Military leadership in the American Civil War was vested in both the political and the military structures of the belligerent powers. The overall military leadership of the United States during the Civil War was ultimately vested in the President of the United States as constitutional commander-in-chief, and in the political heads of the military departments he appointed. Most of the major Union wartime commanders had, however, previous regular army experience. A smaller number of military leaders originated from the United States Volunteers. Some of them derived from nations other than the United States.
In the Southern Confederacy, the constitutional commander-in-chief was educated at West Point and had served in the Mexican War. Many officers in the United States Army, most of them educated at West Point at the expense of the United States, and having taken an oath of allegiance to the same, joined the rebellion against it. Several significant Confederate military leaders emerged from state unit commands. Some military leaders derived from countries other than the United States.
President Abraham Lincoln was Commander-in-Chief of the Union armed forces throughout the conflict; after his April 14, 1865 assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson became the nation's chief executive. [1] Lincoln's first Secretary of War was Simon Cameron; Edwin M. Stanton was confirmed to replace Cameron in January 1862. Thomas A. Scott was Assistant Secretary of War. Gideon Welles was Secretary of the Navy, aided by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox. [2]
Title | Name | Tenure | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Commander-in-Chief | ![]() | Abraham Lincoln | March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865 (1,464 days during the war) | assassinated April 14, 1865; died April 15, 1865 |
![]() | Andrew Johnson | April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869 (24 days during the war) | Declared the armed conflict to be "virtually" ended on May 9, 1865 [3] | |
Secretary of War | ![]() | Simon Cameron | March 5, 1861 – January 14, 1862 (277 days during the war) | resigned January 14, 1862 |
![]() | Edwin Stanton | January 20, 1862 – May 28, 1867 (1,205 days during the war) | previously U.S. Attorney General | |
Secretary of Navy | ![]() | Gideon Welles | March 7, 1861 – March 4, 1869 (1,488 days during the war) | |
When the war began, the American standing army or "Regular army" consisted of only 1080 commissioned officers and 15,000 enlisted men. [4] Although 142 regular officers became Union generals during the war, most remained "frozen" in their regular units. That stated, most of the major Union wartime commanders had previous regular army experience. [5] Over the course of the war, the Commanding General of the United States Army was, in order of service, Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, Henry Halleck, and finally, Ulysses S. Grant.
Commanding Generals, U.S.A.
No. | Name | Tenure | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Brevet Lieutenant general Winfield Scott | July 5, 1841 – November 1, 1861 | retired November 1, 1861 |
2 | ![]() | Major general George McClellan | November 1, 1861 – March 11, 1862 | Commanded the Army of the Potomac in addition to serving as Commanding General. Relieved of duty as Commanding General on March 11, 1862. |
3 | vacant | March 11, 1862 – July 23, 1862 | responsibilities of Commanding General fulfilled by President Lincoln | |
4 | ![]() | Major general Henry Halleck | July 23, 1862 – March 9, 1864 | Appointed Chief of Staff of the General Headquarters in Washington DC on March 12, 1864 [6] |
5 | ![]() | General Ulysses S. Grant | March 9, 1864 – March 4, 1869 | first full rank General in the U.S. Army |
Under the United States Constitution, each state recruited, trained, equipped, and maintained local militia; regimental officers were appointed and promoted by state governors. After states answered Lincoln's April 15, 1861, ninety-day call for 75,000 volunteer soldiers, most Union states' regiments and batteries became known as United States Volunteers to distinguish between state-raised forces and regular army units. Union brigade-level officers (generals) could receive two different types of Federal commissions: U.S. Army or U.S. Volunteers (ex: Major General, U.S.A. as opposed to Major General, U.S.V.). While most Civil War generals held volunteer or brevet rank, many generals held both types of commission; regular rank was considered superior. [7]
Reflecting the multi-national makeup of the soldiers engaged, some Union military leaders derived from nations other than the United States.
The rapid rise of the United States Navy during the Civil War contributed enormously to the North's ability to effectively blockade ports and Confederate shipping from quite early in the conflict. Handicapped by an aging 90 ship fleet, and despite significant manpower losses to the Confederate Navy after secession, a massive ship construction campaign embracing technological innovations from civil engineer James Buchanan Eads and naval engineers like Benjamin F. Isherwood and John Ericsson, along with four years' daily experience with modern naval conflict put the U. S. Navy onto a path which has led to today's world naval dominance. [8]
Commanding Officer, U.S.N.
