Tradition of London
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The Union Army,1861, By Gerald H. Miller: The armed forces of any democratic country have invariably experienced a feast or famine existence during their history. During a War crisis, both men and money have been lavished on the military by its central government without much murmur. Conversely, during the peaceful session between wars, that same government would dole out starvation budgets and slash the manpower requirements to the barest minimum to maintain the more important forts and military posts. The United States Army, during the 19^th century, was a completely typical model of this governmental policy. In 1860, the United States Regular Army consisted of ten infantry regiments, four artillery regiments, two dragoon regiments, one regiment of mounted rifles, two recently formed cavalry regiments, the Corps of Engineers, the Corps of Topographical Engineers, and sundry staff and administrative departments. If the entire United States Army could have paraded on one field during 1860, it would have mustered a grand total of 16,215 souls, 1,080 officers and 15,135 enlisted men, about the size of one division of troops during World War II. The War Department budget for 1860 was $16,410,000. In 1865, the Army strength reached 1,000,692 men with a budget of slightly over one billion dollars. This number sharply dropped in 1866 to 57,072 army personnel and continued to drop until it hovered around 25000 men during the Indian wars. The budget dropped correspondingly.
 

Major general Joseph Hooker, Commander of the Army of the Potomac, 1863.President Lincoln in writing to Hooker just after his advancement to command said that he heard he had heard of Hookers gossip that the country needed a dictator but that he was not alarmed by it. Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators, he advised, What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. Lincoln to Hooker, 26^th January 1863. Independent command proved to be too large a responsibility for Joe Hooker and he gained neither. Read more in the Tradition Magazine No. 63
 

54mm Mounted Kettledrummers