General Orders, Special Orders, and Orders

Joshism

Captain
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Location
Jupiter, FL
I have seen many references to General Orders No. # but also some Special Orders. Then of course are the regular orders which didn't get numbers.

1. How are General Orders and Special Orders different from each other, and from regular orders?

2. The numbering is obviously chronological in the order they were issued? Did General Orders and Special Orders use their own sequence i.e. there were both GO #1 and SO #1 or a shared sequence (GO #1 then GO #2 then SO #3)?

3. Did both sides use the same system?

4. Are the numbers unique to an army, a general, the calendar year, or some combination? For example, did Grant's numbers start over at one when he resumed command after demotions before and after Shiloh? When he became Department commander? When he became General in Chief?

5. Generals commanding armies or departments could issue GO's and SO's. How far down the chain of command did being able to issue these go?
 
That question is a doozy and it deserves an answer--but not from me, your inquiry is way, way above my pay grade! I'm staying with the thread however, just to see if anyone knows.
 
How the Army operates has changed over time and the concept of General Orders and Special Orders have evolved. Since the Civil War Army Regulations, Army Standard Operating Procedures, and Operation Orders have in many ways replaced General Orders and Special Orders.

The Army during the Civil War had a large number of General Orders. For example uniform regulations were actually Army General Orders. Today uniform regulations are covered by Army Regulations (ARs).

So let us get back on subject. General Orders are permanent orders issue by headquarters. They cover the entire command.

Special Orders are issued by a headquarters and are more routine. They not meant to be permanent nor cover everyone.

The numbers are unique to the headquarters who issued the orders.
 
GO's can be rescinded. I was doing research on a relative in the 18th Inf in WWII looking the GO for my relative's CIB, two Bronze Stars with V's and Two PH's. I saw a GO's for an award of the BS to a Lt. in the 18th, The next week, there was a GO rescinding his Bronze Star. It wasn't a permanent order in WWII, they could be rescinded. I saw quite a few rescinded BS and SS's. Just the way the Army worked in WWII. They could have changed GO's since then, it was different in WWII.
 
Perhaps I should have said permanent until changed. For example the 1854 General Order that establish the proper army uniforms was changed by a new General Order in 1858 to cover uniforms.

Like I said the concept of General Orders have changed over time.
 
That's ok Bill the only reason I knew was hunting for different awards of the medals. It was hard to read them, and so many Divisions lost of threw out all the GO's sometime before 1980. Some unit's did any excellent job of preserving them. The fires in St. Louis did not help, as some were stored there.
 
So two has the concept of Special Orders. I issued Special Orders to guards on almost daily. Each guard post received a written Special Order for that guard post. I dated the Special Orders but did not even try to number them. Every day I check to see if the S3 had published any Special Orders for me and record if I had receive a Special Order that day.

The reason for this is if you receive a Special Order it must be obeyed. If you wanted to charge a soldier with disobeying an order, the soldier must be aware of that order. Army Regulations, SOPs and such also must be obeyed and not doing so is disobeying an order.

I can give an example for this. I told a sergeant "I would like you to have your squad ready to go by 0600 hours". The squad was not ready to go and it appeared the sergeant had not made any real effort to make it happen. I wanted him charged with disobeying an order. His defense was my 0600 hours was not an order, but more like a suggestion. This defense was BS of course.
 
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