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United States Secretary of War
Official seal
Flag of the Secretary of War
Last in office Kenneth C. Royall September 18, 1947 – April 27, 1949
United States Department of War
Style	Mr. Secretary
Member of	Cabinet
Reports to	President of the United States
Seat	Washington, D.C.
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Precursor	Secretary at War
Formation	1789
First holder	Henry Knox
Final holder	Kenneth C. Royall
Abolished	1947
Succession	Secretary of the Army Secretary of the Air Force

The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1789. Benjamin Lincoln and later Henry Knox held the position. When Washington was inaugurated as the first president under the Constitution, he appointed Knox to continue serving as Secretary of War.

The Secretary of War was the head of the War Department. At first, he was responsible for all military affairs, including naval affairs. In 1798, the Secretary of the Navy was created by statute, and the scope of responsibility for this office was reduced to the affairs of the United States Army. From 1886 onward, the Secretary of War was in the line of succession to the presidency, after the Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tem of the Senate and the Secretary of State.

In 1947, with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of War was replaced by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force, which, along with the Secretary of the Navy, have since 1949 been non-Cabinet subordinates under the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of the Army's office is generally considered the direct successor to the Secretary of War's office although the Secretary of Defense took the Secretary of War's position in the Cabinet, and the line of succession to the presidency.

List of Secretaries

Secretary at War (1781–1789)

The office of Secretary at War was modelled upon Great Britain's Secretary at War, who was William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, at the time of the American Revolution. The office of Secretary at War was meant to replace both the Commander-in-Chief and the Board of War, and like the President of the Board, the Secretary wore no special insignia. The Inspector General, Quartermaster General, Commissary General, and Adjutant General served on the Secretary's staff. However, the Army itself under Secretary Henry Knox only consisted of 700 men.

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	Congress
1		Benjamin Lincoln	Massachusetts	March 1, 1781	November 2, 1783	Congress of the Confederation
2		Henry Knox	Massachusetts	March 8, 1785	September 12, 1789

Secretary of War (1789–1947)

Swearing in of Dwight F. Davis as Secretary of War in 1925. Former Secretaries John W. Weeks and Chief Justice William Howard Taft are standing beside him.

Parties

  No party (1)
  Federalist (3)
  Democratic-Republican (8)
  Democratic (14)
  Whig (5)
  Republican (25)

