Highest Ranking Union Officer Killed

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by gary

There is the regular army, or Regulars, and the volunteer army, Volunteers. One may be commissioned in both forces but hold different ranks. The distinction was that for a volunteer officer, while he received the pay and rank (title), he was not expected to continue in that rank in the post-war era. A good example is Volunteer Maj. Gen. George Custer who was only a Lt-Col. in the Regulars. Once the war was over, Custer reverted to the regular rank and pay (even though he could be addressed by his volunteer title).

Custer was a Brevet Major General of both the Regular and Volunteer Army out of West Point who just happened to lead volunteers as did every general officer. Brevet is a temporary rank and Custer's reverted to Captain after going to Texas during reconstruction and being named Commander of Cavalry as he remained an officer of the Regular US Army.

[samgrant]

During the war, an officer could hold as many as four differnet ranks at the same time.


"During the American Civil War regular United States Army officers sometimes had up to four different ranks.
First they had their "permanent" rank in the regular army. In addition, however, they could also hold either
(or both) a rank in the volunteers or brevet rank (regular army and / or volunteers). Thus a single officer could
hold a permanent rank of major in the United States army, and at the same time hold the rank of colonel of
volunteers, a brevet rank of colonel in the army, and a brevet rank of brigadier general in the volunteers."

http://www.4thuscok.org/notes/ranks.html

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[dccaughey]

Since the question posed was highest ranking officer, I'd have to go with Sedgwick. Highest position would be McPherson, but position and rank are too different things (ask several commanders of the Army of the Potomac).

Who outranks who was (and still is) determined by rank, then date of rank, then in the case of a tie by time in service. Sedgwick had more time in grade than McPherson.

During the Civil War, there was an additional distinction, regular army vs volunteer. A regular army commission was considered senior to a volunteer one, and the distinction superseded date of rank. The reason for the difference was that volunteer ranks were only around until the end of volunteer service (end of the war), while regular army ranks were permanent. There had to be a difference, as the number of permanent ranks was something controlled by Congress at one rank per position. For example, if there were 27 (random number) regiments in the Army when the Civil War broke out, there were only 27 colonels authorized for service. If a colonel were needed elsewhere, say to command the Department of California, that position came out of the Army's hide. The colonel would go lead the department, and the lieutenant colonel would lead the regiment in his absence. For years in many cases.

Which has led us a bit off topic. Sorry.