taysha. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U. S. Southern and Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10% of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the desert and mountains of the Big Bend; the term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state; the state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846.
A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, joined the Confederate States of America on March 2nd of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. Four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton and oil. Before and after the U. S. Civil War the cattle industry, which Texas came to dominate, was a major economic driver for the state, thus creating the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the 19th century cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative, it was though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry in the mid-20th century.
As of 2015, it is second on the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with 54. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including agriculture, energy and electronics, biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U. S. in state export revenue since 2002, has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would be the 10th largest economy in the world; the name Texas, based on the Caddo word táyshaʼ "friend", was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas, by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves the Hasinai Confederacy, the final -s representing the Spanish plural. The Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in May 1690, in what is now Houston County, East Texas. During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevo Reino de Filipinas "New Kingdom of the Philippines", or as provincia de los Tejas "province of the Tejas" also provincia de Texas, "province of Texas", it was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, declared a republic in 1836.
The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name of the U. S. State of Texas; the English pronunciation with /ks/ is unetymological, based in the value of the letter x in historical Spanish orthography. Alternative etymologies of the name advanced in the late 19th century connected the Spanish teja "rooftile", the plural tejas being used to designate indigenous Pueblo settlements. A 1760s map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a village named Teijas on Trinity River, close to the site of modern Crockett. Texas is the second-largest U. S. state, with an area of 268,820 square miles. Though 10% larger than France and twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Zambia. Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers; the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the south.
The Red River forms a natural border with Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east; the Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western
United States Colored Troops
The United States Colored Troops were regiments in the United States Army composed of African-American soldiers, although members of other minority groups served with the units. They were first recruited during the American Civil War, by the end of that war in April 1865, the 175 USCT regiments constituted about one-tenth of the manpower of the Union Army. About 20% of USCT soldiers died, a rate about 35% higher than that for white Union troops. Despite heavy casualties, many fought with distinction, with 15 USCT receiving the Medal of Honor and numerous other honors; the USCT was the precursor to the Buffalo Soldier regiments in the American Old West. The U. S. Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1862 in July 1862, it freed slaves whose owners were in rebellion against the United States, Militia Act of 1862 empowered the President to use former slaves in any capacity in the army. President Abraham Lincoln was concerned with public opinion in the four border states that remained in the Union, as they had numerous slaveholders, as well as with northern Democrats who supported the war but were less supportive of abolition than many northern Republicans.
Lincoln opposed early efforts to recruit black soldiers, although he accepted the Army using them as paid workers. Native Americans played a significant role in the colored regiments of the American Civil War. In September 1862, Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all slaves in rebellious states would be free as of January 1. Recruitment of colored regiments began in full force following the Proclamation in January 1863; the United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 on May 22, 1863, establishing the Bureau of Colored Troops to facilitate the recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. These units became known as the United States Colored Troops, although other people of color who were not of African descent, such as Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans fought under USCT regiments and made significant contributions. Regiments, including infantry, engineers, light artillery, heavy artillery units were recruited from all states of the Union.
175 regiments comprising more than 178,000 free blacks and freedmen served during the last two years of the war. Their service bolstered the Union war effort at a critical time. By war's end, the men of the USCT made up nearly one-tenth of all Union troops; the USCT suffered 2,751 combat casualties during the war, 68,178 losses from all causes. Disease caused the most fatalities for all troops, both white. In the last year and a half and from all reported casualties 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives. Notably, their mortality rate was higher than white soldiers: find, according to the revised official data, that of the over two millions troops in the United States Volunteers, over 316,000 died, or 15.2%. Of the 67,000 Regular Army troops, 8.6%, or not quite 6,000, died. Of the 180,000 United States Colored Troops, over 36,000 died, or 20.5%. In other words, the mortality rate amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was thirty-five percent greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after the fighting began.
USCT regiments were led by white officers. The Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia opened the Free Military Academy for Applicants for the Command of Colored Troops at the end of 1863. For a time, black soldiers received less pay than their white counterparts, but they and their supporters lobbied and gained equal pay. Notable members of USCT regiments included Martin Robinson Delany and the sons of Frederick Douglass; the USCT engineers built a Union supply depot, in Charles City, Virginia. The courage displayed by colored troops during the Civil War played an important role in African Americans gaining new rights; as the abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote: Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U. S. let him get an eagle on his button, a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship. Before the USCT was formed, several volunteer regiments were raised from free black men, including freedmen in the South.
