A study of the establishment of inspection practices in the United States Army told chronologically, in large part through the experiences of officers assigned to the inspection service. The record of the inspectorate illustrates those daily concerns that influenced the institutional development of the Inspector General Corps as a whole.

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Introduction: origins of military inspection / Part I. A tradition of inspection, 1775-1821. The first American Army, 1775-1778 -- Steuben at Valley Forge, 1777-1778 -- Defining the inspector's role, 1778-1779 -- Inspection and the American victory, 1780-1784 -- Decline, revival, and vicissitudes of inspection, 1784-1798 -- Hamilton and the provisional army, 1798-1800 -- Disgrace of an inspector general, 1801-1813 -- Origins of the Office of the Adjutant and Inspector, 1813-1815 -- End of the Adjutant and Inspector General, 1816-1821 / Part II. The Inspectors General of the Army, 1821-1881. Establishing the Inspector General, 1821-1825 --Inspection and the fortunes of the commander, 1826-1849 -- Inspection between the wars, 1849-1861 -- The inspectorate during the Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Securing a permanent place, 1865-1866 -- Foundations of a bureaucracy, 1867-1869 / Part III. A tradition of an inspection department, 1881-1898. Macy and the advent of the department, 1870-1881 -- Passing of the old guard, 1881-1889 -- Breckinridge's widening scope, 1889-1898 -- The department in service ot the secretary, 1889-1898 -- Reform during the Breckinridge era, 1889-1898 / Part IV. The Inspector General's Department of the New Army, 1898-1903. Inspection during the war with Spain, 1898 -- Inspecting the new army -- Inspection and reorganization of the War Department, 1898-1903 / Appendix A: Inspectors General -- Appendix B: biographical notes.