War Department

The United States Department of War was a pre-War department of the United States government. The Department's exact duties are unclear, given the concurrent existence of both the Department of Defense and Department of the Army, though it had some power over the military.

Background
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the War Department offered a $100,000 reward for any information that would lead to the capture of his murderer, John Wilkes Booth, or his accomplices.

Fort Tibbets in Arizona held a small military prison within its boundaries, under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In 1895, the construction of United States Penitentiary Tibbets was authorized through an act of Congress. Prisoners from the fort were utilized in its construction, marching the three-and-a-half miles between the prison and construction site twice a day until its partial completion in 1903. Three years later, all prisoners had been moved to USP Tibbets, and the Fort Tibbets military prison was returned to the Department of War.

As the highest ranking surviving member of the Army at Mariposa Military Base after the Great War, Roger Maxson was in command. He was thus able to issue commands to the rest of his men, which would stand unless they made contact with a proper representative of the War Department.

Appearances
The Department of War is mentioned in Fallout and Fallout 3, and would have been mentioned in Van Buren, the cancelled Fallout 3 project by Black Isle Studios.

Behind the scenes
The War Department was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces. It existed from August 7, 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force and joined the Department of the Navy as part of the new joint National Military Establishment (NME), renamed the United States Department of Defense in 1949.