Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-04-01
THE VACANT BRIGADIER-G -GENER.
ALSHIPS.

Our dispatches state that the Senate
yesterday confirmed the nomination O
Brigadier General o. o. Howard to be
Major General, vice Pope, retired. This
disposes of the vacancies in the list oi
Major Generals, and the question now
arises, who will get the appointments as
Brigadiers. 1t is expected that the nomi-
nations to the coveted stars will be made
in a few days, and in the meantime the
Colonels are taking their turn on the
anxious seat.
The selection of the two senior Briga-
ders for promotion has greatly raised the
hopes of the senior Colonels. The Presi-
dent, of course, will not 60 below their
grade for his choice, and it is improbable
that he will turn aside to the staff corps
where he has no fewer than forty line
Colonels to pick from. OF the latter,
however, a good many have received
their present commissions within two or
three years, and hence are out of the
race, while some have no war record of
importance 1t is almost certain that
both nominees will be taken from the
first twenty of the Colonels, in relative
rank.
The Washington correspondent of the
New York Sun, who seems to have thor
oughly canvassed the chances of the
several Colonels for promotion, thinks
that in the cavalry the choice will be
confined to the first four-Grierson of the |
Tenth, Hatch of the Ninth, Sturgis of |
the Seventh, and Merritt of the Fifth. |
In the artillery he says there is but one
conceivable candidate-Ayres OF the Sec
ond. In the infantry are named Will
cox of the Twelfth, Ruger of the Eight
eenth, Smith of the Nineteenth, An
drews OF the Twenty fifth, Potter of the
Twenty-fourth, Kautz OF the Eighth,
and, the DEMOCRAT is pleased to add, our
own McCook of the Sixth. Thus the
twenty Colonels from whom conceiv-
able choice could be made, are reduced
in number nearly one-half Says the Sun
correspondent:
If the principle shall prevail of giving the
hrst choice to those Colonels who, besides
being high in lineal rank, will be soonest
retired for age, on the ground that they
have, as a general rule. rendered the most
years of aggregate service, the prizes would
doubtless go in the cavalry to Colonel s. ID.
Sturgs, and in the infantry to Colonel j. 81. {
Potter, who not only stand respectively sixth
and eighth on the total list of line Colonels.
but are to be retired this very year, the
former June IL and the latter October IL.
But the failure to nominate General Newton,
who is also soon to be retired, for Pope's | :
vacancy. makes it unlikly that age will have
the advantage over seniority in grade.
Looking then, at line rank, we find no 7
fewer than five Colonels having the same
aate, July 2S, lS56, In their present commits
slons, namely, Wilcox, Ruger, Hatch, Grier-
son and Smith, arranged on the official list
1f relative rank as here given. Colonel o. B.
WILCOX not only leads the entire list of |
Colonels, but is to be retired in about year. ,
April g, 1887; and this latter consideration
may help him when coupled with the other t
strong claim. Colonel T. 81. Ruger retires q
Jen years LATER and is also prominent can
ildate for Judge Advocate General, in Cen |
'ral Swalm's place; but should the President L
1e thinking of somebody else for this Office, !,
COLONEL Ruger's chances would be perhaps :.
increased Tor the present one. The chances n
II Hatch and Grierson, the latter of whom VI
etlres five years before the former, are
probably increased by the likelihood that e
he infantry would not receive more than
me of the Brigadierships. But should the
4rtillery receive an appointment, Colonel o
-yres, who retires at the close of 1889, tt
you'd unquestionably be the nominee. =,
1nally, an abandonment of the principle of IL
eniority in selection would very probably q
AIRY one of the prizes to Colonel Wesley al
lerrltt who is eleventh on the list of the '''
ne Colonels, received his Colonelcy ten Sc
ears ago, in 1876, and retires in 1900. O,