Lance corporal was a title used in the United States Army to denote privates serving as temporary non-commissioned officers. The title of lance corporal existed in the U.S. Army since at least 1802, as the U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry documents its first occurrence in an "unofficial journal" dated that year. The first official use of the title of lance corporal is documented in the "General Regulations for the Army, or, Military Institutes" (Articles 18 and 20), authorised by an Act of Congress on 2 March 1821 and published by the War Department in July 1821 and again on 1 March 1825.