REGULATIONS FOR THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. ARTICLE I. MILITARY DISCIPLINE. 1. All persons in the military service are required to obey strictly and to execute promptly the lawful orders of their superiors. 2. Military authority will be exercised with firmness, kindness, and justice. Punishments must conform to law and follow offenses as promptly as circumstances will permit. 3. Superiors are forbidden to injure those under their authority by tyrannical or capricious conduct or by abusive language. 4. Courtesy among military men is indispensable to discipline; respect to superiors will not be confined to obedience on duty, but will be extended on all occasions. 5. Deliberations or discussions among military men conveying praise or censure, or any mark of approbation, toward others in the military service, and all publications relating to private or personal transactions between officers, are prohibited. Efforts to influence legislation affecting the Army, or to procure personal favor or consideration, should never be made except through regular military channels; the adoption of any other method by any officer or enlisted man will be noted in the military record of those concerned. ARTICLE II. PRECEDENCE OF REGIMENTS AND CORPS. 6. On all occasions of ceremony, troops are arranged from right to left in line, and from head to rear in column, in the following order: First, infantry; second, field artillery; third, cavalry. Artillery serving as infantry is posted as infantry; dismounted cavalry and marines are on the left of the infantry; engineer troops and detachments of the Signal Corps are on the right of the command to which they are attached; detachments of the Hospital Corps are assigned to place according to the nature of the service. When cavalry and field artillery, or field artillery and infantry, are reviewed together without other troops, the artillery is posted on the left. In the same arm, regulars, volunteers, and militia are posted in line from right to left, or in column from head to rear, in the order named. In reviews of large bodies of troops the different arms and classes are posted at the discretion of the commanding general, due regard being paid to their position in camp. On all other occasions troops of all classes are posted at the discretion of the general or senior commander. 9 10 RANK AND PRECEDENCE. ARTICLE III. RANK AND PRECEDENCE OF OFFICERS AND NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS. 7. Military rank is that character or quality bestowed on military persons which marks their station, and confers eligibility to exercise command or authority in the military service within the limits prescribed by law. It is divided into degrees or grades, which mark the relative positions and powers of the different classes of persons possessing it. 8. Rank is generally held by virtue of office in an arm of the service, corps, or department, but may be conferred independently of office, as in the case of retired officers and of those holding it by brevet. 9. The following are the grades of rank of officers and noncommissioned officers: 1. Lieutenant-general. 2. Major-general. 3. Brigadier-general. 4. Colonel. 5. Lieutenant-colonel. 6. Major. 7. Captain. 8. First lieutenant. 9. Second lieutenant. 10. Veterinarian, cavalry and artillery. 11. Cadet. 12. Sergeant-major, regimental; sergeantmajor, senior grade, artillery; master electrician; master signal electrician. geant; electrician sergeant; sergeant first class hospital corps; firstclass signal sergeant. 14. Quartermaster-sergeant and commissary-sergeant, regimental; chief musician. 15. Sergeant-major, squadron and battalion; sergeant-major, junior grade, artillery; color-sergeant; chief trumpeter, principal musician; battalion quartermaster-sergeant, engi neers. 16. First sergeant; drum major. 13. Ordnance sergeant; post commissarysergeant; post quartermaster-serIn each grade date of commission, appointment, or warrant determines the order of precedence. 10. Officers of the Regular Army, Marine Corps, and volunteers when commissioned or mustered into the service of the United States, being upon equal footing, take precedence in each grade by date of commission or appointment. Militia officers, when employed with the regular or volunteer forces of the United States, take rank next after all officers of like grade in those forces. 11. Between officers of the same grade and date of appointment or commission, other than through promotion by seniority, relative rank is determined by length of service, continuous or otherwise, as a commissioned officer of the United States, either in the Regular Army or, since April 19, 1861, in the volunteer forces. When periods of service are equal, precedence will, except when fixed by order of merit on examination, be determined, first, by rank in service when appointed; second, by former rank in the Army or Marine Corps; third, by lot. 12. The relative rank between officers of the Army and Navy is as follows, lineal rank only being considered: General with admiral. Lieutenant-general with vice-admiral. Major-general with rear-admiral. Lieutenant-colonel with commander. Major with lieutenant-commander. First lieutenant with lieutenant (junior Second lieutenant with ensign. a The grade of commodore ceased to exist as a grade of rank on the active list in the Navy of the United States on March 3, 1899. By section 7 of the act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 971), the nine junior rear-admirals are authorized to receive the pay and allowances of brigadier-generals in the Army. COMMAND-APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION. ARTICLE IV. COMMAND. 