Three boards of officers were convened in March 1866 to make recommendations based on more reliable authority than the urgings of members of Congress, but this by no means eliminated the political element. Although combat officers bitterly resented it, brevets were also liberally dispensed for meritorious staff service; since staff officers served close to the sources of power, most were able to win generous brevet recognition. As one of the examining boards foresaw, the Civil War veteran who lacked a brevet came to be regarded as having failed in his duty. General Fry listed some 2,200 Regular Army officers who received approximately 4,000 brevets for Civil War service.
There is no really satisfactory way to handle brevets in a work such as this. In general, I have tried, in a fashion I hope not excessively obtrusive, to give an officer the rank, regular or brevet, in which he was serving, while mentioning his other rank too where it seems important. Thus Bvt. Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith, colonel of the Seventh Cavalry, is General Smith because of serving as a district commander in his brevet grade; but Bvt. Maj. Gen. George A. Custer, lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Cavalry, is Colonel Custer because of serving in his regular rank as regimental commander. It should be noted, however, that socially and often officially both were addressed as general regardless of whether they were serving as such.
14. SW, Annual Report (1866), pp. 1–2. All the brevets but Steele, who was colonel of the Twentieth Infantry, were regular brigadiers.
15. In a letter to brother John quoted in Athearn, William Tecumseh Sherman and the Settlement of the West, p. 233.
16. Weigley, p. 273.
17. Cf. Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), pp. 230–31.
18. 15 Stat. 315–18 (March 3, 1869). The act also stopped appointments and promotions in the staff bureaus until Congress could agree on their proper peacetime size. In the next five years, lobbying by staff officers gained six laws making exceptions to this injunction. Finally, in 1874, Congress acted to fix the composition of the bureaus. 18 Stat. 244–45 (June 23, 1874). Under the 1869 act, the staff numbered 633 officers and 1,861 enlisted men. Under the 1874 act it numbered 521 officers and 679 enlisted men.
19. 16 Stat. 315–21 (July 15, 1870). Sheridan remained lieutenant general when he replaced Sherman in 1883 but was given four stars by act of Congress in June 1888, two months before his death. Thereafter, until the grade of lieutenant general was revived in igoo, the senior major general commanded the army.
20. 18 Stat. 72 (June 16, 1874). For organization of the army following each of these laws, see F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1903), 2, 606–13.
21. Ibid., SW, Annual Report (1869), pp. 26–28, 235; (1870), pp. iii-xv; (1871), pp. 1, 22–23.
22. SW, Annual Report (1879), p. iii; (1880), p. 3; (1881), pp. 133–34.
23. Ibid. (1873), p. 24; (1874), p. 3; (1881), pp. 4, 32.
24. Ibid. (1881), p. 32.
25. Capt. Henry C. Corbin before House Committee on Military Affairs, March 2, 1876, House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 210.
26. SW, Annual Report (1877), pp. 47–49, See below, pp. 306–307.
27. 19 Stat. 98 (July 24, 1876) and 19 Stat. 204 (Aug. 15, 1876). SW, Annual Report (1876), p. 24; (1877), pp. iii-iv. See also James D. Richardson, comp., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897 (10 vols., Washington, D.C., 1897), 7, 473.
28. Capt. Guy V. Henry before House Committee on Military Affairs, Feb. 14, 1876, House Reports,,44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 191.
29. To Rep. Levi Maish et al, Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo., Dec. 29, 1877, House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, pp. 85–87.
30. See the listing of field and staff of the Seventh Cavalry in Robert M. Utley, Custer Battlefield National Monument (National Park Service, Washington, D.C., 1969), p. 49.
31. To Rep. H. B. Banning, San Francisco, Feb. 15, 1876, House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 27.
32. To Rep. Levi Maish et al, Jackson Barracks, La., Jan. 12, 1878, House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, p. 134.
33. House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 27. SW, Annual Report (1874), pp. iv–v; (1877), pp. 47–49; (1878), p. 436. Richardson, 7, 473. House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, pp. 122, 125.
34. House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, p. 45. Richardson, 7, 617. SW, Annual Report (1881), p. 32; (1882), pp. iv, 4.
35. SW, Annual Report (1873), p. 24; (1877), p. 6; (1879), pp. iii, 4.
36. Sherman to Sen. John A. Logan, June 27, 1874, in Sherman Papers, vol. 90, pp. 339–41, LC. Sherman to J. D. Cameron, Sept. 1876, in James A. Garfield, “The Army of the United States,” North American Review, 136 (1878), 202. House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 226.
