Quartermaster General of the United States Army 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 Quartermaster Generals 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 . 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 . 19th Century . Fifteen officers held the office of quartermaster general in the United States Army in the nineteenth century . The first of these officers , 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 . The other twelve quartermasters were brigadier generals . From 1860 to the end of the century , the quartermaster general office was held by officers who were to serve or had served in the American Civil War ( Civil War ) . Brigadier General Joseph E . Johnston held the position from June 28 , 1860 until his resignation as quartermaster general and brigadier general , U . S . Army , on April 22 , 1861 . Johnston was appointed a full general in the Confederate States Army on August 31 , 1861 . Brigadier General Montgomery C Meigs succeeded Johnston on May 15 , 1861 . Meigs was born in Augusta , Georgia but adhered to the Union during the Civil War . Meigs served throughout the Civil War and until 1882 . He retired on February 6 , 1882 . Contemporaries such as U . S . Secretary of State William H . Seward and historians have given Meigs ' s work in keeping the Union Army adequately and timely supplied considerable credit for the Union victory . For a period of ten days between February 13 , 1882 and February 23 , 1882 , another Civil War veteran , Daniel H . Rucker , was quartermaster general . At the end of his brief tenure , Rucker retired from the U . S . Army . 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 . Another brevet brigadier general of the Union Army , Samuel B . Holabird , who was chief quartermaster of the Union Department of the Gulf during much of the Civil War , succeeded Ingalls . Holabird was quartermaster general between July 1 , 1883 and 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 before Batchelder , as chief quartermaster of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac , as quartermaster during the Red River Campaign and as chief quartermaster for the Military Division of West Mississippi , 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 and in Albany , New York later in the war , 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 peace , except for the small American Indian Wars , after 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 . On April 12 , 1903 , Ludington was promoted to major general and retired the next day . 20th Century . 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 . 21st Century . Colonel Gwendolyn Bingham became the Army ' s first female Quartermaster General when she assumed command of the Quartermaster Corps from Brigadier General Jesse Cross on November 23 , 2010 . Bingham was promoted to brigadier general in April 2011 .