Wheeler's Official Rank

[TerryB]

I came across a blog by an Aussie who maintains that there is no evidence that Wheeler was actually promoted to LT GEN. I have a drawing of him from the Nov 14, 1863, issue of Frank Leslie's that shows him with three stars in an oak leaf cluster. His uniform photos also seem to show him wearing three stars in at least one of them.

That brings me to another issue that I'm sure someone here can answer. I have long believed that many a photographer kept "stock" uniform frock coats for all officers who might have just been promoted. I'm assuming that it wasn't always possible to have your new rank sewn on in time for a photo, and I've seen plenty of evidence that Confederates took field promotions as if they were immediately effective, thus they wore the new insignia before Richmond got around to making it official.

Look at how ill-fitting some uniform photos are. Wheeler looks like he slept in the one he's wearing in a standing up pose. All the others I've seen show him seated. And there's one of Mosby that shows his pants legs rolled up two laps, like blue jeans or something. It may have been taken during his brief incarceration, but one Mosby website I queried assured me that Mosby did no time after the war. I'm not so sure about that. If he did do time, maybe his pants were prison issue. In most of his uniform pictures he looks like he had a good tailor, but not this one.

 

[Elennsar]

According to Generals in Gray: "A word about uniforms: Only one directive was issued on the subject from the COnfederate Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, that of June 7, 1861, and known as General Orders, No. 9. At the time the ordered was drawn up the grade of brigadier general was the highest rank provided for in the Confederate service, and although the grades of major general, lieuteant general, and general were subsequently established, no distinctive uniform for those grades was ever promulgated in orders. Thus the insignia of rank was the same for all four grades of general throughout the war, and was to consist of 'a wreath, with three stars enclosed...'"

My italics.

As Wade Hampton (Wheeler's junior as a majior general) superseded him as chief of cavalry (with the rank of lieutenant general) while in the Carolinas, it seems that - from those two pieces of evidence - that he was not so promoted.

 

[ole]

Three stars is colonel; three stars in a wreath is general. I'm told that the difference among Brigadier, Major, Lt. and Full General is some mysterious arrangement of buttons -- they all wore the same collar insignia.

For some reason, there were no brevet ranks in the CSA; your rank was honored immediately or not at all. In the USA, you got the responsibility of your brevet rank, but not the pay -- you'd get that when Congress confirmed the rank, if at all.

The Yanks had another quirk: You could get promoted in both or either the Volunteers and the Regular Army. When the war ended, George Custer, for example, resumed his rank in the regulars: Colonel (maybe it was Lt. Colonel). The biggies like Grant, Sherman and Thomas had already achieved their rank in the regular army. Guys like Butler and Logan never were in the regular army so they had no rank to revert to in the regulars.

I think, but I'm not sure about it, that getting a Brigadier Rank in the Regulars was a leap up from being a Major General of Volunteers. No actual power, but a highly desirable promotion.

And I think you're right about the stock of coats in a Photographer's Closet. Grant, in his first photo as a Brigadier, was wearing a hat that would be too small on his kids. So far as I know, that's the last picture of him in a general's finery. It's even possible that Wheeler never did own a general's frock.

Grant must have had one, as he apologized to Lee for wearing muddy boots and his everyday uniform when they met at Appomattox. But I guess a General wouldn't ride around the field with a sash and a general's saddle blanket. I wonder if he and Lee even had the saddle-holsters that Colonels often had.

Just some thoughts.

Ole

 

[M E Wolf]

O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XVI/1 [S# 22]
AUGUST 27-OCTOBER 22, 1862.--Operations of Wheeler's Cavalry in Tennessee and Kentucky.(*)
Report of Brig. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, C. S. Army.
HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY,
Knoxville, Tenn., October 30, 1862.
COLONEL: I have the honor to report that on August 27 I moved across the Tennessee River at Chattanooga with a brigade of cavalry, consisting of parts of the First Alabama and First Kentucky Regiments.
[excerpt]
--------
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XVI/1 [S# 22]
AUGUST 27-OCTOBER 22, 1862.--Operations of Wheeler's Cavalry in Tennessee and Kentucky.(*)
Oct. 13, 1862. -- Wheeler placed in command of all the cavalry of Bragg's army.

