The Origins of the Legion of the United States

The 1792 reorganization of the United States Army into the Legion of the United States marked a significant transformation in the structure of American military forces. Designed for the exigencies of American conditions, the Legion represented an innovative experiment in combined arms warfare. This article examines the roots of the legionary concept, from the ancient Romans to eighteenth-century European military theorists, and suggests that the structure of the Legion of the United States may have been based on the writings of Colonel Henry Bouquet, a noted veteran of the Indian frontier.