Leader rank overhaul, ongoing

[lycortas2]

Okay, here we go. I will start with May/June 1861 rank snap shot.

1. George McClellan, Regular Army Major General, Brevet
2. John Freemont, Regular Army, Major General, Brevet
3. Butler, Volunteer Major General
4. Banks, Volunteer Major General
5. John Wool, Regular Army Brigadier General who had been breveted to Major General but this did not pass congress till '62.
6. Sumner, Regular Brigadier General
7. McDowell, Regular Brigadier General
8. Mansfield, Regular Brigadier General
9. Rosecrans, Regular Brigadier General

After this all are Volunteer Brigadier Generals

10. Nathan Lyon
11. Sam Heintzelman
12. John Pope
13. Jo Reynolds
14. Stephan Hurlbut
15. Robert Schenck
16. Jacob Cox
17. Will Franklin
18. Tom Stone
19. Tom Sherman
20. Joe Hooker
21. Frederick Lander
22. Ben Kelley
23. John McClernand
24. Hunter
25. Keyes
26. Fitz John Porter
27. William Sherman
28. Don Carlos Buell
29. George McCall
30. Phil Kearney
31. Sam Curtis
32. Charles Hamilton
33. Rufus King
34. Franz Sigel
35. Hiram Grant
36. Darius Couch
37. Ben Prentiss
38. Alpheus Williams
39. Israel Richardson

What does this tell us? Well, Lincoln did not care about seniority much.
I would be tempted to start McClellan at 3*, Wool's delusions aside no one outranked Mac except Scott.
I would start Butler at 2* with an event raising him to 3* in Feb 62 or so.
I would start Banks at 2* with an event raising to 3* in Feb '63.
Wool, Sumner, Mansfield and Rosecrans should probably all start at 2*
Leave McDowell at 3*, his rank does not justify it but he was one of the highest ranking officers in the old army that could still mount a horse and Lincoln seemingly did not care about rank. Until late '62.

add Lyon, Heintzelman, Pope, Hurlbut, Schenk, Cox, Stone, Hunter, maybe Bill Sherman as 1*.

Remove Dan Tyler from the game, probably. Remove Theo Runyon. Remove Dixon Miles.

I will add my next section, August/September '61 shortly. As i move along i will recommend events for officers for promotion based on political reasons.

[Eugene Carr]

You could remove the Militia Generals by event when their enlistment is up, and send Dixon Miles somewhere safe, like Harpers Ferry

Little Mac and Fremont were actually Regular Major Generals right from the start. Such were the times.

I've just played a game where I modded the arrival times of the generals and the mixed up seniorities were really apparent, no limitation on divisions also meant you could just give new generals new divisions.

S!

[lycortas2]

Okay, August/September 1861

Henry Halleck, 3*, Regular army Brevet Major General, add in August, first or second turn.
David Hunter, 2*, Major General of Volunteers, promote by event first August turn.
Edward Baker, 1*, Major General of Volunteers, add in first September turn.
Orlando Wilcox, Brigadier General of Volunteers, add him in the seniority list after the last Brigadier on previous post.
James Rickets, ""
Ambrose Burnside, Brigadier General of Volunteers, probably add him on first August turn at 1*, but i could see adding him from first July turn as an ad hoc commander of one of the Bull Run divisions.
Henry Lockwood, Brigadier General of Volunteers
Louis Blenker, BG of Volunteers
Henry Slocum, BG of Voluteers
James Wadsworth, BG of Volunteers
Ormsby Mitchell, BG of Volunteers
George Morell, BG of Volunteers
George Stoneman, BG of Volunteers
William F Smith, BG of Volunteers
George Thomas, ""
James Shields,
John Reynolds,
William Barry,
John Sedgwick,
C.F. Smith,
George Meade,
Alexander McCook, add as a 1* leader on first september turn
Oliver Howard,
Dan Sickles,
Robert Milroy,
Lew Wallace,
Horatio Wright,
Ed Ord,
William Nelson, 1 * in September 61
John Newton,
Winfield Hancock,
Tom Crittenden, add as a 1* general, second September turn.
George Wright,
George Sykes,
William French,
William Brooks,
John Hatch,
Isaac Stevens,
Lovell Rousseau,
James Negley,
Tom Wood,
John Foster,
Chris Augur,
Jesse Reno,
Julius Stahel,
John Schofield,
John Park, ""

The generals that i do not provide a start date for should be left out till '62. I have added a few brigade generals who will probably not be in the game, like Lockwood, as a comparison of rank.

[lycortas2]

Ignore as i should not post in the middle of the night.

[Eugene Carr]

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1090*.html doesn't show Buell with higher Regular rank than Colonel.

Henry H. Lockwood is a good find. Senior but dubious competency looks like Alpheus William chose to combine him with his brigade and keep him in the Corps stack at Gettysburg.

S!