11 13. Command is exercised by virtue of office and the special assignment of officers holding military rank who are eligible by law to exercise command. Without orders from competent authority an officer can not put himself on duty by virtue of his commission alone, except as contemplated in the twenty-fourth and one hundred and twenty-second Articles of War.] 14. The following are the commands appropriate to each grade: 1. For a captain, a company. 2. For a major, a battalion. 3. For a colonel, a regiment. 4. For a brigadier-general, a brigade. 5. For a major-general, a division. 15. The designation "company," as used in these regulations, applies to troops of cavalry, batteries of field artillery, and to companies and bands of all arms and corps. The designation "battalion" applies in like manner to squadrons of cavalry. 16. The functions assigned to any officer in these regulations by title of office devolve upon the officer acting in his place, except when otherwise specified. An officer in temporary command shall not, except in urgent cases, alter or annul the standing orders of the permanent commander without authority from the next higher commander. 17. An officer who succeeds to any command or duty stands in regard to his duties in the same situation as his predecessor. The officer relieved will turn over to his successor all orders in force at the time and all the public property and funds pertaining to his command or duty. 18. An officer of Engineers not on duty with Engineer troops, or of Ordnance, or of the Military Secretary's, Inspector-General's, Judge-Advocate-General's, Quartermaster's, or Subsistence Department, or Signal Corps, or of the line detailed to fill a vacancy in these staff departments or corps, though eligible to command, according to his rank, shall not assume command of troops unless put on duty under orders which specially so direct, by authority of the President. 19. An officer of the Pay or Medical Department can not exercise command, except in his own department; but any staff officer, by virtue of his commission, may command all enlisted men like other commissioned officers. 20. When an officer is charged with directing an expedition or making a reconnaissance, without having command of the escort, the commander of the escort will consult him touching all arrangements necessary to secure the success of the operation. ARTICLE V. APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. 21. Notices of appointments and promotions are issued by the War Department through The Military Secretary of the Army. 22. Appointment to the grade of general officer is made by selection from the Army. 23. Oaths of office of officers of the Army will be taken before some officer who is authorized by the law of the United States or by the local municipal law to administer oaths, before the judge-advocate of a department, or of a court-martial, or before the trial officer of a summary court. Officers of the Army, other than those above specified, are not authorized by law to administer such oaths. 24. Promotions in established staff corps and departments are limited to officers holding permanent appointments therein and to include the grade of colonel will be made by seniority, subject to the examination required by law. 12 APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS-EXAMINATIONS. 25. Promotions in the line of the Army to include the grade of colonel, in each arm of the service, will be made by seniority, subject to the examinations required by law. 26. Whenever any officer is ordered before an examining or retiring board the originals or copies of all official records affecting his character or efficiency, on file in any bureau of the War Department, will be furnished to The Military Secretary of the Army and by him forwarded for the consideration of the board. 27. Vacancies in the grade of second lieutenant existing on July 1 in each year, after that year's graduates of the United States Military Academy have been commissioned, may be filled by appointment, in the following order: (1) of enlisted men of the Army, whose fitness for advancement shall have been determined by competitive examination; (2) from civil life. All vacancies occurring after July 1 of any year, not filled by the appointment of additional second lieutenants, will be held until the next graduating class of the Military Academy is commissioned. 28. A soldier to be eligible to compete for appointment to the grade of second lieutenant must be a citizen of the United States, unmarried, and under 30 years of age on the 1st day of May of the year in which he is to enter the competition; he must also be physically sound, of good moral character before and after enlistment, and must have served honorably not less than two years in the Army as an enlisted man; he must be an enlisted man of the Army at the date of his application. 29. An enlisted man who desires to appear for competitive examination will submit through military channels an application so that it will reach the department commander on or before January 1 of the year in which he desires to take the examination. Company commanders in forwarding such applications will verify the statements of service as given, and will state specifically whether, in their opinion, the soldier fulfills each of the conditions required by the preceding paragraph. 