In this study the Army's operational activities from 1898 to 1901 have been extensively examined, as has the impact of presidential policy upon the use of that organization. This study concludes that the landmark passage of the 1903 "General Staff" Act was not just the result of a new generation of young leaders with new views coming to power, but the product of three years' concerted effort by a congressional "old guard" that had finally accepted the necessity for a modern American Army.