Staff Officers
| Name | Date of birth | Actual rank | Appointment date | Brevet rank | Appointment date | Allegiance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy Andrews | c. 1794 | Lieutenant Colonel; Deputy Paymaster General | Brevet Brigadier General | September 13, 1847 | U.S.A. | Continued in position until succeeded Benjamin F. Larned as Colonel and Paymaster General, September 6, 1862. Retired November 29, 1864. | |
| Sylvester Churchill | August 2, 1783 | Colonel; Inspector General | December 1839 | Brevet Brigadier General | February 23, 1847 | U.S.A. | Continued as colonel and Inspector General. Retired September 25, 1861. Colonel Randolph B. Marcy was appointed senior colonel and titular head of the Inspector General's Department on August 9, 1861. |
| Samuel Cooper | June 12, 1798 | Colonel; Adjutant General | 1852 | C.S.A. | Appointed brigadier general, Adjutant and Inspector General of the Confederate Army, March 16, 1861. Appointed full general and ranking general of the Confederate Army, August 31, 1861 to rank from May 16, 1861. Never in field command. Replaced by Colonel Lorenzo Thomas, born in 1804, who was promoted to brigadier general on August 3, 1861. | ||
| Henry Knox Craig | March 7, 1791 | Colonel; Chief of Ordnance Department | 1851 | U.S.A. | Replaced by Lt. Colonel James Wolfe Ripley, born December 10, 1794, promoted to colonel on April 23, 1861. Ripley was promoted to brigadier general on August 3, 1861. Craig retired June 1, 1863. Brigadier General George D. Ramsay replaced Ripley, September 15, 1863. | ||
| George Gibson | c. 1790 | Colonel; Commissary General | 1818 | Brevet Major General | May 30, 1847 | U.S.A. | Continued as colonel and Commissary General but died in mid-1861. Lt. Colonel Joseph Pannell Taylor was promoted to commissary general of subsistence with the rank of colonel on September 29, 1861 and brigadier general in the Regular Army on February 9, 1863; died June 29, 1864. |
| Joseph E. Johnston | February 3, 1807 | Brigadier General; Quartermaster General | June 28, 1860 | C.S.A. | Appointed full general in the Confederate Army, August 31, 1861. Led major Confederate commands except July 17, 1864 to February 1865. Replaced on May 15, 1861 by Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs. | ||
| Benjamin Franklin Larned | September 6, 1794 | Colonel; Paymaster General | 1854 | U.S.A. | Relieved of duty July 12, 1862 due to ill health. Replaced by deputy paymaster, Lt. Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Timothy Andrews. | ||
| Thomas Lawson | August 29, 1789 | Colonel; Surgeon General | 1836 | Brevet Brigadier General | May 20, 1848 | U.S.A. | Died May 15, 1861. Replaced by Colonel Clement Finley, who was born c. 1797, and retired April 14, 1862. |
| Joseph G. Totten | April 17, 1788 | Colonel; Chief Engineer | December 7, 1838 | Brevet Brigadier General | March 29, 1847 | U.S.A. | Colonel and chief engineer at start of the war. Promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army of the United States, March 3, 1863. Died April 22, 1864. |
In addition, an act of Congress of March 2, 1849 authorized the President to appoint a suitable person as Judge Advocate of the army, to be taken from the captains of the army. Captain John F. Lee of the Ordnance Department was accordingly appointed, and held the office until it was superseded by the legislation of 1862.
With few active officers to fill many commands, the two Civil War armies had to look to other persons for military leadership. Lower ranking U.S. Army officers, Mexican-American War veterans and military school graduates in civilian life would fill many top and field grade officer positions. Many positions were also filled by foreign emigres, some of whom had military training, and politicians and other civilians with no military training. Some became good generals but many others were poor commanders.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, 296 U.S. Army officers of various grades resigned. Of these, 239 joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and 31 joined after 1861. Of these Confederate officers from the U.S. Army, 184 were United States Military Academy graduates. The other active U.S. Army 809 officers, 640 of whom were West Point graduates, remained with the Union. Of the approximately 900 West Point graduates in civilian life at the beginning of the war, 114 returned to the Union Army and 99 joined the Confederate Army. Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont furnished more officers to the war than any other military school except the United States Military Academy and Virginia Military Institute. The school contributed 523 officers to the Union Army and 34 to the Confederate Army. Norwich was the only military college in the Northern states, other than West Point, which had a sizable number of military trained alumni who could provide a significant number of officers to the Union Army.
Of the 1,902 men who had ever attended Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, 1,781 fought for the Confederacy. One-third of the field officers of Virginia regiments in 1861 were V.M.I. graduates. The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina provided at least 6 general officers to the Confederate Army as well as 49 field grade officers, and 120 company grade officers. Another alumnus of The Citadel, Colonel Charles C. Tew, was killed on the eve of his promotion to brigadier general.
Read more about this topic: List Of American Civil War Generals, Identification of American Civil War Generals, Active Duty U.S. Army Officers and Military School Graduates in Civil War Armies
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