# How many generals had the Confederacy?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 27, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703 "2005-05-27T02:09:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/1 "2005-05-27T02:09:27Z")
I recently saw a poster depicting “Lee’s Generals” and, IIRC, it showed 17-20 generals–a number that seems too low.
How many generals did Lee really have? I think the Western campaign alone probably saw 6-8 generals.
It would help to have a list, but I can’t find one via Google.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/2 "2005-05-27T02:17:29Z")
Small armies make for many generals in the fact that they get killed off. That and if you are the government you can call even marginally definable leaders a general. Heck, even Quadadfi is still only a colonel! 😃
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/3 "2005-05-27T02:29:04Z")
This link lists 8 men who were Full Generals in the Confederate Army:
[http://www.ehistory.com/world/ListPreviewOnly.cfm?LID=16&PreviewOnly=yes&public=yes&EID=8](http://www.ehistory.com/world/ListPreviewOnly.cfm?LID=16&PreviewOnly=yes&public=yes&EID=8)
Presumably you could track down the book the site quotes and count up the whole list.
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/4 "2005-05-27T03:20:57Z")
> [@BobT](#):
>
> This link lists 8 men who were Full Generals in the Confederate Army:
> [http://www.ehistory.com/world/ListPreviewOnly.cfm?LID=16&PreviewOnly=yes&public=yes&EID=8](http://www.ehistory.com/world/ListPreviewOnly.cfm?LID=16&PreviewOnly=yes&public=yes&EID=8)
>
> Presumably you could track down the book the site quotes and count up the whole list.
Your link lists:
Full Generals by Seniority of the Confederate States Army
1 Samuel Cooper 16 May 1861
2 Albert Sidney Johnson 30 May 1861
3 Robert E. Lee 14 June 1861
4 Joseph E. Johnston 4 July 1861
5 Pierre G. T. Beauregard 21 July 1861
6 Braxton Bragg 6 April 1862
7 Edmund Kirby Smith 19 Feb. 1864
8 John Bell Hood 18 July 1864
I don’t know what is meant by “full generals,” but this is only a fraction of Confederate generals I’ve read about. Where are Jubal Early, Ben McCulloch, Earl van Dorn, Sterling Price, etc?
I’m looking for anyone who carried the “general” title, full or not.
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/5 "2005-05-27T03:47:01Z")
This link:
[http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/terms.htm](http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/terms.htm)
Says that there were four types of generals in the Confederate Army:
General
Lieutenant General
Major General
Brigadier General
Apparently the Union didn’t have any “Generals” during the Civil War.
U.S. Grant was a Major General and became a General in 1866 when Congress authorized the rank.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/6 "2005-05-27T04:13:25Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#):
>
> It would help to have a list, but I can’t find one via Google.
[Here’s what seems to be a complete list](http://home.ptd.net/~nikki/csagenls.htm)
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/7 "2005-05-27T12:35:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> [Here’s what seems to be a complete list](http://home.ptd.net/~nikki/csagenls.htm)
wow. you rock, Colibri!
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/8 "2005-05-27T12:39:32Z")
The attached bibliography gives the title for one book:
“Generals at Rest: The Grave Sites of the **425** Official Confederate Generals,” book by Richard Owen
Good grief. It’s hard to believe the Confederacy had 425 generals–425! Sure, many may have been of brevet rank, but good lord that is a lot of generals, isn’t it?
BTW, **BobT** , I was using “generals” generically, as does the author above.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/9 "2005-05-27T13:17:53Z")
The civil war saw the Union and Confederate armies become the largest (in the western world) and most powerful (anywhere). By the end, they had half a million men in uniform. It took a lot of generals to organize, run, and lead those men.
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### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/10 "2005-05-27T19:33:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> John Decatur Barry, Brigadier General (cancelled)
What does “cancelled” mean here?
> [@](#):
>
> wow. you rock, Colibri!
Indeed. Fascinating link.
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/11 "2005-05-27T20:19:09Z")
The sources I read said the Confederacy didn’t use brevet generals.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generals-had-the-confederacy/305703/12 "2005-05-28T00:53:40Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#):
>
> The civil war saw the Union and Confederate armies become the largest (in the western world) and most powerful (anywhere). By the end, they had half a million men in uniform. It took a lot of generals to organize, run, and lead those men.
And considering that at the time, if you were a citizen with the time/cash to raise and outfit a Volunteer Regiment you could be made a Colonel (or LTC) off the street, so to speak, you really, really needed those generals.