O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XVII/2 [S# 25]
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN WEST TENNESSEE AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI FROM JUNE 10, 1862, TO JANUARY 20, 1863.(*)
CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.--#7
List of general officers in the armies under General Johnston's command,November 27, 1862.
LIEUTENANT-GENERALS.
E. Kirby Smith.
Leonidas Polk.
W. J. Hardee.
John C. Pemberton.
MAJOR-GENERALS.
1. Earl Van Dorn.
2. Mansfield Lovell.
3. Sterling Price
4. B. F. Cheatham.
5. J.P. McCown.
6. J. C. Breckinridge.
7. Richard Taylor.
8. S. B. Buckner.
9. Jones M. Withers.
10. C. L. Stevenson.
11. D. H. Maury.
12. M. L. Smith.
BRIGADIER-GENERALS
1. Charles Clark.
2. D. S. Donelson.
3. Daniel Ruggles.
4. A. G. Blanchard.
5. W. H. Carroll.
6. A, P. Stewart.
7. Henry Heth.
8. S. A. M. Wood.
9. Johnson K. Duncan.
10. J. K. Jackson.
11. B. R. Johnson.
12. J. P. Anderson.
13. J. R. Chalmers.
14. W. W. Mackall.
15. Albert Rust.
16. P. R. Cleburne.
17. Samuel B. Maxey.
18. J. E. Slaughter.
19. Seth M. Barton.
20. John S. Bowen.
21. B. H. Helm.
22. Franklin Gardner.
23. W. N. R. Beall.
24. William Preston.
25. D. W. Adams.
26. J. C. Moore.
27. St. J. R. Liddell.
28. N. B. Forrest.
29. M. E. Green.
30. E. D. Tracy.
31. M.D. Ector.
32. John Gregg.
33. J. C. Brown.
34. W. E. Baldwin.
35. J. C. Vaughn.
36. William B. Bate.
37. Preston Smith.
38. Joseph Wheeler,
39. James E. Rains,
40. E. McNair.
41. T. H. Taylor.
42. W. G. M. Davis.
43. A. Gracie, Jr.
44. W. R. Boggs.
45. S. D. Lee.
46. John Pegram.
47. John A.Wharton.
ED. A. PALFREY,
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.
-----
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XX/1 [S# 29]
DECEMBER 26, 1862-JANUARY 5, 1863.--The Stone's River or Murfreesborough, Tenn., Campaign.

No. 301.--Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, C. S. Army, Chief of Cavalry, including skirmishes at and near La Vergne, December 26 and 30, and January 1; at Stewart's Creek Bridge, December 27; at Stewart's Creek, December 28; at Wilkinson's Cross-Roads, December 29; at Cox's, or Blood's Hill, January 3; at Murfreesborough, January 4; on Manchester pike, January 5; at Mill Creek Bridge, January 8; near Nashville, January 12; and capture of transports, January 13, 14, and 17, and of construction train at Antioch, January 25.
-----------
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXIII/1 [S# 34]
Operations In Kentucky, Middle And East Tennessee, North Alabama, And Southwest Virginia.
January 21-August 10, 1863.
Jan. 22, 1863 Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, C. S. Army, assigned to command of all the cavalry in Middle Tennessee.
----------------
Name WHEELER, Joseph "Fightin' Joe"
Born September 10 1836, Augusta GA
Died January 25 1906, Brooklyn NY
Pre-War Profession Graduated West Point 1859, frontier duty, resigned April 1861.
War Service 1861 1st Lt. of artillery, September 1861 Col. of 19th Alabama, Shiloh, chief of cavalry in Army of the Mississippi, Kentucky campaign, October 1862 Brig. Gen., commanded the Cavalry Divn at Murfreesboro, January 1863 Maj. Gen., commanded the cavalry at Chickamauga, raided around Chattanooga, Knoxville campaign, commanded Cavalry Corps in Atlanta campaign, opposed Sherman's March to the Sea, Carolinas campaign, superseded by Hampton.
Post War Career Cotton planter, US congressman, Maj. Gen. of volunteers in Spanish-American war, commanded a brigade in the Philippines, commissioned a Brig. Gen. in the Regular Army.
============================
General Wheeler never made it past Major General in the CSA.

