The Military Information Division (MID) was the first military intelligence branch of the United States Army and the United States Department of War, operating from 1885 to 1903. History The MID was established by Brigadier General Richard C. Drum, the then Adjutant General of the United States Army in October 1885 under his office in Washington, DC. Thus becoming the de facto first standing military intelligence agency of the United States. While the Union Army had a Bureau of Military Information, it reported to the Commanding General for less than a year prior to being disbanded at the end of the Civil War in 1865. The original duties of the MID consisted of collecting military data on foreign nations. Drum also asked senior Army commanders to have their officers to submit intelligence reports from their travels to foreign nations. "Initially, the division acted as a relatively passive repository for military related information." In 1889, the MID saw the formation of, directed and controlled what became the Defense Attaché System, with United States Armed Forces officers being dispatched to London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. The Secretary of War, Redfield Proctor, required all information from the attachés to be analysed by the MID. "By 1898, the MID had 16 attaché posts in Europe, Mexico, and Japan. Until the early 1940s, the attaché system constituted the foundation of the Army’s strategic collection effort." Spanish–American War With the beginning of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, the United States Army entered a conflict with existing military intelligence preparation for the first time. Since 1882, the MID had been collecting terrain and order of battle intelligence on the Spanish in Cuba and the Caribbean and had consequently produced detailed maps of likely theaters of operation. Such intelligence was assisted by the reports of the United States Army attaché in Madrid, Captain Tasker H. Bliss who became the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, on Spanish deployments in the region. In April 1898, the Chief of MID, Major Arthur L. Wagner ordered two experienced military observers of MID to be deployed to the region to collect specific information on Spanish defence capabilities before the deployment of American forces. First Lieutenant Andrew S. Rowan was deployed to Cuba and First Lieutenant Henry H. Whitney was deployed to Puerto Rico. "As the war progressed, the MID published comprehensive handbooks for both Caribbean countries." The