Commanderin Chief

Commander-in-Chief. In the United States the command of the army and navy is vested by the Constitution in the President. In England, however, the functions of the Crown being constitutionally exercised through ministers, the administration of the army is delegated to the Secretary of State for War, under whom is the Commander-in-Chief (sometimes a royal duke), the head of the active branch of the service, charged with the supreme command of the army at home, the superintendence of enlistment, the arrangements for promotion, and the distribution of rewards subject to approval by the Crown. The term is also applied to the commander of a detached portion of the forces, as in a colony. A colonial governor, though a civilian, usually has the supreme civil command of the forces of his district vested in him.