When the great German offensive broke against the Allied front 21 March 1918 it became apparent that unity of command was a first es sential if the Allied armies were to avert dis aster, and General Pershing by direction of the President immediately placed all of his forces (343,000 men) at the disposal of Marshal Foch.
When the United States entered the Euro pean War our army numbered 190,000 (6 April 1917) and when the armistice was signed (11 Nov. 1918) the numbers had increased to 3,665,000, of whom somewhat more than 2,000, 000 were in France.
Civilian employees of the War Department increased from 2,000 to 25,000. For the year ending 30 June 1918 the appropriations for the support of the military establishment aggre gated $8,000,000,000. For the year ending 30 June 1919 the appropriations for same aggre gated $15,300,000,000. The American casualties were in excess of 292,000.
Killed in action, 34,593; died of wounds, 13,958; died of disease, 23,669; died from acci dent and other causes, 5,308; wounded, 214,515. Of the wounded 85 per cent returned to duty.
In the Civil War the fatalities on the Union side were approximately 110,000. In the Span ish War we had less than 1,000 men killed in battle.
With a view to imposing the burdens of this war upon the present generation, rather than upon their descendants, Congress created the War Risk Insurance against death or disability. The premiums were payable monthly by deduc tion from the months pay and were graduated according to age, averaging 80 to 90 cents per thousand per month.
On 18 Max 1917 Congress passed the First Selective Service (Draft) Law, which with sub sequent amendments resulted in four registra tions.
5 June 1917— 21 to 30 year 9,586,508 5 June 1918 — 21 to 30 years 744, 865 24 Aug. 1918 — 21 to 30 year 158.054 12 Sept. 1918— 18 to 20 and 32 to 45 12,966,594 Total 23,456,021 The drafted men showed a very large pro portion of the young manhood of the nation to be physically unfit for military service, and very nearly 25 per cent were shown by the most ele mentary tests to be illiterate. Thousands, for
eign-born entered the service unable to speak or read English and occasioned a new problem in face of the necessity to quickly convert them Into soldiers competent to serve in an American army.
A. series of Officers' Training Camps sup plied much of the demand for officers. From these training camps commissions were granted to two colonels, one lieutenant-colonel, 294 majors, 5,429 captains, 12,374 first lieutenants and 39,207 second lieutenants, a total of 57,307 officers provided by these schools of intensive training. It was an axiom with units serving in front-line sectors that "Lieutenants are expen dible* due to heavy casualties among line officers exposed to the hardships and dangers of trench warfare, and there was constant need for first and second lieutenants to replace officers in valided to the rear, sick, wounded or killed.
Statistics of the Army of the United States.— There arc no reliable figures as to the strength of bodies of militia maintained more or less irregularly in the colonies before the Revolution. Franklin organized a volunteer military association for the defense of the prov ince of Pennsylvania in 1744. In 1755 he was colonel of a regiment and built forts for the defense of the frontier. There were irregular bodies of militia in the southern colonies and more thoroughly organized units among the New England colonies, particularly Massachu setts and Connecticut.
The following shows the number of troops furnished by each State for the Continental Army during the Revolution: New Hampshire 12,947 Musachusetts 67,907 Rhode Island 5,908 Connecticut 31,939 New York 17,781 New Jersey 10,726 Pennsylvania 25,678 Delaware 2,306 Maryland 13,912 Virginia 26,678 North Carolina 7,263 South Carolina 6,417 Georgia 2.679 Total in Federal service 231,771 Militia and volunteers 164.087 The British forces in America during the period of this war numbered about 150,000.
The cost of the war to the United States was $350,000,000 and the resulting pensions amounted to $70,000,000. The cost per capita was $123.