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 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. 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, 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 Daniel H. Rucker 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. 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 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. Bingham was promoted to brigadier general in April 2011. Quartermaster General of the