The Military Presidents

A repost from seven years ago, since I’m in the thick of Shelby Foote’s second volume on the Civil War (Gettysburg, appropriately) –

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Since I’ve been reading a lot of war literature these past ten months (Civil War, Mexican War, World War II, a bit of World War I), I thought it might be interesting this 4th of July to find out which of our presidents served in uniform.

Of the 43 men who attained the Oval Office (Grover Cleveland is counted as both the 22nd and 24th President, the only man to have two non-consecutive terms), how many do you think served in our military?

Hmm?

My first uneducated guess was probably about a quarter. Maybe a little more. At least twelve, maybe as much as fifteen. Off the top of my head I could name the obvious ones: George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, Zachary Taylor (he was obvious from my Mexican War reading). And I knew a slew had some military experience, like Bush Sr, Kennedy, Lincoln. That’s six. So I upped it two, two-and-a-half times.

How did I do?

Poorly.

Of the 43 men who became President of the United States, 31 served in the military. That’s 72 percent. A lot more than my maximum guess of 35 percent.

Want a ranking? Okay.


We’ve had three Generals of the Army become President – 

George Washington
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ulysses S. Grant

They’re followed by five Major Generals – 

Andrew Jackson
William Harrison
Zachary Taylor
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Garfield (hey, he also came up with a proof for the Pythagorean theorem!)

Next comes four Brigadier Generals – 

Franklin Pierce
Andrew Johnson
Chester Arthur
Benjamin Harrison

Five Colonels – 

Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Polk
Theodore Roosevelt
Harry S Truman

Two Commanders in the Navy – 

Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon

Four Majors / Lieutenant Commanders – 

James Monroe
William McKinley
Gerald Ford
Millard Fillmore

Three Captains – 

John Tyler
Abraham Lincoln
Ronald Reagan

Two Lieutenants and two First Lieutenants – 

John F. Kennedy
Jimmy Carter
George H. Bush
George W. Bush

And, finally, one private – 

James Buchanan


Isn’t that interesting? I had no idea. This Fourth of July, let’s remember to thank them all for their service to this wonderful, great country of ours!