Two Great Rebel Armies by Richard M. McMurry

Author:Richard M. McMurry [McMurry, Richard M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781469616124
Google: 0b4EAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2014-02-01T02:41:08+00:00

Chapter Seven

The General Officers

The same differences in geographical origins that made the Army of Tennessee western and the Army of Northern Virginia eastern also affected the general officer corps of the two major Confederate armies. The differences between the general officers of the two armies, however, were less pronounced than were those between the lower-ranking officers. Line and field grade officers were intrinsic to a particular regiment or battalion from which they derived their grade. Generals, on the other hand, could be assigned and reassigned to different commands at the pleasure of the president. They were, therefore, more mobile than their lower-ranking comrades, and they could usually be sent to serve wherever the Confederate authorities thought they were most needed.

Despite the greater mobility of the general officers, there was a tendency for generals from the eastern states of the Confederacy to serve in Virginia and for those in the Army of Tennessee to hail from the West. This tendency was especially marked in the lowest and largest general officer grade—brigadier general. New brigadiers were most often appointed from among an army’s colonels. Since there were few eastern regiments, and hence few eastern colonels, in the Army of Tennessee, there were few easterners present in that army to receive promotions. The same factor worked, although to a lesser degree, to hold down the number of western brigadiers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Political pressure to have troops commanded by a general from their own state also worked to limit the number of “outside” brigadiers.

Ezra Warner has concluded that 425 men attained the three stars and wreath that served as the insignia of all Confederate general officers. These men were distributed among the four general officer grades and the three geographic regions of the Confederacy, as indicated in Table 7.1.

TABLE 7.1 Geographical Distribution of Confederate Generals

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.