Lee Who was a higher rank General Samuel Cooper or General Robert Lee

Rebel Gray

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Sep 7, 2017
Cooper was a higher rank than Lee, but Lee became general-in-chief. Was Lee higher because he became general-in-chief, or was Cooper higher?
 
Based on his Wiki profile (I had to look him up), he never held a field command in Confederate service. He was well into his sixties at the beginning of the war, almost a decade older than Lee, and served for the duration in an administrative capacity in Richmond. (And pretty effectively, I gather.) So nominally he was senior to Lee and the others, but none of them ever reported to him.
 
So Samuel Cooper was higher than Lee? does that mean you cant say Lee was the leading general in the Confederate States?
 
Cooper was a an administrative general. He held a role that could be seen very similarly to a modern chief of staff, at least until Bragg's appointment as Davis's adviser in 1864. Yet by seniority, Cooper ranked Lee. However, it didn't matter because Cooper didn't hold a field command. It is just seniority and a point of honor and nothing more. A bit like Joseph E. Johnston's fit about his ranking in seniority. Practically, it didn't matter because both of the other generals who ranked him (A.S. Johnston and R.E. Lee) were serving in other theaters and couldn't issue him orders.
 
Cooper contributed much from all of his service in the US Army. He probably helped or created all of the Confederate War Department, especially it's functions. He was an administrator and a very good one. Every service needs a man such as him to provide vital services to the smooth running of the Army. He was such a man.
 
Hi and welcome. I think you have your answer. I wouldn't have been able to help you.
 
Cooper contributed much from all of his service in the US Army. He probably helped or created all of the Confederate War Department, especially it's functions. He was an administrator and a very good one. Every service needs a man such as him to provide vital services to the smooth running of the Army. He was such a man.
And he made sure that the archives of the CSA war department was saved... and then later turned over to the US war department.
This makes him a very important person when it come to our understanding of the war. Had he ordered the archives destroyed, then the Official records would have rather few CSA papers.
 
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