No.	Portrait	Name	State of Residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
1		Henry Knox	Massachusetts	September 12, 1789	December 31, 1794		George Washington
2		Timothy Pickering	Pennsylvania[1]	January 2, 1795	December 10, 1795
3		James McHenry	Maryland	January 27, 1796	June 1, 1800[2]
							John Adams
4		Samuel Dexter	Massachusetts	June 1, 1800	January 31, 1801
5		Henry Dearborn	Massachusetts	March 5, 1801	March 4, 1809		Thomas Jefferson
6		William Eustis	Massachusetts	March 7, 1809	January 13, 1813		James Madison
7		John Armstrong, Jr.	New York	January 13, 1813	September 27, 1814
8		James Monroe	Virginia	September 27, 1814	March 2, 1815
9		William H. Crawford	Georgia	August 1, 1815	October 22, 1816
10		John C. Calhoun	South Carolina	October 8, 1817	March 4, 1825		James Monroe
11		James Barbour	Virginia	March 7, 1825	May 23, 1828		John Quincy Adams
12		Peter Buell Porter	New York	May 23, 1828	March 9, 1829
13		John H. Eaton	Tennessee	March 9, 1829	June 18, 1831		Andrew Jackson
14		Lewis Cass	Ohio	August 1, 1831	October 5, 1836
15		Joel Roberts Poinsett	South Carolina	March 7, 1837	March 4, 1841		Martin Van Buren
16		John Bell	Tennessee	March 5, 1841	September 13, 1841		William Henry Harrison
							John Tyler
17		John Canfield Spencer	New York	October 12, 1841	March 4, 1843
18		James Madison Porter	Pennsylvania	March 8, 1843	February 14, 1844
19		William Wilkins	Pennsylvania	February 15, 1844	March 4, 1845
20		William Learned Marcy	New York	March 6, 1845	March 4, 1849		James K. Polk
21		George W. Crawford	Georgia	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850		Zachary Taylor
22		Charles Magill Conrad	Louisiana	August 15, 1850	March 4, 1853		Millard Fillmore
23		Jefferson Davis	Mississippi	March 7, 1853	March 4, 1857		Franklin Pierce
24		John B. Floyd	Virginia	March 6, 1857	December 29, 1860		James Buchanan
25		Joseph Holt	Kentucky	January 18, 1861	March 4, 1861
26		Simon Cameron	Pennsylvania	March 5, 1861	January 14, 1862		Abraham Lincoln
27		Edwin M. Stanton	Pennsylvania	January 20, 1862	May 28, 1868
							Andrew Johnson
28		John McAllister Schofield	Illinois	June 1, 1868	March 13, 1869
29		John Aaron Rawlins	Illinois	March 13, 1869	September 6, 1869		Ulysses S. Grant
30		William W. Belknap	Iowa	October 25, 1869	March 2, 1876
31		Alphonso Taft	Ohio	March 8, 1876	May 22, 1876
32		J. Donald Cameron	Pennsylvania	May 22, 1876	March 4, 1877
33		George W. McCrary	Iowa	March 12, 1877	December 10, 1879		Rutherford B. Hayes
34		Alexander Ramsey	Minnesota	December 10, 1879	March 4, 1881
35		Robert Todd Lincoln	Illinois	March 5, 1881	March 4, 1885		James A. Garfield
							Chester A. Arthur
36		William Crowninshield Endicott	Massachusetts	March 5, 1885	March 4, 1889		Grover Cleveland
37		Redfield Proctor	Vermont	March 5, 1889	November 5, 1891		Benjamin Harrison
38		Stephen Benton Elkins	West Virginia	December 17, 1891	March 4, 1893
39		Daniel S. Lamont	New York	March 5, 1893	March 4, 1897		Grover Cleveland
40		Russell A. Alger	Michigan	March 5, 1897	August 1, 1899		William McKinley
41		Elihu Root	New York	August 1, 1899	January 31, 1904
							Theodore Roosevelt
42		William Howard Taft	Ohio	February 1, 1904	June 30, 1908
43		Luke Edward Wright	Tennessee	July 1, 1908	March 4, 1909
44		Jacob M. Dickinson	Tennessee	March 12, 1909	May 21, 1911		William Howard Taft
45		Henry L. Stimson	New York	May 22, 1911	March 4, 1913
46		Lindley Miller Garrison	New Jersey	March 5, 1913	February 10, 1916		Woodrow Wilson
47		Newton D. Baker	Ohio	March 9, 1916	March 4, 1921
48		John W. Weeks	Massachusetts	March 5, 1921	October 13, 1925		Warren G. Harding
							Calvin Coolidge
49		Dwight F. Davis	Missouri	October 14, 1925	March 4, 1929
50		James William Good	Illinois	March 6, 1929	November 18, 1929		Herbert Hoover
51		Patrick J. Hurley	Oklahoma	December 9, 1929	March 4, 1933
52		George Dern	Utah	March 4, 1933	August 27, 1936		Franklin D. Roosevelt
53		Harry Hines Woodring	Kansas	September 25, 1936	June 20, 1940
54		Henry L. Stimson	New York	July 10, 1940	September 21, 1945
							Harry S. Truman
55		Robert P. Patterson	New York	September 27, 1945	July 18, 1947
56		Kenneth C. Royall	North Carolina	July 19, 1947	September 18, 1947

See also

• Confederate States Secretary of War

References

Footnotes

Further reading

• 
  Bell, William Gardner (2005). Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff 1775-2005: Portraits and Biographical Sketches. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. 
  


• 
  Grossman, Mark (2010). Encyclopedia of the United States Cabinet 1789-2010. Armenia, New York: Greyhouse Publishing. 
  


• 
  King, Archibald (1960) [1949]. Command of the Army (PDF). Military Affairs. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army.