History of the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Army

History of the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Army.
The Office of the Inspector General of the United States Army is the agency tasked with investigating the army. Its stated mission includes "advice and oversight to the army through ... inspection, assistance, investigations, and training". George Washington and members of the Continental Congress requested an inspector general for the Continental Army in 1777, and Thomas Conway was appointed the same year. His successor was Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian military officer who later served as Washington's chief of staff. The office has been reorganized many times, and has varied in size dramatically. In its early days, the inspectorate was frequently merged with, or proposed to be part of, the Adjutant General's department. It expanded greatly after the Civil War, and had grown to around 2,000 officers by 1993. Leslie C. Smith (pictured) has been the inspector general since February 2018.