M. E. Wolf

 

[M E Wolf]

This is what General Sorrel says about the Confederate Uniform:

Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (Sorrel)
Chapter IV—Sketches
Brigadier-Generals Elzey and Early—Leaping horses—Confederate uniforms—Ladies at Fairfax Station—Colonel Stuart's Maryland line—Longstreet made Major-General—Sketches of Brigadier-Generals Ewell and Pickett—General Anderson—Major-General Van Dorn—Major-General G. W. Smith—Brigadier Early—Brigadier-General D. R. Jones.

[excerpt]
A word here as to uniforms and insignia. So fast does the memory of things pass that perhaps it may be well to make a note of what was the Confederate uniform. It was designed and settled on by a board of officers of the War Department.

For all officers, a close-fitting double-breasted gray tunic.

For generals, staff and all field officers, dark blue trousers.
The arm of service was shown by collar and cuff—Generals and staff officers, buff; Cavalry, yellow; Artillery, red; Infantry, blue; Medical Department, black.

Dark blue trousers had broad gold stripes on outer seams, except generals, who wore two narrower and slightly apart.

Trousers for all line officers under rank of major were light blue with broad cloth stripe, color of service arm.

Rank was shown on collar and sleeve.

Generals wore on collar a gold wreath enclosing three stars in line, the middle one slightly larger. On their sleeves was the ornamental Hungarian knot of four braids width. They usually wore their buttons in groups of twos or threes. There was no difference in the uniform or rank mark among the several grades of general officers.

Colonels wore three stars in line, same size; lieu-tenant-colonels, two, and majors, one. The knot on the sleeve was three braids width for the three grades of field officers colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major.

For captains, rank was shown by three short bars lateral on front of collar; first lieutenant, two bars, and second lieutenant, one bar. Captains wore on sleeve Hungarian knot of two braids width, and first and second lieutenants, one braid.

For headgear the French "Kepi," color of arm of service, richly embroidered, was first provided; but the felt hat, black or any color that could be had, speedily pushed it aside almost before it had an existence.
The intention of the board of officers was to adopt the tunic like the short, close-fitting, handsome Austrian garment, but it went completely by default. The officers would none of it. They took to the familiar cut of frock coat with good length of tail.

Longstreet and two or three of us tried the tunic, but it was not popular.
Confederate uniforms were in great number at the flag presentations a little later, of which I have already spoken. We were then bravely dressed in the bright and handsome Confederate gray.

[end of excerpt]
===========================================
M. E. Wolf

 

[K Hale]

I sure thought that both the button arrangement and the number of "lines" or whatever you call them on the sleeve braid (two, three, or four) denoted what level of general a person was. Is that an urban myth?

 

[ole]

I had thought it was true, but I gotta believe Sorrell before my memory.

Ole

 

[TerryB]

So the oak wreath and three stars just meant "general," and that's all. This has been a very instructive post. Thanks all.

 

[Elennsar]

K Hale: Union regulations did make an issue out of the buttons. "For a Major General - Two rows of of buttons on the breast, nine in each row, placed by threes. ...For a Brigadier General, - the same as for a Major General, except that there will be only eight buttons in each row ... placed in pairs." (from Generals in Blue. Ellipses in the book.)

 

[M E Wolf]

Union Uniforms:

I recommend this site:

http://www.ushist.com/american_civil-war_uniforms_union_us_f.shtml


The gentleman that runs this store, is a re-enactor as well as a historian.
And, why his site is so detailed, he told me; was for those interested in learning history to have a place to come and explore.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

 

[M E Wolf]

Name HAMPTON, Wade
Born March 28 1818, Charleston SC
Died April 11 1902, Columbia SC
Pre-War Profession Politician, planter.
War Service 1861 raised the Hampton Legion - Col., First Manassas (w), Peninsula campaign, May 1862 Brig. Gen., commanded Hampton's Bde/Whiting's Divn at Seven Pines (w), commanded Hmapton's Bde/Cavlary Divn at Sharpsburg, Chambersburg raid, Gettysburg (w), August 1863 Maj. Gen., commanded Hampton's Divn/Cavalry Corps at Wilderness, commanded ANV Cavalry Corps following Stuart's death, Petersburg campaign, February 1865 Lt. Gen., South Carolina.
Post War Career Planter, governor, US senator.
Notes One of three Confederate Lt. Generals without prior military training, with Richard Taylor and Bedford Forrest

 

[K Hale]

Hampton was a politician prior to the war? I did not know that.