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.
"[2] 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.
"[3] 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.
Consequently, the American Military Governor of the Philippines formed the Bureau of Insurgent Records (BIR) to translate and collate captured documents and to provide information about the Filipino forces beyond tactical reconnaissance.
The Chief of DMI, Captain Ralph Van Deman who had served on the staff of the Chief of MID Major Arthur L. Wagner and was later called the "Father of American Military Intelligence", expanded the capabilities of the DMI to include a mapping section, improved liaison with other agencies, relayed intelligence to the field commanders, provided photographs and descriptions of known Filipino insurgents, and coordinated localised intelligence officers to gather information on the surrounding terrain, attitudes of local villagers, and the dispositions of Filipino insurgent groups.