[lycortas2]

This is why i should not post at 4.00am! I moved my eyes up a line or so and read regular brigadier. Sigh. Ignore that previous post.

It still makes me ask how did Buell get that job? There were senior officers, and there was nothing really special about him to grab the presidents attention.

[Eugene Carr]

I think his Special Service included shuttling between Fort Sumpter and Washington, the President Elect probably met him. He seems to have been well regarded in the 'Old Army'

S!

[caranorn]

According to the Eichers' Civil War High Command:

Seniority (actually date of rank), note that list would have to be continued a bit for 3* and then start one for 2* and finally 1*. I won't be doing that, but this is the way to do it. The hardest part will probably be to situate leaders who died during the war but could have risen to higher commands. The break off point between 3* and 2* should be with the least senior officer to have held army/department command (any Maj. Gen. ranking from same day or earlier even if never holding army/department command should be included with the higher rank), idem for 2*-1*. Only in a few very rare cases (well 1* will probably have more) should two leaders have identical seniority (f.ex. Sigel and McClernand who rank to the same dates as Maj. Gen. U.S.V. and Brig. Gen. U.S.V. and had no previous ranks in US forces (if other countries were considered Sigel would of course be before McClernand). Looking seniority up is a rather tedious process (I had envisioned it during alpha brain storming but it was clear I'd never get the time), I did the following list in about an hour today, but the higher the comission the easier it is. Note, very few 1* should be included who did not at least hold division command (a few exceptional brigade commanders and highly specialised regimental commanders)...

4*
1) Scott (Bvt. Lt. Gen. U.S.A. March 29 1847) (removed November 1 1861)
2) Grant (Lt. Gen. U.S.A. March 2 1864)

3*
1) Frémont (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. May 14 1861) [I'd say before McClellan due to prior rank, but not 100% sure]
2) McClellan (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. May 14 1861)
3) Halleck (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. August 19 1861)
4) Wool (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. May 16 1862) [removed August 1863)
5) Grant (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. July 4 1863)
6) Sherman (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. August 12 1864)
7) [Hancock (postumous, was originally proposed for August 12 1864, under seond nomination only for 1866)]
8) Meade (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. August 18 1864)
9) Sheridan (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. November 8 1864)
10) Thomas (Maj. Gen. U.S.A. December 15 1864)
11) Dix (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. May 16 1861) [Dix, Butler and Banks rank the same, Dix was a pre war regular while Butler and Banks were militia of whom Butler seems to have ranked higher]
12) Butler (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. May 16 1861)
13) Banks (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. May 1861)
14) Hunter (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. August 13 1861)
[ne) Morgan (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. September 28 1861) never held a command]
15) Hitchcock (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. Februar 10 1862) no field command but various posts at Washington
16) McDowell (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 14 1862)
17) Burnside(Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 18 1862)
18) Rosecrans (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862) [ranks before Buell and Pope as Brig. Gen. U.S.V.]
19) Buell (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862) [ranks before Pope as Bvt. Maj. U.S.A.]
20) Pope (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862) [ranks before Sigel as Capt. U.S.A.]
21) Sigel (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862) [same rank as McClernand]
21) McClernand (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862) [ranks before Shields as Brig. Gen. U.S.V.]
25) Shields (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 23 1862) [ranks before Smith as Brig. Gen. U.S.V.]
22) Smith (C.F.) (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862) [ranks before Wallace as Brig.Gen. U.S.V.]
23) Wallace (Maj. Gen. U.S.V. March 21 1862)
24)
25)
...

[tripax]

Remove Dan Tyler from the game, probably. Remove Theo Runyon. Remove Dixon Miles.

The game, as it is, tries to let the players simulate first Bull Run. These three along with Hunter and Heintzelmen led divisions in that battle, and thus are included (Runyon only led reserves and I don't think was actually involved). Removal by event would, I think, be a better option than deleting them from the game. Also, 1 stars with statistics below 3-1-1 will generally be sent to meaningless theaters quite quickly, so that is an option as well, and in that case the player would generally treat them very historically.

[tripax]

For my name mod I made a script that read wikipedia orders of battle and scraped the names of regiments, brigade commanders, division commanders, etc. I have a list of 63 generals who commanded a Confederate division and 79 generals who commanded a Union division. These lists aren't exhaustive, but are suggestive. Also, it includes the date and state of the battle, which can serve as a rough guide for when and where generals could appear in the game (both for those who are currently in the game and those who are not).

I went through each list and marked 33 Union and 17 Confederate that I definitely think could have been added. Below is that list as two txt files, the script gives names, ranks during first battle where they commanded a division, name and date of that battle. I've added a brief bio from wikipedia. I've marked the 33 and 17 with "*". There are a few more that I think are maybes, which I've marked with a ".".
[ATTACH]28832[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]28833[/ATTACH]

I originally posted the list, but it was way too long, Sorry.

[mosswatson]

Glad to know the answer.