According to many Civil War historians, the Confederate Army (and particularly the Army of Northern Virginia) was more effective than the Union Army. Historians suggest many reasons for this, from the abundance of trained graduates from Southern military academies to the motivation of Southern soldiers to defend their homelands from the Northern invaders. I would like to examine one of these reasons, which is the superior rank and command structure of the Confederate Army compared to that of the Union Army. As you will see, the command structure of the Confederate army was much more clearly defined than that of the Union Army.
Below, I have listed the rank and primary command of the officers in the Confederate Army.
General (Five-Star General)
This officer commanded multiple armies. During the Civil War, only Robert E. Lee obtained this rank. However, he obtained it very late in the war, so he was not able to do much with the rank (or the armies).
General (Four-Star General)
This officer commanded an army, or advised the President. Just after the first battle of Bull Run, the Confederate government appointed five generals to this rank. They were, in order of rank: 1) Samuel Cooper; 2) Albert Sydney Johnston; 3) Robert E. Lee; 4) Joseph E. Johnston; and 5) P. G. T. Beauregard. Later, Braxton Bragg was promoted to this rank when he took command of the Army of Tennessee. Still later, John B. Hood was promoted to this rank when he took command of that same army.
Lieutenant General (Three-Star General)
This officer commanded a corps in an army, or a corps-sized independent command. All the corps commanders of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of Tennessee, and their predecessor armies were of this rank. These corps commanders included "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, J. E. B. Stuart, L. E. Polk, William Hardee, "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, N. B. Forrest and A. P. Hill. Among the "independent" lieutenant generals was Richard Taylor, who commanded the trans-Mississippi Department at the end of the war, and who was the last Confederate General to surrender his command.
Major General (Two-Star General)
This officer commanded a division or a division-sized independent command. All of the division commanders of the Army of Tennessee and Army of Northern Virginia held this rank. Additionally, independent commanders such as Sterling Price held this command.
Brigadier General (One-Star General)
This officer commanded a brigade. All brigade commanders of the Confederate army held this rank.
Colonel
This officer commanded a regiment of infantry or cavalry. An artillery colonel usually commanded the artillery for an army.
In the Confederate Army, any exceptions to the above were usually temporary conditions. For example, if a brigadier general were ill, wounded, or killed, the senior regimental commander (colonel) would replace him until the colonel was replaced by a brigadier general or until the colonel was promoted to brigadier general. This did not usually take long.
General (Four-Star General)
The U.S. Army did not have anyone of this rank until the twentieth century.
Lieutenant General (Three-Star General)
Only U. S. Grant obtained this rank during the Civil war. The U.S. government promoted him to this rank when he took command of all U.S. armies.
Major General (Two-Star General)
In the U.S. Army, major generals commanded armies, corps, or divisions. Every commander of the Army of the Potomac from McClellan to Meade was a major general. So was every corps commander. So were most of the divisional commanders. The same condition occurred in the Army of the Ohio, the Army of the Tennessee, and every Union army in the war.
Brigadier General (One-Star General)
In the U.S. Army, brigadier generals commanded divisions or brigades.
Colonel
This officer commanded regiments or brigades in the Union Army.
If the above command structure by rank seems jumbled in the Union Army, your perception is right. Imagine you are a new colonel leading a Union regiment to a new army, and you come upon a two-star general whom you have never met. Is he a division commander? Is he a corps commander? Is he an army commander? If he gives you an order, should you follow it? Does he have the right to order you to do anything, as you may not be part of his command? Such confusion was built into the command structure.
So why did the Union Army have such a poor command structure? Blame it on the politicians of the time. They were unwilling to promote anyone to lieutenant general until an extreme need was demonstrated. Why? Because previously, George Washington had been the only lieutenant general in the history of the U.S. Army. The U.S. politicians of the time did not want to raise any general to Washington's level. The Confederate Army had no such precedent, so it could establish a more logical command.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.Confederate Command Structure
Union Command Structure
Contrast the Confederate ranks to the comparable descriptions in the Union army.
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© Copyright 1995 The American Civil War Society
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