History
Shortly after the establishment of a strong government under President George Washington in 1789, Congress created the War Department as a civilian agency to administer the field army under the president (as commander in chief) and the secretary of war. Retired senior General Henry Knox, then in civilian life, served as the first United States Secretary of War.
Read more about this topic: United States Department Of War
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)