Climbing The Officer's Ladder

[Miss Elizabeth]

Fellow Forum Members,
I know I should know this, but quite frankly, I do not. I am very interested in our era and the war. I must admit to an ignorance of understanding how the ranks work. I of course understand the private to general, but could anyone give me a concise understanding of how the ladder of command works? The classifications of officers is what I am asking about and while on the subject, how do I tell which officers are which by the uniform insignias?
Your Indebted Servant,
Miss Elizabeth

[NoahBriggs]

For this question and many other technical questions regarding the military I suggest you invest in the Columbia Rifles Research Compendium, 2nd Ed. available from the Watchdog for about forty bucks. Inside is an article which explains the different ranks and job positions in the regiment. Not only do you get the different ranks, you get how they interacted, who was subservient to whom and who actually ran the show as opposed to who was technically in charge.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Below I will provide an example of the "ladder". This is not complete, and leaves alot of more detailed positions out...but it will give you an idea of how things flow.

General
Colonel
Lt. Colonel
Major
Captain
Lieutenant
Sargeant
Corporal
Private

Again, this doesn't take into the varying levels of these positions (1st, 2nd, 3rd...); but should give you an idea of the basic structure. Note in addition to these you also have Brevet ranks (hopefully someone else can provide more info. on these)...

It's also important to remember that for Comissioned roles (Lieutenant and above) sometimes the date of commission may play a role in who has seniority.

Hope this gives you an idea.

Paul

[ScottWashburn]

The rank of Union officers can be told in several ways. The easiest way is to look at the rank shown on their shoulder straps. These are the rectangular objects enclosed by gold braid on each shoulder. If the rectangle is empty it means 2nd Lieutenant. A single gold bar at each end (total of 2) means a 1st lieutenant. Two gold bars at each end (total of 4) means a captain. A gold oak leaf at each end means a major, a silver oak leaf a lieutenant colonel and a silver eagle denotes a full colonel. Generals will have stars inside the rectangle. One star is a brigadier general, two stars is a major general and three stars a lieutenant general. The background color inside the rectangle denote the branch of service: light blue for infantry, yellow for cavalry and red for artillery. Generals do not have a branch and the color will be black. You can sometimes tell the rank of officers by the way the buttons are arranged on their coats. Lieutenants and captains will have a single row of buttons while majors, lt. colonels and colonels will have a double row. Generals have double rows but the buttons are grouped in twos, threes or fours depending on the rank.

Lieutenants are theoretically in command of platoons, but platoons were rarely ever sent off on their own so their authority was limited. Captains would command a company. Colonels commanded a regiment and they were assisted in this by the major and lt colonel, who, theoretically commanded the left and right wings of the regiment. A brigadier general would command a brigade, a major general a division and a lt. general a corps. At least in theory Because the US congress was reluctant to create the rank of 4-star general to command armies, the Union army usually had its generals commanding forces one step higher than normal so that colonels often found themselves commanding brigades and brigadier generals commanded divisions, etc.

Confederate rank structure was similar but the rank was denoted by insignia on the collar. I believe that one gold bar was 2nd lieutenant, two gold bars was 1st lieutenant and 3 bars a captain. One gold star was a major, two was a lt. colonel and three a colonel. Generals would have the stars enclosed by a wreath.

I hope that helps.

[tompritchett]

To expound on Paul's chart starting from the bottom

Private - the common soldier

Corporal - the first NCO rank, up to 4 in an infantry company; wears two stripes on his shoulder.

Sergeant - the next highest NCO rank; again, three stripes; 4 to an infantry company

Orderly Sergeant - the highest ranking NCO at company level; only one to a company; three stripes and a diamond

Company officers are 1 Captain and 3 lieutenants; the ranks of the lieutenants can be either a 1rst or 2nd Lieutenant (Confederate insignia's 2 or 1 bars respectively on the collar). First Lieutenants were the more experienced lieutenants. The insignia for Captains were three horizontal bars on the collar for Confederate (in the field all Confederate officer ranks are worn on the collar except for the variations in trim that sometimes was seen on the cuff) and two bars on the shoulder strap for the Union.

At Bn/Regt level you had a new set of NCO's and officers

Quartermaster SGT - three stripes with a bar, Ordnance SGT - three stripes and and a star and the Sergeant Major three stripe curved upwards on top of three stripes pointing down. The first two ranks were typically found only in the state raised regiments are were not in the regulations for the U.S. Army Regular troops. One SGT MAJ was found in all regiments and he was the senior-most NCO in his regiment. Brigades would also have one SGT MAJ who was the senior-most NCO for the Brigade. There was no difference in the insignias between the two levels of SGT Majors.

Each regiment or independent Bn was usually commanded by a single Colonel (three stars for Confederates and a silver eagle for Union) with the next most senior officer being his Lieutenant Colonel (2 stars -Confederate & silver oak leaf for Union). Other staff officers at this level would be a single Major (2 stars - Confederate & gold oak leaf - Union) and one or more Captains and Lieutenants. Usually the LT Col and the Major where assigned the duties of wing commanders each of whom were responsible for overseeing the proper implementation of the Col's orders within their wing (1/2 of the Regiment). If the situation required, the two wings could function semi-independently of each other with the Lt Col taking direct control of his wing while the Col remained with the other.

The next level up was the Brigade, which was composed of multiple regiments. The commander of this unit could have a rank as high as a Brigadier General (Confederate 1 star surrounded a wreath; Union a single star). Above that level was the Division, whose commander could reach the rank of Major General (Confederate - 2 stars in a wreath; Union - 2 stars). Divisions were then organized into Corps commanded by officers whose rank could get up to Lt. General (three stars either surrounded by a wreath (Confederate) or just plain (Union)). In most cases, Armies, which could consist of multiple Corps, were also commanded by Lt. Generals. Because there was no increase in rank with assuming command of an Army, sometimes you had a situation where a Corps commander technically out-ranked his commander based strictly on seniority, as was the case with Burnside when he was a Corps commander under Meade at the Crater.

[6thkentucky]

You might do a Google search on rank. Also seach Google images too. A very interesting thing about Union rank is that it's still used today. The Union shoulder straps are still used on dress uniforms which are blue again. It was neat to see this on the news the other night when that guy got his medal.
Also Tom meant to say 1st Sgt not Orderly Sgt.

[GaWildcat]

Brigadier General (Confederate 1 star surrounded a wreath; Union a single star). Above that level was the Division, whose commander could reach the rank of Major General (Confederate - 2 stars in a wreath; Union - 2 stars). Divisions were then organized into Corps commanded by officers whose rank could get up to Lt. General (three stars either surrounded by a wreath (Confederate) or just plain (Union)). In most cases, Armies, which could consist of multiple Corps, .

Tom,

Confederate Generals were not differentiated by the number of stars within the wreath. The stars were 1-Major, 2- LT Colonel, 3- Colonel For all General Officers, three stars within a wreath. Lee wore three stars, without a wreath, no doubt because of his modesty, and probably because his rank in the old Army was Colonel.

[Major Duane]

"The Union shoulder straps are still used on dress uniforms which are blue again. It was neat to see this on the news the other night when that guy got his medal.
Also Tom meant to say 1st Sgt not Orderly Sgt."

2nd Lt. back then had no bar whatsoever in the shoulder strap...it has a single gold bar today(at each end)...1st Lt. today a single silver bar (at each end).

And I'm pretty certain Tom meant to say Orderly Sgt.

John Adams
Huckelberry Mess.

[flattop32355]

Should we now inform her about Adjutants, Sergeant Majors, Quartermasters, Commissaries, other staff positions, etc?

Then there's the Navy....

[Miss Elizabeth]

Bring it on boys, I am all ears. This is wonderful information, thank you so very much. When you see a lady at a reenactment with a long computer printout checking out your uniforms, you will know its me. LOL
Seriously, I do appreciate all this, it was kind of a *everything you always wanted to know about officers, but were afraid to ask* thing. Now I am going to work on keeping it all in memory. You guys are great!
Oh, never mind the Navy for now, I'm landlocked in Minnestoa. (We do have lots of lakes though.)