The Military Staff

This book explores the history of military staff positions and the evolution of military staff throughout history.


While the average military reader has a reasonably clear understanding, for instance, of how artillery, cavalry, or aviation has developed, few individuals have a definite idea of the historic significance of military staffs. To some, the staff and the manner in which it does its work is merely a device contrived by writers of school texts and field manuals for academic purposes. Actually, such views are not substantiated by historical facts. The staff system has a history and development as well defined as any of the phases of the military art. Just as infantry, or the other arms experienced continuous changes and improvements, the staff has also undergone constant evolution. The staff doctrine of modern armies is no modern invention; it is the cumulative result of a long evolutionary process. Most persons can better appreciate a thing when they know the steps by which it came into being. It is for those that these pages have been written.