In 1863 a former slave, William Henry Singleton, helped recruit 1,000 former slaves in New Bern, North Carolina for the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers. He became a sergeant in the 35th USCT. Freedmen from the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, established in 1863 on the island formed part of the Free North Carolina Colored Volunteers and subsequently the 35th. Nearly all of the volunteer regiments were converted into USCT units. In 1922 Singleton published his memoir of his journey from slavery to freedom and becoming a Union soldier. Glad to participate in reunions, years at the age of 95, he marched in a Grand Army of the Republic event in 1938. Four regiments were considered Regular units, rather than auxiliaries, their veteran status allowed them to get valuable federal government jobs after the war, from which African Americans had been excluded in earlier years. However, the men received no formal recognition for combat honors and awards until the turn of the 20th century; these units were: 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment 29th Connecticut (Color
American Indian Wars
The American Indian Wars is the collective name for the various armed conflicts fought by European governments and colonists, the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the 1920s; the various Indian Wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, including cultural clashes, land disputes, criminal acts committed on both sides. European powers and the colonies enlisted Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against one another's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and involved disputes over land use; the British Royal Proclamation of 1763, included in the Constitution of Canada, prohibited white settlers from taking the lands of indigenous peoples in Canada without signing a treaty with them. It continues to be the law in Canada today, 11 Numbered Treaties, covering most of the First Nations lands, limited the number of such conflicts.
As white settlers spread westward across America after 1780, the size and intensity of armed conflicts increased between settlers and various cultures of Indians. The climax came in the War of 1812, which resulted in the defeat of major Indian coalitions in the Midwest and the South. Conflict with settlers became much less common and were resolved by treaty through sale or exchange of territory between the federal government and specific tribes; the Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the US government to enforce the Indian removal from east of the Mississippi River to the west, what the government considered the sparsely populated American frontier. The federal US policy of removal was refined in the West, as American settlers kept expanding their territories, to relocate Indian tribes to specially designated and federally protected reservations; the colonization of North America by the English, Spanish and Swedish was resisted by some Indian tribes and assisted by other tribes. Wars and other armed conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries included: Beaver Wars between the Iroquois and the French, who allied with the Algonquians Anglo-Powhatan Wars, including the 1622 Jamestown Massacre, between English colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy in the Colony of Virginia Pequot War of 1636–38 between the Pequot tribe and colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Connecticut Colony Kieft's War in the Dutch territory of New Netherland between colonists and the Lenape people Peach Tree War, the large-scale attack by the Susquehannocks and allied tribes on several New Netherland settlements along the Hudson River Esopus Wars, conflicts between the Esopus tribe of Lenape Indians and colonial New Netherlanders in Ulster County, New York King Philip's War in New England between colonists and the Narragansett people Tuscarora War in the Province of North Carolina Yamasee War in the Province of South Carolina Dummer's War in northern New England and French Acadia Pontiac's War in the Great Lakes region Lord Dunmore's War in western Virginia In several instances, warfare in America was a reflection of European rivalries, with American Indian tribes splitting their alliances among the powers siding with their trading partners.
Various tribes fought on each side in King William's War, Queen Anne's War, Dummer's War, King George's War, the French and Indian War, allying with British or French colonists according to their own self interests. Indian tribes differed in their alliances during the American Revolution and the War of 1812; the Cherokees supported the British in the Revolutionary War and raided frontier American settlements in the hope of driving out the settlers, four Iroquois tribes fought against the Patriots. Other tribes fought for the American Patriots, such as the Oneida people and Tuscarora people of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York. British merchants and government agents began supplying weapons to Indians living in the United States following the Revolution in the hope that, if a war broke out, they would fight on the British side; the British further planned to set up an Indian nation in the Ohio-Wisconsin area to block further American expansion. The US protested and went to war in 1812. Most Indian tribes supported the British those allied with Tecumseh, but they were defeated by General William Henry Harrison.
