Civil War High Commands

Front Cover
Stanford University Press, Jun 1, 2002 - History - 1040 pages
Based on nearly five decades of research, this magisterial work is a biographical register and analysis of the people who most directly influenced the course of the Civil War, its high commanders. Numbering 3,396, they include the presidents and their cabinet members, state governors, general officers of the Union and Confederate armies (regular, provisional, volunteers, and militia), and admirals and commodores of the two navies. Civil War High Commands will become a cornerstone reference work on these personalities and the meaning of their commands, and on the Civil War itself.

Errors of fact and interpretation concerning the high commanders are legion in the Civil War literature, in reference works as well as in narrative accounts. The present work brings together for the first time in one volume the most reliable facts available, drawn from more than 1,000 sources and including the most recent research. The biographical entries include complete names, birthplaces, important relatives, education, vocations, publications, military grades, wartime assignments, wounds, captures, exchanges, paroles, honors, and place of death and interment.

In addition to its main component, the biographies, the volume also includes a number of essays, tables, and synopses designed to clarify previously obscure matters such as the definition of grades and ranks; the difference between commissions in regular, provisional, volunteer, and militia services; the chronology of military laws and executive decisions before, during, and after the war; and the geographical breakdown of command structures. The book is illustrated with 84 new diagrams of all the insignias used throughout the war and with 129 portraits of the most important high commanders.

From inside the book

Contents

IV
3
V
7
VII
8
IX
9
XI
12
XII
15
XIII
22
XIV
23
XXXV
701
XXXVI
762
XXXVII
768
XXXVIII
772
XLI
784
XLII
787
XLV
801
XLVI
807

XVII
29
XVIII
37
XX
66
XXI
69
XXIII
73
XXIV
79
XXVII
83
XXVIII
86
XXIX
88
XXX
92
XXXI
97
XXXII
587
XXXIII
616
XXXIV
660
XLVIII
819
XLIX
845
L
846
LI
846
LII
846
LIII
876
LIV
883
LV
885
LVI
908
LVII
923
LVIII
933
LIX
959
Copyright

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Page 31 - And you are to observe and follow such Orders and Directions from Time to Time, as you shall receive from this or a future Congress...
Page 31 - President of the United States of America. To all who shall see these presents, greeting: Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities...
Page 39 - I will bear true faith and allegiance to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever ; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the Rules and Articles of War.
Page 44 - Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it.
Page 16 - If, upon marches, guards, or in quarters, different corps of the Army happen to join or do duty together, the officer highest in rank of the line of the Army, Marine Corps, or militia, by commission, there on duty or in quarters, shall command the whole, and give orders for what is needful to the service, unless otherwise specially directed by the President, according to the nature of the case.
Page 475 - ... that the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be presented to MajorGeneral Grant.
Page 29 - States be, and he is hereby, authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint one additional major to the first regiment of light dragoons, the regiment of light artillery, each regiment of infantry, and the rifle regiment, in the army of the United States...
Page 38 - I declined the offer he made me, to take command of the army that was to be brought into the field ; stating, as candidly and as courteously as I could, that, though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States.
Page 67 - President of the United States of America, to all who shall see these Presents, Greeting: KNOW YE, That reposing special trust and confidence in the...
Page 39 - I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever, and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and Articles of War.

About the author (2002)

John H. Eicher is Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Miami University of Ohio and a lifelong student of the Civil War. David J. Eicher is Managing Editor of Astronomy magazine and a well-known non-academic Civil War historian. He is the author of several books on the war, most recently Mystic Chords of Memory: Civil War Battlefields and Historic Sites Recaptured and The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography.

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