From: george@seqvax.caltech.edu (George Komatsoulis)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Re: Flag Officers
Date: 13 Oct 1992 04:25 PST
Organization: Division of Biolgy, CALTECH
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: seqvax.bio.caltech.edu
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

In article <1992Oct12.155101.19156@morrow.stanford.edu>, COWAN@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu (Paul L. Cowan) writes...
>I have another military-related trivia question. Various CW Naval officers
>are refered to as Flag Officer So-and-so. I am somewhat familiar with the term
>"flag officer" as a generic term refering to Admirals and Commodores (and 
>Captains?) during WW II, but the useage during the CW suggests it was 
>an official title of a particular rank. From the context I have assumed 
>it was roughly what later became known as Commodore.

    To begin, captains were not considered flag officers in WWII. In modern 
usage a flag officer is of the rank of Brigadier General or (depending on
what the Navy is doing this week) Commodore or Rear Admiral (Lower Half). These
officers are given a personal flag, either red (army and Marine) or blue 
(navy or air force) with the appropriate number of stars. This term comes from
the same source as the flagship, which was the ship that the overall commander
was on, and which flew his personal flag. The flag officer was then the 
individual (the overall commander) whose flag was on the mast. I believe the
use of flag officer arises from the problem that the navy has with the two
definitions of Captain 1)the commander of a ship and 2)a rank equal to Colonel.
There can only be one Captain on a ship, its commanding officer. If a captain
(rank) is on a ship in any other capacity he cannot be called Captain. In the
modern Navy he is called "Commodore" despite the fact that this rank no longer
exists. Interestingly, this title is used even if the CO of the ship is not 
a captain (rank). (an aside: Supposedly Marine Captains are called Major on
board ships by Naval Personnel, although I've only served on a destroyer so
I have no personal experience with this matter). Foote was a captain when sent
to the Mississippi to command the (at that point to be) squadron, so he was its
flag officer.

> 
>While I'm on the subject, does anyone know the list of CW Naval ranks?
>I seem to remember that what is now a "Lt.J.G" was then known as "Master".

I am not sure about all of the ranks but Ensign, Lt., Lt. Commander, Commander,
and Captain were all present (John Worden, captain of the Monitor was a LCDR).
The flag ranks were more complicated (see below). Dunno about the LT(j.g.) 
thing though.

>Also, was there a cap at the rank of Rear Adm. (or the equivalent) in the 
>same way that the Congress limted the Union Army to Maj. Gen.?

There was more than that, until the Civil War the US navy had no admirals.
Farragut was the original Rear, Vice, and Full Admiral. The ranks were
originally authorized by Congress for him. I am less certain about the 
situatation with Commodore. It has gone in and out of favor with the Navy in
the last 217 years. I don't know if they used it then or not. As for bfore
the war I believe Stephen Decatur was granted the rank of Commodore, but that
may have been this crazy captain thing.

>-Paul
> 
> 
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>P. L. Cowan     Please send replies, comments etc. (no flames thank you) to 
>COWAN@ANL.GOV  (I'm posting from my own account, but not the preferred one)
>        "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is a War Room!"
>from _Dr._Strangelove_or:_How_I_Learned_to_Stop_Worrying_and_Love_the_Bomb_
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
********************************************************************************
George Komatsoulis			Division of Biolgy
george@seqvax.bio.caltech.edu		147-75
					California Institute of Technology
					Pasadena, CA 91125