The War of 1812 spread to Indian rivalries, as well. Many refugees from defeated tribes went over the border to Canada. During the early 19th century, the federal government was under pressure by settlers in many regions to expel Indians from their areas; the Indian Removal Act of 1830 offered Indians the choices of assimilating and giving up tribal membership, relocation to an Indian reservation with an exchange or payment for lands, or moving west. Some resisted most notably the Seminoles in a series of wars in Florida, they were never defeated. The United States gave up on the remainder, by living defensively deep in the swamps and Everglades. Others were moved to reservations west of the Mississippi River, most famously the Cherokee whose relocation was call
Major general (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks below lieutenant general. A major general commands division-sized units of 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers. Major general is equivalent to the two-star rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard, is the highest-permanent rank during peacetime in the uniformed-services. Higher ranks are technically-temporary ranks linked to specific positions, although all officers promoted to those ranks are approved to retire at their highest earned rank; the United States Code explicitly limits the total number of general officers that may be on active duty at any given time. The total number of active duty general officers is capped at 231 for the Army, 62 for the Marine Corps, 198 for the Air Force; some of these slots are finitely set by statute. For example, the Deputy Judge Advocate General of the Army is a major general in the Army.
The United States Code limits the total number of general officers that may be on the Reserve Active Status List in the Reserve Component, defined in the case of general officers as the Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve. To be promoted to the permanent grade of major general, officers who are eligible for promotion to this rank are screened by an in-service promotion board comprising other general officers from their branch of service; this promotion board generates a list of officers it recommends for promotion to general rank. This list is sent to the service secretary and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for review before it can be sent to the President, through the Secretary of Defense for consideration; the President nominates officers to be promoted from this list with the advice of the Secretary of Defense, the service secretary, if applicable, the service's chief of staff or commandant. The President may nominate any eligible officer, not on the recommended list if it serves in the interest of the nation, but this is uncommon.
The Senate must confirm the nominee by a majority vote before the officer can be promoted. Once confirmed, the nominee is promoted to that rank on assuming a position of office that requires an officer to hold the rank. For positions of office that are reserved by statute, the President nominates an officer for appointment to fill that position. For all three of the applicable uniformed services, because the grade of major general is a permanent rank, the nominee may still be screened by an in-service promotion board to add their input on the nominee before the nomination can be sent to the Senate for approval. Since the grade of major general is permanent, the rank does not expire when the officer vacates a two-star position. Tour length varies depending on the position, by statute, and/or when the officer receives a new assignment or a promotion, but the average tour length per two-star billet is two to four years. In the Army, Major Generals serve as division commanders, training center commanders, joint task force commanders, deputy commanding generals to 3-star generals, chief of staff in 4-star commands, senior directors on Army and joint staffs, and, in the case of the Army National Guard, as The Adjutant General for their state, commonwealth or territory.
In the Marine Corps, Major Generals serve as commanding generals or deputy commanding generals of Marine Expeditionary Forces, Marine Divisions, Marine Aircraft Wings, Joint Task Force Commanders, or senior directors on Marine Corps and joint staffs. In the Air Force, Major Generals serve as Numbered Air Force commanders, vice commanders of 3-star commands, joint task force commanders, warfare center, training center, weapons center, or logistics center commanders, or senior directors on Air Force and joint staffs. In the case of the Air National Guard, they may serve as The Adjutant General for their state, commonwealth or territory. Other than voluntary retirement, statute sets a number of mandates for retirement of general officers. All major generals must retire after five years in grade or 35 years of service, whichever is unless appointed for promotion or reappointed to grade to serve longer. Otherwise, all general officers must retire the month after their 64th birthday; the Continental Army was established on June 15, 1775 when the Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as a general and placed him in command of the Army of Observation besieging Boston.
The rank of major general was first established two days on June 17, 1775 when two major generals were commissioned by Congress soon followed by two more major generals being appointed on June 19. Following the disbanding of the Continental Army at the end of 1783 only one major general, Henry Knox, remained in service until his resignation in June 1784; the rank was revived on March 4, 1791 when Arthur St. Clair was appointed as major general in command of the U. S. Army. St. Clair was succeeded by Major General Anthony Wayne who commanded the Army until his death on December 15, 1796; the rank was revived on July 19, 1798 when Alexander Hamilton and Charles C. Pinckney were commissioned as major generals during the Quasi War with France; the expanded Army was demobilized on June 15, 1800 when it was reduced to
Major General
