From: tecump@purple.ucsb.edu (Dominic J. Dal bello)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Re: Grant in the East (was Jackson at the Seven Days)
Date: 18 Dec 92 23:36:52 GMT

whale@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stephen Schmidt) writes:

i>He was, nonetheless, the second-ranking corps commander. Turnover in the
>Army of the Potomac high command was exceedingly high, largely because
>many officers (Couch, Franklin) refused to serve under Hooker and were
>transferred.
>The ranking corps commander was John Reynolds: the command was first
>offered to him and he declined it. See below.

yes, i know that John passed it up.  And thus he was killed on Sem.
Ridge.  he wsa probably the finest officer in the union army, or at least
what an officer was supposed to be.  Poor John. 

>First, this point is right but the example is wrong: Bragg was a full
>general while Longstreet was only a lieutenant general. (See R.H. Zimmerman
>"Unit Organizations of the ACW" for a complete OOB at Chickamauga.) A
>better example is the case where Reynolds agreed to serve under Meade as
>corps commander in AotP, or a similar but not identical example at

i beg to differ.  if you read first hand accounts, and other
accounts, i believe you will 
find that there was some discussion as to who would command once 
Longstreet arrived , but i will look it up.
 
>The command of THE army is appointed by the President but the command of
>a field army (ie, AotP, Army of the Cumberland, etc.) is not. It falls
>to the senior general assigned to that field army. You can always pull
>shenanigans here: for example, for 2nd Bull Run, most of AotP had been
>sent to Pope but McClellan had not been ordered to proceed there, if he
>had the battle would have been under his command and the (badly deluded)
>administration wanted Pope to command. So they just sent all McClellan's
>units to him :) but didn't send Little Mac along.

You are overlooking the fact that the Pres. is the Commander in Chief of
the Army.  A junior officer commands under Presidential order.
If there is no commander specified, then of course it falls to the
senior officer.  Now, how was Meade appointed?  By the President, even if
the orders go through Halleck, it is the pres. who decides who will
command, and it does not necessarily need to fall on the next senior
officer, although it is the normal practice. 

The 2nd Bull Run thing is confusing at best.  Was not McClellan relieved
of command of the Army of the Potomac? (although still commander of the
ARMY) and his units ordered to support the Army of Virginia under Pope?
 
In any event, I think we should give Burnside more credit for knowing his
own limitations, at least in 1862 when he tried to keep command of the AoftheP
at arms length.  As a corps commander he was alright.  As an army commander,
eh. But the command of the AoftP was Meade's, and would not be Burnsides.
The 9th Corps wsa in fact put back in the AotP, and Meade, not Burnside,
was the commander.  Grant did not have to be there. 

>Hm, I ought to look this up. I have a suspicion this is due to Schofield's
>commission being in the Regular Army rather than in the volunteers, but I'm not
>familar with the battle at all..

ah, yes, Schofield was a regular army man, and the rest but volunteers.  He
was the most qualified regardless of rank, and all was deferred to him.
I am not sure if he was a major in the regular army, or of a lower rank,
but it is an interesting example non-theless, and an interesting battl
to boot.

dd

Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa