1812 James Madison - Reorganizing the War Department

In his 1812 State of the Union address, President James Madison urged congress to consider legislative actions that would help create a more efficient and organized War Department.   Madison had four specific recommendations that he wanted Congress to consider.

1.  Allow militiamen to be stationed and deployed to areas close to where they lived.   This was especially needed on the frontier, where citizen-soldiers were being asked to travel hundreds of miles to fight in the Northeast.  Additionally, the states closely guarded their own militia and many resisted having their men serve out of state.  

"It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary to the security of our frontiers corps may not be advantageously organized with a restriction of their services to particular districts convenient to them, and whether the local and occasional services of mariners and others in the sea port towns under a similar organization would not be a provident addition to the means of their defense."

2.  Increase the number of general officers in the Army.  In 1812, there were few experienced U.S. Army officers and non-commissioners officer, not nearly enough to lead the 35,000-man Army that Congress had authorized.  The few officers with fighting experience were sent to the Indian frontier leaving a deficiency of leadership in other areas.

"I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers of the Army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by the # and distance of separate commands which the course of the war and the advantage of the service have required."

3.  Reorganize the staff and create more "distinct and definite" responsibilities of each department.   One crucial area to address was training.   Because the War Department was restricted to making recommendations and supplying training materials only, the Army could not implement a rigorous training program like that of the British. 

"And I can not press too strongly on the earliest attention of the Legislature the importance of the reorganization of the staff establishment with a view to render more distinct and definite the relations and responsibilities of its several departments. That there is room for improvements which will materially promote both economy and success in what appertains to the Army and the war is equally inculcated by the examples of other countries and by the experience of our own."

4.  The militia laws needed to be revised in order to make them more applicable to fighting a war.   The Militia system was not a single homogeneous body with federal supervision and enforcement.   The Federal government under the organic act of 1792, established norms but enforcement was left to the states.  According to an article by Robert L. Kerby,  "between 1812 and 1815 numerous contemporaries testified that militia soldiers were often 'very little better than an infuriated mob'".   In colonial tradition, Americans still followed the mantra of 'No Standing army', and left the control of the militia to the states as defined in the constitution.  In 1812 there was no shortage of patriotic Americans, and no shortage of available men to fight in a war; the militia strength was estimated at over 700,000 men, enough to repopulate all of Canada.  But the problem was that the militia was poorly organized, poorly disciplined and often times lacking proper supplies. 

"A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering them more systematic and better adapting them to emergencies of the war is at this time particularly desirable."

After the war was over in 1817,  President James Monroe reminded Congress that the need to reorganize the Department of War was still needed.   The number of men in the militia was now 800,000 and "improvement in the organization and discipline of the militia is one of the great objects which claims the unremitted attention of Congress."

"By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men - infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Great part of this force is armed, and measures are taken to arm the whole. An improvement in the organization and discipline of the militia is one of the great objects which claims the unremitted attention of Congress.

The regular force amounts nearly to the number required by law, and is stationed along the Atlantic and inland frontiers.

Of the naval force it has been necessary to maintain strong squadrons in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico"

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29454
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29459
https://www.army.mil/article/132654/War_of_1812_part_of_Army_s_proud_history
http://www.history.army.mil/books/amh-v1/ch07.htm
http://www.history.army.mil/books/r&h/R&H-1Art.htm
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/9999/13709
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/War_of_1812_monument_on_Parliament_Hill_-_03.jpg