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These militias remained vital for the defense of the states, but the territory of the new United States was so vast that no single army could guard it. Washington realized that if the United States was to protect itself against the threat of invasion and internal conflict, and if it was to expand its western frontier, it needed a national army separate from state politics. So the U.S. Army was established, with Washington as its commander in chief. The state militias retained responsibility for their own localities, while the army was used to man coastal fortifi- cations and open up new U.S. territories. The Army Goes to War The U.S. Army faced its first real military test in the War of 1812 (1812–1814) in which the United States fought against the British over territory and shipping rights. Though the army struggled at first against the highly organized British units, it eventually proved to be a competent fighting force. Its numbers expanded from about 6,000 men at the start of the war to 33,000 by 1815. State militias (numbering some 500,000 men) did play a vital role in the war, but the army often took the lion’s share of the fighting. Its resilience led to a truce between Britain and the United States in 1814, and Britain finally gave up its attempt to influence U.S. affairs. Following the war, the army worked hard to improve the quality of its leaders. More of- ficers were sent to the United States’ first military academy, West Point, in New York, which had been established in 1812. Their skills were soon tested in another conflict, the Mexican War (1846–1848). In almost every major battle against the Mexicans, the Army was victori- ous. Its actions were supported by more than 60,000 one-year volunteers from the various states, but its own size expanded to around 42,000 men. Despite the larger state force, the Army fought most of the major encounters and suffered more than 70 percent of the total U.S. casualties. In 1861, the federal army faced its most unpleasant conflict, the American Civil War (1861–1865). The Civil War was a war of the masses, and the scale of the conflict was so

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