"Civil War Army Organization and Rank" Topic

"A Civil War army consisted of many small parts that were joined together in stair-step fashion to make larger units. There were six basic units of organization. The smallest was a company, which had around 100 men. The largest was an army, which could have many thousands of men…"
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Amicalement
Armand

A good explanation of things. Although it might have done well to mention that all the numbers it was giving were for full-strength units which you almost never found on the battlefield. So regiments were usually 300-500 and divisions 3000-5000.

What Scott said.

Also, Union cavalry regiments had 3 majors, one for each battalion (of 4 companies).

In the Confederate Army, lieutenant general was the proper rank for commander of a corps (or medium-sized department); general for command of a large army or large department. In the Union army there were no grades above major general until Grant was given the newly renewed rank of lieutenant general and made general-in-chief. (Scott held that rank by brevet only.) But Congress gave Lincoln the power to appoint major generals to commands regardless of seniority, which was a more flexible system. (For instance, Meade was not the most senior major general in the Army of the Potomac when he was its commander.)

Yes, the North's reluctance to create higher ranks among the generals and appoint people to those ranks meant that you often had colonel's commanding brigades, brigadier generals commanding divisions and major general commanding corps. And then the army commander was a major general, too, causing further problems.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

I think the Northern system was superior, actually. Consider that Davis was stuck with some not-so-great senior generals, who would have to be passed over before he could give an important command to a less-senior officer. Lincoln could plug any major general into any command he wanted to.