J. Clarke wrote:
....
More to the point, the conduct of the war _was_ the business of the
Secretary of War (that's why they called him that), ...

Well, don't know if it's what you meant or not, but the specific words
leave a little bit of the wrong impression at least to me...

The Secretary of War was a Cabinet post which is now known as the
Secretary of Defense. The subtlety being he held the same position w/
the same title before war was declared, not just because of the war
being waged.

--