37. House Reports, 43d Cong., 1st sess., No. 384, p. 1. Cong. Rec., 44th Cong., 1st sess., p. 3357 (May 27, 1876).
38. GO 93, Hq. of the Army, Oct. 31, 1867, in House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, pp. 136–37.
39. 20 Stat. 150 (June 28, 1878). SW, Annual Report (1880), p. 36; (1890), pp. 10–11.
40. 16 Stat. 320 (July 15, 1870). Other rates: lieutenant colonel, $3,000; major, $2,500; mounted captain, $2,000; unmounted captain, $1,800; mounted first lieutenant, $1,600; unmounted first lieutenant, $1,500; mounted second lieutenant, $1,500. Major generals received $7,500, brigadiers $5,500. Sherman and Sheridan received $13,500 and $11,000, respectively. These sums, exceedingly generous in relation to other high government officials’ salaries, were in recognition of Civil War services.
41. Maj. Samuel Breck to Schofield, Feb. 10, 1876, House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 139. Garfield, “Army of the United States,” p. 465.
42. C. C. C. Carr, “‘The Days of the Empire’—Arizona, 1866–1869,” Journal of the U.S. Cavalry Association, 2 (1869), 5. Col. I. V. D. Reeve to Rep. John Coburn, Minneapolis, March 20, 1872, House Reports, 42d Cong., 3d sess., No. 74, p. 159. Col. Alfred Sully to Rep. H. B. Banning, Fort Vancouver, Wash., Feb. 24, 1876, ibid., 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 108. Brig. Gen. O. O Howard to Banning, Portland, Oreg., Feb. 25, 1876, ibid., P. 39.
43. House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 2. Cong. Rec., 44th Cong., 1st sess., p. 2038 (March 29, 1876).
44. To Rep. H. B. Banning, New Orleans, Feb. 16, 1876, House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 47.
45. Army and Navy Journal, 75 (Oct. 6, 1877), 138–39.
46. Martha Summerhayes, Vanished Arizona. Recollections of My Army Life (1908; Lippincott ed., Philadelphia, 1963), pp. 236–37. An officer complained in 1885 that he had seen fifty of his juniors in his arm pass him on the seniority list. Army and Navy Journal, 22 (Jan. 3, 1885), 451.
47. SW, Annual Report (1887), pp. 121–22.
48. 16 Stat. 317 (July 15, 1870), which cut the army to 30,000 men, provided for retirement after 30 years’ service. 22 Stat. 118 (June 28, 1882) raised the figure to 40 years, but made retirement mandatory at age 64. Officers retired under this provision were placed on the unlimited retired list. Those retired by a retiring board for disability were placed on the limited list. Because the latter could not exceed 400, the regular rolls were usually burdened with from 60 to 80 incapacitated officers drawing pay and blocking promotion but performing no service. SW, Annual Report (1890), pp. 12–13.
49. Army and Navy Journal, 15 (Dec. 22, 1877), 313.
50. SW, Annual Report (1890), pp. 153—54.
51. Ibid. (1887), pp. 121–22.
52. House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, p. 30. House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, pp. 24–25. SW, Annual Report (1885), pp. 63, 75; (1886), pp. 17–19. Richardson, 8, 514.
53. 26 Stat. 562 (Oct. 1, 1890).
54. Senate Ex. Docs., 39th Cong., 1st sess., No. 41. In regular rank 10 of the 138 were major generals, 23 brigadiers, 56 colonels, 34 lieutenant colonel
s, 12 majors, and 3 captains. Ibid., 40th Cong., 3d sess., No. 27.
55. An officer at Fort Lyon, Colo., pointed up the absurdity of the system in an 1869 diary entry: “Brevet Colonel and Captain [Richard C.] Lay inspected and mustered the whole command at this post this afternoon. It was interesting to see him require General [William H.] Penrose to march his company past him in review, he (Penrose) wearing the uniform of a Brigadier-General and Colonel Lay only the straps of a Captain.” George A. Armes, Ups and Downs of an Army Officer (Washington, D.C., 1900), pp. 286–87.
56. 15 Stat. 281 (March 1, 1869). 15 Stat. 318 (March 3, 1869). 16 Stat. 319 (July 15, 1870). Fry, History and Legal Effects of Brevets, pp. 230–31.
57. The Adjutant General ruled that the law did not prohibit an officer from affixing his brevet rank to his signature in official reports. Fry, p. 231. Since the newspapers customarily used an officer’s brevet grade, the public, observed Colonel Gibbon, believed the army composed mainly of colonels and generals. House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, p. 270.
58. Among them Sherman, Thomas, Hancock, McDowell, and Schofield. Senate Ex. Docs., 39th Cong., 1st sess., No. 41. House Reports, 40th Cong., 3d sess., No. 33, pp. 94, 110, 128.