No. | Name | Tenure | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
- | ![]() | Flag Officer Charles Stewart | March 2, 1859 – December 21, 1861 | Served as "Senior Flag Officer, U.S.N." until his retirement on 21 December 1861; promoted Rear Admiral on the Retired list July 16, 1862 |
1 | ![]() | Vice Admiral David Farragut | December 21, 1861 – August 14, 1870 | Commanded the West Gulf Blockading Squadron in addition to serving as Commanding Officer. Promoted full Admiral on July 25, 1866 |
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Jefferson Davis was named provisional president on February 9, 1861, and assumed similar commander-in-chief responsibilities as would Lincoln; on November 6, 1861, Davis was elected President of the Confederate States of America under the Confederate Constitution. Alexander H. Stephens was appointed as Vice President of the Confederate States of America on February 18, 1861, and later assumed identical vice presidential responsibilities as Hannibal Hamlin did. Several men served the Confederacy as Secretary of War, including Leroy Pope Walker, Judah P. Benjamin, George W. Randolph, James Seddon, and John C. Breckinridge. Stephen Mallory was Confederate Secretary of the Navy throughout the conflict. [9]
Title | Name | Tenure | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Commander-in-Chief | ![]() | Jefferson Davis | February 18, 1861 – May 5, 1865 | |
Vice President | ![]() | Alexander H. Stephens | February 11, 1861 – May 11, 1865 | |
Secretary of War | ![]() | LeRoy Pope Walker | February 25, 1861 – September 16, 1861 | resigned September 16, 1861 |
![]() | Judah P. Benjamin | September 17, 1861 – March 24, 1862 | resigned March 24, 1862, to take appointment as CS Secretary of State | |
![]() | George W. Randolph | March 24, 1862 – November 15, 1862 | resigned November 15, 1862, for health reasons | |
![]() | James Seddon | November 21, 1862 – February 5, 1865 | resigned February 5, 1865 | |
![]() | Major General John C. Breckinridge | February 6, 1865 – May 10, 1865 | ||
Secretary of Navy | ![]() | Stephen Mallory | March 4, 1861 – May 2, 1865 |
In the wake of secession, many regular officers felt they could not betray loyalty to their home state, and as a result some 313 of those officers resigned their commission and in many cases took up arms for the Confederate Army. Himself a graduate of West Point and a former regular officer, Confederate President Jefferson Davis highly prized these valuable recruits to the cause and saw that former regular officers were given positions of authority and responsibility. [10]
The land of Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson, the state military tradition was especially strong in southern states, some of which were until recently frontier areas. Several significant Confederate military leaders emerged from state unit commands.
While no foreign power sent troops or commanders directly to assist the Confederate States, some leaders derived from countries other than the United States.
The Confederate Navy possessed no extensive shipbuilding facilities; instead, it relied on refitting captured ships or purchased warships from Great Britain. The South had abundant navigable inland waterways, but after the Union built a vast fleet of gunboats, they soon dominated the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, Red and other rivers, rendering those waterways almost useless to the Confederacy. Confederates did seize several Union Navy vessels in harbor after secession and converted a few into ironclads, like the CSS Virginia. Blockade runners were built and operated by British naval interests, although by late in the war the C.S. Navy operated some. A few new vessels were built or purchased in Britain, notably the CSS Shenandoah and the CSS Alabama. These warships acted as raiders, wreaking havoc with commercial shipping. Aggrieved by these losses, in 1871 the U.S. government was awarded damages from Great Britain in the Alabama Claims. [8]
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold and expand the institution of slavery. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War. He had also been a United States senator from Mississippi and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.
James Harrison Wilson was a topographic engineer in the United States Army and a Major General in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He initially served as an aide to Major General George B. McClellan during the Maryland Campaign before joining Major General Ulysses S. Grant's army in the Western Theater, where he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1864, he transferred from engineering to the cavalry, where he displayed notable leadership in many engagements of the Overland Campaign. However, his attempt to destroy Lee’s supply lines failed when he was routed by a much smaller force of Confederate irregulars.
