Museum of the Noncommissioned Officer
A Short History of the NCO
NCO Museum Staff Article
Written By
L. R. Arms
Editor
Patricia Rhodes
U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy
Fort Bliss, Texas
List of Illustrations
Percival Lowe, B Company, 2d Dragoons, 1852.
Corporal Henry Jagger, 1860.
Corporal with nine button frock coat, 1862.
Ordnance Sergeant, 25th Infantry, with NCO Sword, 1885.
NCOs and Privates of the Field Artillery, 1890.
NCOs and Privates cleaning, their cloths and equipment,
1898.
Lieutenant and Sergeant Major, 1st Maine Infantry, 1899.
NCOs of Troop F, 7th Cavalry, 1908.
First Sergeant and Field Artillerymen at firing range, 1911
Corporal Jim Toomey, Machine Gun Troop, 3rd Cavalry,
Fort Myer, Virginia, 1941.
Tech-5 Pearlie Hargreaves, 1942, General Eisenhower's
driver in North Africa.
Preface
The following is a short history of the U.S. Army Noncommissioned Officer. This work is produced in hope that it will prove useful to the wide variety of NCOs in the field and to visitors of the U.S. Army Museum of the Noncommissioned Officer, who seek additional information on NCO history.
The history is presented in a chronological manner and is based upon a variety of works listed at the end of the paper. Sources are noted throughout the paper in the folloing manner: (*von Steuben). It should be pointed out that two unpublished works in the museum's reference files were of great help; these works are the two Fisher Manuscripts noted in the Sources Consulted. Several oral histories and other works drawn from the museum's archives were used to give depth and provide the primary resources to the pamphlet.
L. R. ARMS
Director
NCO Museum
Contents
Introduction
American Revolution
War of...