The FReeper Foxhole Lazy Sunday-The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer - July 24th, 2005

http://www.leavenworth.army.mil/history/custer.htm ^

[Colonial Warrior]

Nice post anyway.

Most of us are still learning HTML too!

Thank you for your service to our Country!

[USMCBOMBGUY]

Thank you for the support.
I am trying to get it down. I am completing my degree and one of my classes requires posting assignments to a forum. I have been doing my best to drive the instructor nuts with my posts.

[Colonial Warrior]

Yup...I too remember those days.

EOD right?

Please pass these on to our guys...want to be sure all the terrorists have a nice day!! [grin!]

[snippy_about_it]

What is a Brevet promotion?

A brevet rank was an honorary promotion given to an officer (or occasionally, an enlisted man) in recognition of gallant conduct or other meritorious service. They served much the same purpose that medals play today (our modern system of medals did not exist at the time of the Civil War).

A brevet rank was almost meaningless in terms of real authority. For example, a major who was a brevet colonel collected the pay of a major, wore the uniform of a major, could not give orders to lieutenant colonels, and was only eligible for commands that normally fell to majors. But he was allowed to use the title of colonel in his correspondence.

In addition, there were some unusual circumstances where brevet rank carried authority. For instance, when a force consisted partly of Regular troops and partly of state militia, command would go to the officer with the highest brevet rank (who might neither be the highest ranking regular officer nor the highest ranking volunteer!).This came up during the Mexican War on some occasions, and seems to have been designed to allow Regular officers with brevets (implying experience) to assume command over higher-ranking militia officers who had neither experience nor brevets.

An officer could also claim his brevet rank when serving on court-martial duty. Since an officer cannot be tried by officers ranking lower than himself, using brevet ranks allowed more people to qualify as possible court members.

During the war itself, brevets were very difficult to get and were a sign of valor, but on March 13, 1865, the War Department gave one brevet and sometimes two to nearly every officer on duty with the army. This angered many officers and men, who saw it as trivializing the efforts of men who won brevets in combat. (J.L. Chamberlain mentions this in his memoirs, for instance.)

Like regular ranks, brevets were kept separately for the U.S. Volunteers and the U.S. Army. Thus one man could have four ranks: an actual Volunteer rank, a brevet Volunteer rank, an actual Regular rank, and a brevet Regular rank. Brevets in the Regular army were sometimes used to honor men who had already been brevetted Major General in the Volunteers and could not be brevetted again (in the Volunteers), as no brevet Lieutenant Generals were created during the war (Winfield Scott had been made Brevet Lieutenant General [of Regulars] during the Mexican War).

Brevet ranks were authorized for the Regular Army in the Articles of War of 1806; they were authorized for the US Volunteers on March 3, 1863. Partly as a result of dissatisfaction with the end-of-war brevet giveaway, brevet promotions were discontinued in 1869; although officers who had been given brevets before that date continued to use them. They were reinstated for the Spanish-American war and continued in use until after World War I.

The Confederate army did not award brevet promotions.

Sources:
Stephen Schmidt, James Epperson, and Justin Sanders
Brevet Promotions
US Civil War FAQ 2.8

Boatner's Civil War Dictionary

Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War

1806 Articles of War

Discussion of several Mexican War situations involving brevet ranks in The Mexican War 1846-1848 by K. Jack Bauer.

[USMCBOMBGUY]

Outstanding! thank you for the enlightenment.

[Colonial Warrior]

The Army has a similar policy today, called Frocking in which an officer is permitted to wear the rank of a higher grade.

All the privileges go with the frocking rank, but not the pay or benefits toward retirement.

Frocking is tightly controlled by the Department of Army. There are many conditions that must be met. For example, the officer to be frocked must be on a current promotion list, etc.

[USMCBOMBGUY]

The Marine Corps has the same frocking policy. I believe in addition to the requirements you mention you also have to hold a billet of the grade you are being frocked to, at least for the Marine Corps. It is also possible to be frocked in the enlisted grades in the Marine Corps, this is only done for First Sergeant and Sergeant Major though.

[U S Army EOD]

The system we had also began with an F. Which is the way it turned out for most USAR on active during Vietnam. The Army put out a magazine by the name of FOCUS and in the first issue they announced the reduction in force. I could not think of a more appropriate name for the magazine at that time.

[Colonial Warrior]

You are correct. Actually, there are several requirements you must meet.

