TABLE 2-11
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND NOTES
1. Officers include warrant officers, field clerks, and nurses. Enlisted personnel include cadets and midshipmen
from the U.S. military academies at West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs, as well as other officer
candidates. Both officer and enlisted personnel data exclude figures on the Coast Guard.
2. Data for the year shown are as of June 30 beginning with 1878 for Army, 1900 for Navy, and 1798 for Marine
Corps. For prior years, the as of date is the month for which records most completely reveal the total strengths
of each Service. In some instances, incremental reports of different dates had to be used to compile a Service
total, with the result that the strength shown is not for any particular point in time during that year. Data
subsequent to 1976 are as of September 30.
3. Army data begin with 1789, the year in which the Department of War (now the Department of the Army) was
established by the new U.S. Congress. Although a "regular" Army has existed continuously since that time, the
total strengths cannot be documented from available personnel on extended active duty with the Army (regulars,
volunteers, militia, inductees, reserves, and National Guardsmen) and U.S. Military Academy cadets. Data prior
to 1861 are for regular Army and cadets only, except for 1836-1840 (Seminole Indian War) and 1846-1848
(War with Mexico). Source documents for other years do not contain adequate strength statistics on nonregular
personnel called up during the War of 1812 or for short periods of service during the numerous Indian disturbances.
Army data also include strengths of the Army Air Corps and predecessor agencies.
4. Navy strengths for the period 1794-1798 are estimates of the number of "on board" personnel authorized by the
U.S. Congress to reestablish a Navy which had existed from 1775 to 1785 under the Continental Congress. A separate
Navy Department was authorized and organized in 1798. During the early years of the Navy, crews were usually
contracted for a specific sailing or mission rather than a continuous tour of duty. The strengths shown are more
in the nature of an average and are, therefore, marked "estimated." Data excluded an unknown number of Naval
militia, supplied by the states, who served during the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War.
5. Marine Corps strengths as shown begin in 1798, the year in which the Navy Department and Marine Corps were
authorized by an Act of Congress. The Marine Corps was founded in 1775 by the Continental Congress and served
during the Revolutionary War, but ceased to exist in 1783. The Marines were reestablished in 1794 when Congress
authorized the rebuilding of the Navy. A small number of Marines were used as guards on Navy ships. However,
records do not reveal reliable strength data before 1798.