59. Cong. Rec., 44th Cong., 1st sess., p. 3951 (June 21, 1876). See also Sherman to SW McCrary, March 20, 1878, Sherman Papers, vol. 90, pp. 545–48, LC.
60. 26 Stat. 13 (Feb. 27, 1890). SW, Annual Report (1890), pp. 52–53.
61. “The charges and counter-charges made by our officers of late … have done more to damage us in public estimation than any other single cause,” declared Sherman in scolding Colonel Gibbon for preferring charges against General Pope. “The Army today has plenty of honorable employment to occupy the time and talents of all, without resolving itself into a General Court to investigate allegations of fraud, prying, scandal and gossip dating back ten and fifteen years.” Sherman to Gibbon, May 31, 1879, Sherman Papers, vol. 91, pp. 190-91, LC.
62. 16 Stat. 21 (July 15, 1870) lowered pay rates that had been temporarily increased in 1864. 17 Stat. 116–17 (May 15, 1872) did not restore the cuts but provided graduated pay for longevity. Under this law the highest paid enlisted men were sergeant majors and quartermaster sergeants of Engineers, at $36 a month. For the third, fourth, and fifth years of the first enlistment, monthly pay rose by one dollar, but the increase was retained until discharge. After the first enlistment, this longevity pay ceased to increase, but thenceforth only one of the three dollars was retained.
63. Col. I. V. D. Reeve declared that the Thirteenth Infantry was paid only twice during its service in Dakota and Montana from 1866 to 1868. To Rep. John Coburn, March 20, 1872, House Reports, 42d Cong., 3d sess., No. 74, p. 159. Jack D. Foner, The United States Soldier Between Two Wars, 1865–1898 (New York, 1970), p. 17.
64. The Certificate of Merit, authorized in 1847, rewarded distinguished service involving peril of life and carried a compensation of an additional two dollars a month pay. Between 1874 and 1891, only fifty-nine of these were issued. Medals of Honor, authorized in 1863, were for distinguished service in action. Four hundred and nineteen of these were awarded for Indian War service, but many came belatedly, years after the deed for which they were presented. SW, Annual Report (1891), p. 313. James R. Moriarity III, “The Congressional Medal of Honor in the Indian Wars,” in Ray Brandes, ed., Troopers West: Military and Indian Affairs on the American Frontier (San Diego, 1970), pp. 149–69.
65. Quoted in Army and Navy Journal, 15 (Oct. 20, 1877), 170.
66. SW, Annual Report (1872), p. 53. For the composition of the enlisted complement, see Don Rickey, Jr., Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay: The Enlisted Soldier Fighting the Indian Wars (Norman, Okla., 1963), chap. 2.
67. SW, Annual Report (1882), pp. 60–63. The reports of the Adjutant General in the annual reports of the Secretary of War present recruiting statistics.
68. Ibid. (1888), p. 101.
69. James Parker, The Old Army Memories, 1872—1918 (Philadelphia, 1929), p. 18.
70. Cf. SW, Annual Report (1879), p. 35; (1881), p. 72; (1882), p. 52; (1883), p. 80. House Reports, 43d Cong., 1st sess., p. 384.
71. Foner, passim, and tables on pp. 222–24. Rickey, pp. 143 passim. SW, Annual Report (1891), pp. 9, 63. The literature concerning desertion is abundant, especially in the annual reports of the Secretary of War and the files of the Army and Navy Journal.
72. George A. Forsyth, The Story of the Soldier (New York, 1900), pp. 13–32.
73. Rickey, pp. 58–62. Foner, pp. 61–62. See remarks of General Ord in SW, Annual Report (1874), p. 34; Paymaster General Alvord in ibid. (1879), p. 416; and Capt. Guy V. Henry in House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, pp. 189–90.
74. See, for example, Maj. William R. Price, April 2, 1872, in House Reports, 42d Cong., 3d sess., No. 74, pp. 133–37; Cols. J. I. Gregg and Edward Hatch, Jan. 7 and 8, 1878, in House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, pp. 87–90; and Insp. Gen. R. P. Hughes in SW, Annual Report (1888), p. 101.
75. Rickey, pp. 86–87, 99–102. James S. Hutchins, “Mounted Riflemen: The Real Role of Cavalry in the Indian Wars,” in K. Ross Toole et al, eds., Probing the American West: Papers from the Santa Fe Conference (Santa Fe, N.M., 1962), pp. 79–85. Frank D. Reeve, ed., “Frederick E. Phelps: A Soldier’s Memoirs,” New Mexico Historical Review, 25 (1950), 113. W. P. Hall, “The Use of Arms, Mounted,” Journal of the United States Cavalry Association, 1 (1888), 34–37. Parker, pp. 22–23. SW, Annual Report (1871), pp. 71–73; (1878), p. 31; (1879), pp. 67–68, 135–36.
