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Army CorporalE-4 Noncommissioned Officer, U.S. Army |
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Army Ranks » Corporal Rank • CPL Pay • CPL Rank History • Promotion Information
History of the Army Corporal Rank
A Corporal is a Noncommissioned Officer in the United States Army at DoD paygrade E-4.
The history of the rank of Corporal in the US Army derives in its English language form from the British Army of the colonial era.
With the creation of the standing military of the United States, the United States took many of the ranks from the British; many modern countries have made the same move in the organization of their militaries.
However, the to find the origin of the title of Corporal, one must go back through history to the Roman Army. In Latin, “corpus” means body, and soldiers holding the title of Corporal, in its Latin language form, stood in charge of a small “body” of soldiers.
The rank survived through Mediaeval times and was adopted by almost all militaries of the Age of Monarchs and subsequently Mercantilism, perhaps most notably the British Empire, from where it made its way into the rank structure of the Colonial Army and then the United States Army upon establishment of the state.
Want to learn more? Read about the Army's Corporal rank on Military-Ranks.org.
History of the Army
The Army is the oldest and most senior among the branches. The Army's heritage is traced back to the Revolutionary War, when each State of the Union had its own Army, lended to the command of General George Washington. Almost 250 years have passed, but the organizational structure and naming is largely the same. The Army is still divided into Divisions, Brigades, Regiments, Battalions, Companies, and Platoons.