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A Lieutenant often takes the place of a superior officer when that officer is absent.
The word comes from the French lieu (place) and tenant (holder). The Lieutenant
then is one who holds the place of another. Since he took the place of a senior
officer the Lieutenant ranked next to that person and was his deputy. Such was the
case for Lieutenant General and Lieutenant Colonel.
On land, there had been Lieutenants in the British and other armies for several
centuries so it was logical to have the rank on duty in 1775 with our Army. About
1832 First Lieutenants, except those in the Infantry, began wearing a bar, a gold
one, on their shoulder straps as rank insignia. The bar had to be the same color
as the borders of their shoulder straps, which were gold. Infantry First
Lieutenants, however, wore shoulder straps with silver borders so their bars were
of silver. After 1851 all Army officers wore shoulder straps with gold borders so the
Infantry First Lieutenants then wore gold bars. The situation was just the opposite
when First Lieutenants wore their dress uniforms, which had gold epaulettes.
Their rank insignia had to contrast with the gold so they wore silver bars. In 1872
the Army cleared up the confusion and made the bars on shoulder straps silver
as well. Second Lieutenants did not have rank insignia but wore epaulettes or
shoulder straps so their uniforms identified them as officers. When officers and
enlisted men both started wearing khaki uniforms with plain shoulder straps
during the Spanish-American War it became more difficult to recognize the
Second Lieutenant. Other officers wore metal rank insignia on their shoulder
straps or collars. In 1917 the Army settled that problem by making the gold bar the
Second Lieutenant's badge of rank.
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