The Ranks and insignia of the Confederate States were a rank insignia system devised by the forces of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. While based on the Union rank system, changes were introduced to differentiate the "gray" from the "blue".
Junior officers up to captain had a less elaborate pattern of braid on their tunic cuffs and wore collar insignia of three horizontal bars for a captain, two for a first lieutenant and one for a second lieutenant. Majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels wore respectively one, two, and three stars on the collar, and all grades of general had the insignia of three stars (the middle being slightly larger) in an open top wreath pattern.
Most officers wore buttons in two rows of seven. Generals could be recognised by the eagles on their buttons and the placement of the buttons in groups of two. While there was no official distinction for different grades of general, some major generals adopted the pattern of their Union counterparts by wearing two row of nine buttons in groups of three.
Read more about Ranks And Insignia Of The Confederate States: Confederate Armies
Famous quotes containing the words confederate states, ranks, confederate and/or states:
“Figure a man’s only good for one oath at a time. I took mine to the Confederate States of America.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“A sleeping man holds in a circle around him the thread of the hours, the order of years and of worlds. He consults them instinctively upon awaking and in one second reads in them the point of the earth that he occupies, the time past until his arousal; but their ranks can be mingled or broken.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Well, you Yankees and your holy principle about savin’ the Union. You’re plunderin’ pirates that’s what. Well, you think there’s no Confederate army where you’re goin’. You think our boys are asleep down here. Well, they’ll catch up to you and they’ll cut you to pieces you, you nameless, fatherless scum. I wish I could be there to see it.”
—John Lee Mahin (1902–1984)
“Courage, then, for the end draws near! A few more years of persistent, faithful work and the women of the United States will be recognized as the legal equals of men.”
—Mary A. Livermore (1821–1905)