Quartermaster General of the United States Army

Quartermaster General of the United States Army
Quartermaster General of the United States Army
	Incumbent; BG Michelle K. Donahue; since May 29, 2020
Formation	June 16, 1775
First holder	MG Thomas Mifflin
Website	Official website

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 Quartermasters General 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, 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. On May 8, 1818, Thomas Jessup became the Quartermaster General, and he remained in the position until 1860. As a combat veteran, Jessup understood the importance of support to front line soldiers and instituted many enduring practices and policies. Because of his reforms, historians often call Jessup the "father of the Quartermaster Corps". From 1860 to the end of the century, the quartermaster general office was held by officers who served in the American Civil War.

Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston held the position from June 28, 1860, until his resignation on April 22, 1861. Johnston was appointed a full general in the Confederate States Army on August 31, 1861. Adhering to the ideology of states' 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 his family was from Philadelphia and he adhered to the Union during the Civil War. Meigs served throughout the war and retired on February 6, 1882. Contemporaries such as U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and many historians have given Meigs's work in keeping the Union Army adequately and timely supplied considerable credit for the Union victory.

From February 13, 1882, to February 23, 1882 was quartermaster general, an appointment intended to honor his many years of military service. At the end of his brief tenure, Rucker retired. 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. Samuel B. Holabird, who was chief quartermaster of the Union Department of the Gulf during much of the Civil War, succeeded Ingalls and served from July 1, 1883, to 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, 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, 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 relative peace that followed 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. He was promoted to major general on April 12, 1903, 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 Gwen Bingham became the Army's second 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 Quartermasters General[]

	Name	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 Lovejoy 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	June 10, 2016
54.	BG Rodney D. Fogg	June 10, 2016	June 12, 2018
55.	BG Douglas M. McBride Jr	June 12, 2018	May 29, 2020^[7]
56.	BG Michelle K. Donahue	May 29, 2020	Present