76. SW, Annual Report (1881), p. 46; (1885), p. 76. Rickey, pp. 33–34.
77. SW, Annual Report (1878), p. v. Foner, pp. 25–28. Arlen L. Fowler, The Black Infantry in the West, 1869–1891 (Westport, Conn., 1971), chap. 5. Army educational programs originated principally in the black regiments, each of which was provided with a chaplain, among whose duties were those of schoolteacher.
78. Largely as a result of editorial promptings by the Army and Navy Journal, the National Rifle Association was formed in 1871 and annual rifle matches were inaugurated at Creedmoor, New York. In 1875 the Regular Army began to participate with militia units in the Creedmoor competitions. The NRA and Creedmoor helped kindle intense interest and activity in target shooting throughout the army in the 1880s. Donald N. Bigelow, William Conant Church and the Army and Navy Journal (New York, 1952), pp. 184–86.
79. Robert M. Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (New Haven, Conn., 1963), p. 202. But see also Edward S. Godfrey, “Cavalry Fire Discipline,” Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, 19 (1896), 259, for indications that the men at Wounded Knee knew how to use their weapons.
80. Rickey, chap. 5. Histories of each regiment are in Theo. F. Rodenbough and William F. Haskin, The Army of the United States: Historical Sketches of Staff and Line (New York, 1896). See especially Charles King’s essay on esprit de corps, pp. ix–xii.
81. For the history of these units see William H. Leckie, The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of Negro Cavalry in the West (Norman, Okla., 1967); Fowler, Rodenbough, pp. 280–97; Foner, chap. 7.
82. House Reports, 43d Cong., 1st sess., No. 384, p. 8. For characteristics of black soldiers, in addition to sources cited in note 71 above, see especially Maj. Guy V. Henry in Army and Navy Journal, 21 (Jan. 26, 1884), 525; and Parker, pp. 92—93, 104–05.
83. Quoted in Harold McCracken, ed., Frederic Remington’s Own West (New York, 1960), p. 69.
84. SW, Annual Report (1889), p. 9.
85. Army and Navy Journal, 14 (Jan. 27, 1877), 395.
86. Frances M. A. Roe, Army Letters from an Officer’s Wife (New York, 1909), pp. 103–4.
87. Leckie, p. 14. Armes, p. 230.
88. Charles J. Crane, Experiences of a Colonel of Infantry (New York, 1922), pp. 254–55.
89. For sample testimony see House Reports, 44th Cong., 1st sess., No. 354, pp. 46, 61, 93, 94, 117; House Misc. Docs., 45th Cong., 2d sess., No. 56, pp. 150–53; ibid
., No. 64, pp. 120–21; Garfield, “The Army of the United States,” p. 206. Among those quoted in behalf of abolition are Generals Sherman, Sheridan, and Ord and Cols. James Oaks, John H. King, H. B. Clitz, and, surprisingly, George Andrews of the Twenty-fifth Infantry. Quartermaster cost estimates, which ignore a host of variables, are in Cong. Rec., 44th Cong., 1st sess., p. 3838 (June 16, 1876).
90. Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 3d sess., pp. 1763–64 (Feb. 25, 1873). Cong. Rec., 44th Cong., 1st sess., p. 3357 (May 27, 1876); pp. 3457–69 (June 1, 1876); p. 3838 (June 16, 1876).
91. The history of this problem is perceptively and incisively treated in Huntington, pp. 230–31. See also Weigley, History of the United States Army, pp. 285–89, and Towards an American Army: Military Thought from Washington to Marshall (New York and London, 1962), passim, but especially chap. 10; Bernardo and Bacon, pp. 251–56; Leonard D. White, The Republican Era, 1869–1901: A Study in Administrative History (New York, 1963), pp. 140–46; and John M. Schofield, Forty-Six Years in the Army (New York, 1897), chap. 22. I have treated Scott’s feud with Davis in Frontiersmen in Blue, pp. 48–50.
92. The two orders are in Richardson, 7, 20–21. Sherman’s bitterness is a recurring theme in his correspondence in the Library of Congress.
93. The exchange of letters with Belknap, May 8 and 11, 1874, is in vol. 90, pp. 323–24, of the Sherman Papers, LC. Sheridan berated his chief for shaking the confidence of the army and the people in “the stability and steadiness which they have always attached to your character” and for setting a precedent that “places the General in Chief in retirement for all time to come.” Sheridan to Sherman, May 31, 1874, Sherman Papers, vol. 37, LC.
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