For both armies, Did someone need to attend West Point to earn a senior command?

Bill's original post referred to "senior command"
I interpret that to mean just being a general in command of a brigade or division
bit something higher than that like Department or Army.

So for the CSA the ones that come to mind are Taylor and Price, perhaps Forrest and Waite and Hampton

For the US, there was Patterson, Wool, Dix, Banks, Butler, Fremont, Sumner. Mcclernad early in the war and Sigel, Dodge and perhaps Blunt, Logan, Palmer, Hurlbut later

So not that many
 
Bill's original post referred to "senior command"
I interpret that to mean just being a general in command of a brigade or division
bit something higher than that like Department or Army.

So for the CSA the ones that come to mind are Taylor and Price, perhaps Forrest and Waite and Hampton

For the US, there was Patterson, Wool, Dix, Banks, Butler, Fremont, Sumner. Mcclernad early in the war and Sigel, Dodge and perhaps Blunt, Logan, Palmer, Hurlbut later

So not that many
Did everyone forget the most famous Northern General without Military experience good old Dan Sickles :eek: .
 
Did everyone forget the most famous Northern General without Military experience good old Dan Sickles :eek: .
Arguably, more famous was Joshua Chamberlain; he had no military experience either. Nor did General Selden Connor (also a governor of Maine). In fact, most of the generals from Maine had been lawyers, lumbermen and the like. Some, with no experience, were very good generals.
 
Arguably, more famous was Joshua Chamberlain; he had no military experience either. Nor did General Selden Connor (also a governor of Maine). In fact, most of the generals from Maine had been lawyers, lumbermen and the like. Some, with no experience, were very good generals.
How much training could be assumed by State Militia enrollees, prior to 1861?
Lubliner.
 
How much training could be assumed by State Militia enrollees, prior to 1861?
Lubliner.
I don't believe that Chamberlain served with the state militia before the 1880's and I know that Connor didn't.

A quick scan of the Maine AGO indicates that 17 individuals served in the Union army as state militia officers--only 1 of whom was a general (brevet) of the army. Wikipedia states that 5 (possibly 9) militia companies served.
 
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I don't believe that Chamberlain served with the state militia before the 1880's and I know that Connor didn't.

A quick scan of the Maine AGO indicates that 17 individuals served in the Union army as state militia officers--only 1 of whom was a general (brevet) of the army. Wikipedia states that 5 (possibly 9) militia companies served.
I had been thinking of Butler.
Lubliner.
 
I had been thinking of Butler.
Lubliner.
Benjamin Butler of (Massachusetts and New Hampshire) did go to college in Maine but AFAIK never served in the Maine forces. There was a Maine general of that surname, James H. Butler who held that rank in the Maine state militia (he was one of the 17 individuals whom I cited).
 
How much training could be assumed by State Militia enrollees, prior to 1861?
Lubliner.
Depends on the state.
In the late 50s Massachusetts held drills and encampments and brigade commanders like butler would have dealt with logistics for their command. They also got called out to act as police during the great shoemaker strike of 1860
So organization and drill but no combat experience
 
Both the North and South had other military schools but it seems like in most cases to make it to senior command one had to have gone to West Point. I am not sure why a talented young man who had attended another military school was so looked down upon. The war did produce a few fine generals who had not attended West Point.
Short answer is no, but there it helped.
The Confederates promoted nearly every West Pointer they had to at least Colonel. However, there's many who were not well connected enough or not thought of highly enough for higher commands. Thus, a lot more civilian officers rose through the ranks. See this a lot more in the Confederate armies in the West, and the Union on pretty much every front had at least one Corps commander by a politician. Benjamin Butler and Nathaniel Banks get promoted to Army and Department commands, to mixed results (Butler better so than Banks, because Butler at least had some skills as an administrator from his political experiences). A bunch of folks like Sterling Price, John Logan, Richard Taylor, and Forrest all end up in high ranking positions throughout the war, sometimes leading whole armies.
 
Then as how, it is very difficult to rise to the upper levels of military leadership without have attended one of the military academies.
 
Neither Generals Selden Connor nor Russell B. Shepherd attended West Point. Both were lawyers. General Shepherd graduated from Colby College (Waterville College) as did fellow lawyer and non-West Point Benjamin Butler.
 
A late entry. Francis Edward Heath of Waterville, Maine. He was a brevet brig-general. He didn't even have a college degree (let alone go to West Point). But he did attend Colby College for a year; that's the same IHL that graduated Generals Butler and Shepherd.
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Were most Confederate Full Generals West Point graduates? I guess I could look at all of them on line and see.
 
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