John Buford Jr. was a United States Army cavalry officer. He fought for the Union as a brigadier general during the American Civil War. Buford is best known for having played a major role in the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, by identifying, taking, and holding the "high ground" while in command of a division.
John McAllister Schofield was an American soldier who held major commands during the American Civil War. He was appointed U.S. Secretary of War (1868–1869) under President Andrew Johnson and later served as Commanding General of the United States Army (1888–1895).
The Battle of Sewell's Point was an inconclusive exchange of cannon fire between the Union gunboat USS Monticello, supported by the USS Thomas Freeborn, and Confederate batteries on Sewell's Point that took place on May 18, 19 and 21, 1861, in Norfolk County, Virginia in the early days of the American Civil War. Little damage was done to either side. By the end of April 1861, USS Cumberland and a small number of supporting ships were enforcing the Union blockade of the southeastern Virginia ports at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay and had captured several ships which attempted to pass the blockade. USS Monticello's bombardment of the Sewell's Point battery was one of the earliest Union Navy actions against Confederate forces during the Civil War. While it has been suggested by some sources that the Monticello's action may have been the first gunfire by the Union Navy during the Civil War, a brief exchange of cannon fire between the U.S. gunboat USS Yankee and shore batteries manned by Virginia volunteer forces which had not yet been incorporated into the Confederate States Army at Gloucester Point, Virginia on the York River occurred on May 7, 1861.
The Battle of Mill Springs, also known as the Battle of Fishing Creek in the Confederacy, and the Battle of Logan's Cross Roads or Battle of Somerset in the Union, was fought in Wayne and Pulaski counties, near current Nancy, Kentucky, on January 19, 1862, as part of the American Civil War. The Union victory concluded an early Confederate offensive campaign in south central Kentucky.
Thomas Leonidas Crittenden was an American statesman, politician, soldier and lawyer from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served as a general for the Union during the Civil War. His family was fairly typical for Kentucky, in that he and his father supported the Union during the war, but his elder brother fought for the Confederacy.
In the military, a brevet is a warrant that gives a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward, but which may not confer the authority and privileges of real rank.
George Bibb Crittenden was a career United States Army officer who served in the Black Hawk War, the Army of the Republic of Texas, and the Mexican–American War, and later resigned his commission to serve as a general in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War.
Thomas Casimer Devin was a United States Army officer and general. He commanded Union cavalry during the American Civil War and during the Indian Wars.
"Brother against brother" is a slogan used in histories of the American Civil War, describing the predicament faced in families in which their loyalties and military service were divided between the Union and the Confederacy. There are a number of stories of brothers fighting in the same battles on opposite sides, or even of brothers killing brothers over the issues.
The military forces of the Confederate States, also known as Confederate forces, were the military services responsible for the defense of the Confederacy during its existence (1861–1865).
Julius Adolphus De Lagnel, was a Confederate States Army officer, who was appointed and confirmed as a brigadier general, during the American Civil War, but who declined the appointment. He was second in command to Brigadier General Josiah Gorgas in the Confederate Ordnance Bureau and at times was an inspector of arsenals. Before the war, he served in the United States Army from March 8, 1847, until May 17, 1861. After the war, he was engaged in Pacific steamship service.
James Edward Harrison was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. He served in the Trans-Mississippi Department and fought in campaigns in Louisiana. Before the war, he was a two-term Mississippi state senator before moving to Texas in 1857. After the war, he was a trustee of Baylor University.
Horace Randal was a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War. Randal was mortally wounded while commanding a brigade at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas on April 30, 1864, dying two days later. Confederate President Jefferson Davis did not act upon a request made by General E. Kirby Smith on November 8, 1863, to promote Randal to brigadier general. After Randal's performance at the Battle of Mansfield, General Smith, as the Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, assigned Randal to duty as a brigadier general on April 13, 1864. Randal was not officially promoted. Jefferson Davis subsequently revoked Smith's appointment of Randal as a brigadier general.
The Military Division of the James was an administrative division or formation of the United States Army which existed for ten weeks at the end of the American Civil War. This military division controlled military operations between April 19, 1865 and June 27, 1865 in parts of Virginia and North Carolina under control of two main Union armies, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James.