Entering into a billet (position) requiring the higher rank is another of those requirements.

[USMCBOMBGUY]

Does the Army frock enlisted as well?

[Colonial Warrior]

I am not as familiar with the enlisted policies, so I can't say for sure. I'll try and find out.

[Peanut Gallery]

I was frocked.

[alfa6]

I was frocked.

I don't think that wearing hatching jackets is the same thing :-)

Regards

alfa6 :>}

[USMCBOMBGUY]

Here is our new Tool for RSPing Suicide Bombers.

[Iris7]

Thanks for the kitten image, made me laugh.

Custer for sure would not be my own first choice for a C.O. He has a reputation as a "difficult" man, shall we say. Very moody. Chain saw school of human relations.

You could never tell if he was going to want you to love him or to hate him. I think, in later life, he mostly tried to make you hate him.

My $.00002 worth, and mostly psychobabble.

As far as Little Big Horn goes, he made no reconnaissance that meant anything that I can see.

[Iris7]

Hi, Snippy,

"LOL. Remind you of you?"

Yeah, I think I am "projecting" a bit. The grandiose recklessness and extreme crankiness Custer showed reminds me of someone I know as well as I know anyone, I guess.

Interesting to try to get into his head. Think he was childish, but without the charm of the young. Don't think he was high command material, that's for sure!

[USMCBOMBGUY]

"Think he was childish, but without the charm of the young"
I think that is an accurate summary of Custer. I would add he didn't seem to place any value on the lives of his men.

[PzLdr]

Custer's belief that the Indians would flee the Little Big Horn village was common in the Army, and firmly believed by Generals Terry and Sheridan. The Indians had always fled in the past. In point of fact, the original plan for the 1876 campaign is a design to trap the Indians. [As a denote, Gibbon and Terry did NOT show up on the 26th, as planned. They arrived on the 27th,so if Custer had followed the letter of his orders, he would either have hit the same village , alone, 24 hours later, or he would have hit an empty village].

Custer attacked on the 25th because he believed the 7th had been spotted by the Indians. It had, but the Indians in question were returning to the reservation, and didn't raise the alarm. Custer didn't know this. He then changed his original plan to rest up and attack on the 26th, when he assumed Terry and Gibbon would be where they were supposed to be, and opted to attack on the 25th.

Custer's operational plan most resembles a reconnaissance in force, with Benteen to recon to the west, and block Indians fleeing that way, while Custer moved north on the eastern flank, and Reno attacked the village from the south.

One of the things that most fascinates me about the Little Big Horn is how both Reno and Benteen disobeyed their orders, and got away with it. Reno was ordered to charge the village. He stopped a quarter to a half mile away,before the Indians appeared in force; dismounted his command in an open field, leaving his left flank in the air, and reduced his combat strength by 20% [households]. He then fell back to a defensible position in some woods, until he panicked and fled[ retreat is too kind a word for Reno's actions] to Reno Hill.

Benteen was ordered to "come quick" [twice in the same written order] and to bring the ammo packs because Custer had found a "big village". Custer's nephew, Autie Reed, riding with Benteen, was able to catch up with, and die with, his uncle. Benteen, whose hatred of Custer was well known inside and outside of the 7th [shared by Reno], managed such a leisurely pace that Reno had already deployed on Reno Hill by the time Benteen got there, at which point Benteen joined his command with Reno's, and having no personal knowledge of the strength of the Indians, moved no further.

I read somewhere that the Army C& GS School used the Little Big Horn as a problem, feeding the students the same info Custer got in the same sequence he got it. Most of the students' solutions were the same actions Custer took. Try John Gray's book [ I believe it's called 'Custer's Last Battle' or campaign].

[PzLdr]

Custer was famous long before the Little Big Horn. He was the youngest Major General in the history of the US Army [24]. He stopped Stuart at Gettysburg, killed him at Yellow Tavern. His Civil War record was exceptional [Try "Custer Victorious"]. He conducted a successful winter campaign on the Plains in 1868, culminating in the Washita. He was a prolific writer of articles about the West and it's fauna.

[PzLdr]

Custer was famous long before the Little Big Horn. He was the youngest Major General in the history of the US Army [24]. He stopped Stuart at Gettysburg, killed him at Yellow Tavern. His Civil War record was exceptional [Try "Custer Victorious"]. He conducted a successful winter campaign on the Plains in 1868, culminating in the Washita. He was a prolific writer of articles about the West and it's fauna.