ABSTRACT
In 1877, Henry O. Flipper, of Thomasville, Georgia, became the first African American to receive a commission from the US Military Academy at West Point. Developments during the period between the Civil War and the Great War of 1914–1918 primarily determined character of the twentieth-century American military. After the Civil War, the US Army retained African Americans in the ranks, in segregated units commanded by whites, and assigned almost entirely to the undesirable and dangerous locations in the Southwest. Labor unrest during the late nineteenth century aided the development of the modern National Guard. Naval modernization also occurred in fits and starts. The significant advances in maritime technology so eagerly adopted by the US Navy during the Civil War were unceremoniously pushed aside after the conflict. The Spanish–American War of 1898 is considered a significant turning point in American military and diplomatic history. The US Army and Navy had struggled through a tumultuous transformation since the Civil War.