30. With a view to the selection of proper enlisted men for advancement to the grade of second lieutenant each department commander will, as soon as practicable after February 1 of each year, convene a board of five officers, two of whom shall be medical officers, for the preliminary examination of the soldiers of his command who are legally qualified therefor, with a view to determine their eligibility for the final competitive examination. This board will institute a rigid inquiry into the character, capacity, record, and qualifications of the several candidates, and will recommend none for the final competitive examination who is not able to establish his fitness for promotion to the entire satisfaction of the board. On May 1 of each year the War Department will convene a board of five officers, before which those who have successfully passed the departmental boards will appear for final competitive examination with a view to the selection of those best qualified for appointment to the grade of second lieutenant in the Army. 31. Each enlisted man who passes the final competitive examination will receive from The Military Secretary of the Army a certificate of eligibility for appointment to the grade of second lieutenant and will be recommended for advancement in the order of merit as determined by the final competitive examination. An enlisted man who has passed a departmental board, but has failed to be found eligible upon final competitive examination, may in the following year appear for final competitive examination on proper application made through department headquarters and will not be required to pass a departmental board a second time. An applicant who twice fails in his final competitive examination to obtain a certificate of eligibility can not again compete for appointment to the grade of second lieutenant in the Army. 32. All rights and privileges arising from a certificate of eligibility terminate the 1st of May next succeeding the competitive examination, unless the soldier shall again be recommended on competitive examination; or they may be vacated by APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS-DETAILS. 13 sentence of a court-martial, but no soldier while holding the privileges of a certificate shall be brought before a garrison or regimental court-martial or summary court. 33. Enlisted men holding certificates of eligibility who may be guilty of misconduct will be promptly reported to the War Department, through regimental and department headquarters, the report to contain a full statement of the misconduct, with names of witnesses. The department commander will see that the candidate has a fair and impartial hearing, and will forward the report for the decision of the War Department. 34. A civilian to be eligible for appointment must be a citizen of the United States, unmarried, between twenty-one and twenty-seven years of age, must be examined and approved as to habits, moral character, mental and physical ability, education, and general fitness for the service. The educational qualifications required for appointment will be announced in orders from time to time by the War Department. 35. No person shall be examined unless he has a letter from the War Department authorizing his examination. If the candidate has been graduated at an institution where he received military instruction, he must present a diploma or a recommendation from the faculty of the institution. If a member of the organized militia, he must present recommendations from the proper authorities thereof. 36. Every candidate will be subjected to a rigid physical examination, and if there be found to exist any cause of disqualification which might in the future impair his efficiency as an officer of the Army, he will be rejected. The board will inquire and report concerning each applicant whether he is of good moral character or addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors. Examination as to physical qualifications will conform to the standard required of recruits, and include a certificate of physical examination by two medical officers to accompany the proceedings of the board. 37. No person who has been a cadet at the Military Academy is to be deemed under any circumstances entitled to receive a commission in advance of the graduation of his class. Under the act of Congress approved March 2, 1901, no cadet who has been expelled from the Military Academy for hazing will be commissioned until two years after the graduation of the class of which he was a member. ARTICLE VI. 38. Regulations respecting details of line officers to the staff, together with such rules as may be prescribed by the President in regard to examinations therefor, will be announced in orders, from time to time, by the War Department.] 39. In making details for special duty and detached service, due consideration will be given to the efficiency, zeal, and reliability of officers as evidenced by the record of their services. 40. An officer will not be detached from his corps or arm of the service unless he has served at least two of the preceding six years therewith. When at any time an officer has served less than two of the preceding six years with his corps or arm of the service, he will be ordered to join said corps or arm of the service unless on detached service which, under the law, can not be so terminated. Exceptions to this rule will not be made except in case of emergency or in time of war. 41. Except when detailed in the General Staff Corps, general officers are authorized to have aids as follows: The lieutenant-general, two aids and a military secretary who have the rank of lieutenant-colonel while so serving; a major-general, three aids to be taken from the captains or lieutenants of the Army; a brigadier-general, two aids to be taken from |