The staff ride originated in the mid 19th Century with the German general and theorist Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, who saw it as a way to train general staff officers on key military and strategic concepts. Eben Swift may be properly seen as the father of the American Army staff ride. As the assistant commandant of the General Service and Staff School (today's Command and General Staff College), Major Swift led a group of twelve students on a staff ride to the Civil War battlefield of Chickamauga in 1906. A staff ride differs from a guided battlefield tour: