Civil War military ranks

Very much the same. (Except, probably, the enlisted ranks, which have undergone more revision than the officer ranks. And naval ranks have been more vairable than Army ranks.)

It also should be pointed out that the rank of lieutenant general was created for Grant; until then, major general was the highest rank. (General was created in 1866 especially for Grant in recognition of his Civil War service.)

http://www.civilwarhome.com/cwrank.htm

http://users.sisna.com/justinb/cwrank3.html

 

Civil war
Squad - 18 men + 2 corporals + 1 sergeant

Company - 5 squads, including 2 lieutenants + 1 captain over all (about 105-110 men)

Regiment - 10 companies + 2 majors + 1 colonel over all (roughly 1000 men)

Brigade - 3 regiments + 2 more colonels + 1 Brigadier General over all (roughly 3000 men)

Division - 3-4 brigades + 1 general and staff over all (rought 10,000 men)

Corp - at least 2 divisions + 1 major general and staff over all as corp commander (roughly 20,000 men)

Now these numbers are IDEAL and just to show a sample of how these really worked, First Minnesota Regiment had full complement of 1000 men when they left the Mississippi Valley by steamer and train for Washington DC.

By the time they saw the main conflict (Gettysburg Day 2, two years later) they had under 600 fit for duty. Much illness, wounds, deaths and they could not recruit enough new soldiers to replace the ones they lost.

BTW, after standing on little Plum Run that day against about 5000 confederates, the next morning they had under 100 answer roll call.

 

Officers below colonel were elected by the men. Usually an influential leader of an area of the state (maybe a newspaper man, state politician, mayor) would be given the comission of Colonel IF he could "raise" a regiment.

He would then get special bounties and incentives from regional businesses or state coffers to bribe men into joining HIS unit. Often the ladies of a region would make uniforms, flags, etc and local tanneries would provide leather goods, etc.

Remember, there was NO centralized system for providing ANYTHING for these men. They were soldiers first from a state, then sworn into Federal Service. The state must provide everything they needed.

[I was a sergeant in the 3rd US Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company I, guarding the telegraph lines to California based at the Platte Bridge Station (present Casper). Our unit here were 100 POW's from Rock Island Prison Camp, who with 4900 other prisoners in 5 Regiments, had evaded starvation and disease by putting on a blue uniform and plugging the manpower gap on the Frontier.

Our Regiment had companies from North Platte Nebraska up the Platte to South Pass. Men marched between posts (usually 1 squad marched to check the wire each direction from the post; indians were wont to tear it down regularly. 1 squad cut wood all year for heat. 1 squad guarded the post and 1 squad was "off duty".

The sergeant-major, 2 lieutenants and our captain were all yankeescum officers. The rest of us were simply galvanized until our enlistment was up.]