General of the Army Omar N. Bradley died April 8, 1981.
his grave: http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/125.html
I wrote to Bradley in about 1975, seeking an autograph, but got a note back from his ADC, regretting that the General was too ill to write. ADC had the wonderful name of Lewis S. Swineheart III.
Here’s another General Question for you.
In 1863, Ulysess S. Grant was promoted to the 3-star rank and given command of all of the Union armies. From what I have read, this promotion was a major (no pun intended) step, for the only person who had held so high a rank previously was Washington himself. Winifried Scott had held the rank, but only as a brevet (temporary field promotion).
In every reference I have seen to Grant’s new rank, it calls him a “Lieutenant General.”
Now, as per Cecil, we know why a Lt. General outranks a Major General. But the explanation given indicates that a Lt. General was expected to be subordinate to someone else.
So why was Grant’s rank called “Lt. General” instead of just “General”, “Full General”, or “General of the Armies”?
I have three theories:
American ranks followed European ranks in term; the Europeans equivalent of an American 3-Star general was called a “Lt. General”, and so that’s what the Americans called theirs.
The rank was called “Lt. General” to indicate subordinance to the Commander-In-Chief, i.e., President Lincoln.
The rank was called “General of the Armies” or some such, but because later a 4-Star rank was added, it was re-titled “Lt. General”, and all of my history books backdated the title to apply to what Grant had.
Anyone know the real reason?
Was Grant really promoted to command ALL Union armies? I thought he was just in command of the Grand Army of the Potomic. I don’t think he gave orders to troops in far flung Santa Fe or Sacramento or even Sherman down in Georgia.
Boris B:
While you’re correct according to the org chart, God help the lieutenant who ignores the suggestion of a sergeant-major.
Every young lieutenant, the bars on his collar still shiny from the graduation ceremony, is told pretty explicitly to rely on his sergeant until he can find his ass with both hands. While the sergeant may not directly overrule the lieutenant (or the sergeant-major the captain or major), his experience and achievement in rank is still recognized by everyone, and if a young officer complained to a senior officer that his sergeant never agreed with him, he’d probably be told in no uncertain terms that the sergeant knows than he ever will, and that he’ll never be promoted unless he learns to benefit from the voice of experience with which he’s been blessed.
Now put the word ‘fuck’ in between every other word of what the senior officer would say, and you’ll know how it’s really put.
Never attribute to an -ism anything more easily explained by common, human stupidity.
Ursa Major asked:
In theory, Grant was in fact in charge of every Union army. Given the state of communications at that time, Grant rarely attempted to give specific orders to the army commanders, and instead gave them a great deal of leeway to pursue objectives as they saw fit. The exception to this was with the Army of the Potomac; Grant stated early on that his headquarters would be with the AoP, and while Meade was never removed as commander of the AoP, Grant acted as the defacto commander for most purposes (much to Meade’s disgust and chagrin).
Civil War buff? Me? Never.
Mr Corrado, from the context I judge you are speaking of the War of Northern Aggresion? Meade was no great shakes anyway,I think Grant did him a favor. If you take a look at the chart you’ll see that the ranks are generally associated with the size of the unit commanded,not so much as being subordinate to another. A Lt.Gen. commands an Army or a Corps. So your postulate 1 is correct,in general. There is also an explanation of the word Lt.as a word in general and in “General”.Grant did get 4 stars too. He was the 2nd full General.
There is a commisioned rank below LT.; Warrant Officer. Aren’t very many of them left. Some nco’s who had a LOT of experienceand a bit too much book smarts too be nco’s but not enough education to advance. also fliers in WWII who left the service and and came back ( USA for some rason only let officers actually do the flying, a guy could be a cracker jack pilot but not otherwise officer material but he was an officer cause he flew)Chief warrant was as high as they usually got,and none that I know had any interest in being LT.It was actually a step down in their eyes.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
Heinlein, in Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie, which was so very, very different it was difficult for me to recognize it), alludes to the custom of “only one Captain on the ship.” Not exactly the most authoritative source, no, but with his background it’s worth considering.
Howeer, he doesn’t say it was an actual promotion, just that everyone aboard the ship would use the title “Commodore” when referring to any people aboard with the actual rank of Captain other than the one in charge of the ship.
Warrant Officers aren’t exactly “officers below lieutenant”; they’re on a different ladder. The historic foundation is, indeed, the need to promote various technical specialists above Sergeant/CPO when they really shouldn’t be Commissioned Officers because “they just aren’t – you know – our kind”.
The popularity of W.O.'s comes and goes.
There are, at present, four W.O. ranks in the U.S. The lowest is simply called “Warrant Officer”. The next three are all called “Chief Warrant Officer”, but the pay goes up as they progress from W-2 to W-4. A W-4 gets the same pay as a Major/Lt. Cdr.
“Michael Garibaldi” on Babylon 5 is a C.W.O., and a good example of the type, an ex-cop recruited to run security on a military base.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Mr John wrote:
2nd Lt (Ensign) are the lowest commisioned ranks. WO are called that because they receive warrants rather than commisions; to the best of my knowledge they outrank all NCO’s, but are below all the LT’s. They are used in the Army mainly for helicopter pilots, and used fairly extensively in the Coast Guard.
Commodores in the modern USN are sort of a crisis rank. They are broken out when the Navy feels more flag officers are needed (like WWII) but doesn’t want to create a huge crop of admirals. After the crisis is over, Commodores either retire at that rank or are gradully promoted to Rear Admiral, and Captains skip Commodore to become RA’s, when openings occur.
The most common use of courtesy promotions is with Marine Captains on Naval ships; they are referred to as Major to avoid confusion with the ships Captain. Other Naval Captains serving on the ship are generally referred by job title, such as CAG (Commander Air Group). I don’t know what would be done if another captain were a guest on the ship. My WAG is that he would be referred to as Commander, so that there is no confusion about who is the ranking officer on the ship.
Scott
Libertarian said:
I believe the essence of what was said in the other posts agrees. Majors were Sargeant-Majors assigned to assist the command officers. Lieutenants were the same - assistants to the command officers.
That makes a Captain with a Lieutenant (Captain) and a Seargeant Major, a Colonel with a Lieutenant Colonel and a (Seargeant) Major, and a General with a Lieutenant General and a (Sargeant) Major General. Thus, Lieutenants outrank their respective Majors.
Alright, this thread has done a kick-ass job with the various types of Majors, but was there ever a Minor? This is a question I’ve wondered about for quite some time. I seem to remember the rank of “minor” in Statego or some similar game. (It was one of those capture-the-flag board games). Anyone out there know know the straight dope?
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
I believe the game piece you are think of (at least if is the one from Stratego) is the “Miner”, who was able to disarm the bombs.
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
“I get along well with everybody.” --I.M.F.
Hansel, your post (…God help the lieutenant who ignores the suggestion of a sergeant -major…) was so picture perfect it made me laugh.