Talk:Provisional Army of the United States

A fact from Provisional Army of the United States appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 December 2018 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Provisional Army of the United States had only seven officers?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2018/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Provisional Army of the United States.

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Further, despite being a federal force, it had soldiers who were not permitted to serve outside the states in which they were recruited; in that respect, it was it similar to the state militias[edit]

The cited source certainly states that. But I cannot find any source for it in the cited work. On the contrary, the enabling act An Act authorizing the President of the United States to raise a provisional army, approved May 28, 1798, as well as An Act giving eventual authority to the President of the United States to augment the army approved March 2, 1799 (which is referred to on p. 36 in the cited work), lacks any such provisions.

The cited source states on p. 35 that a provisional army of 10,000 men were authorized in 1798; and then on p. 36 that a provisional army of 75,000 men, not permitted to serve outside the state, was authorized in 1799. That is two provisional armies! The former statement is in accordance with the Act of May 28, 1798, while latter is lacking in the Act of March 2, 1799. Creuzbourg (talk) 16:12, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Confusion of Provisional and Addititional Armies?[edit]

Godfrey, author of Organization of the Provisional army of the United States in the anticipated war with France, 1798-1800 seem to have confused the Provisional Army with the Additional Army. His list of officers contains substantially more than seven officers, and they - except the senior officers - were appointed after Dec. 3, 1798 when the president los his authority to raise a provisional army.

Congress reconvened on December 3, 1798, and on that date, in accordance with the terms of the act of May 28, 1798, the President lost his authority to raise a Provisional Army. Source: as note (5) in the article.

It only contained seven commissioned officers and no men: [President] Adams had made no effort to recruit anyone for the Provisional Army, but he did nominate—and the Senate approved—seven men to be officers in that army. [...] these officers had no troops to command either before or after December 3, 1798. Source: as note (5) in the article.

The recruitment area mentioned by Godfrey and hinted at in the article, was the one provided for by the enabling act of July 16, 1798, for the Additional Army. Creuzbourg (talk) 13:58, 20 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]