Forum visitors from the Confederate ranks may find this especially interesting, but I recommend it to everyone studying Civil War military administration:

http://www.amazon.com/Buff-Facings-Gilt-Buttons-Headquarters/dp/1570032203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205328533&sr=1-1

Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: Staff and Headquarters Operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 (Hardcover)
by J. Boone Bartholomees (Author)

In the past when I've reviewed books for the Scriveners Mess I've compiled excerpts relevant to clerking or administration in general.  In the case of this book, that would require posting the entire work, because every page has at least two or three items relevant to our area of interest.

Quite simply, this is the best treatment of the subject that I've found.  It provides an excellent overview of civil war staff organization and operations, including the day to day minutiae of administration.  Although it focuses on the Army of Northern Virginia, it's nearly as relevant to the rest of the Civil War armies as they all followed essentially the same regulations and processes.  The differences are relatively few and easy to assimilate.  It's the best kind of secondary source in that it provides a logical structure and makes intelligible a wealth of original materials, makes frequent use of period accounts in the text, and provides a comprehensive biography.

This book is pretty expensive, but if you want to spend much time in a staff role, US or CS (though especially the latter), it's certainly worth it -- less than a new gum blanket, and about the equivalent of a quality cap box.

Here are a few highlights:

*Although Lee's personal staff may have appeared small to some observers, the actual ANV headquarters structure was pretty extensive -- several hundred men according to the Appomattox parole records, deployed in various departments (e.g., AAG, AQM, ACS, provost), and counting enlisted personnel on extra duty.

*Material shortages did not result in markedly different processes --  CS NCOs would complain of having to spend half their pay to buy paper so they could do their jobs, but the jobs still called for that much paper (interestingly, the Roy Bird Cook collection has a quarterly stationery requisition with a note appended complaining about not having received the quarterly allowance in more than a year).

*Among the discussion of "other" positions on staff, the author spends several pages describing the work of attached clerks.  I haven't seen anything like this elsewhere.

*The CS army had no separate Pay Department -- the work was instead assigned to the QM Department.  Nonetheless, a number of officers in the ANV were listed as "Paymasters."

*The CS army was the last American army to use slaves, who performed a number of important, though subordinate roles in HQ and support units.  Without any reference to "Black Confederates" on the one hand, or oppressed peoples on the other, the author seems to handle this subject pretty objectively.  As officers' servants, teamsters, laborers, cooks, craftsmen, etc. both slaves and free blacks served the CS army with varying degrees of fidelity.

*Civilians and political ADCs also performed key roles.  Most famously among the former was Jed Hotchkiss, Stonewall Jackson's topographer, who apparently never did actually enter the army.  Among the latter, several statesmen served as aides to CS generals, sometimes running effective interference with officials in the capital, but sometimes proving problematical.

Overall, I highly recommend the book.  I have to mention that I became interested in it after Charles Heath referred to it a couple of months ago on this forum.  One of the minor joys of Winter '64 was to be able to thank him in person for pointing it out.  Whatever disagreements I may have had or may have in the future with Charles, I will never take issue with the depth of his knowledge or the sincerity of his love for history.  On this score, I remain in his debt.

For more information on the book, I note that Google Books has a preview, as well as a link to other sources for buying it (Barnes and Noble has it for $35):

http://books.google.com/books?id=fJPOL-2VfoMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22buff+facings+and+gilt+buttons%22&ei=TuLXR5-5K4WyyQTyjLTYAQ&sig=J34H0Ef0V02en6Gt8ZC0waUMGIY

Enjoy!

Michael:

Sounds like a new one to put on my "wish" list. Would there be any insights in the text as to uniforms and equipage of the staffs?

Yes -- there's a couple of pages specifically about the mixed results obtained in attempting to wear the regulation uniform, and a few other pages on equipment.  In a nutshell, the principal focus was on having a good horse.  After that, you did what you could and suffered what you must, as was true of the entire Confederate army.  Von Borke, who appears pretty well dressed in the photo I've seen of him, mentions a visit to Richmond in which he was embarassed to appear more of a bandit than a staff officer.

On the whole, though, it probably wasn't fundamentally different from the situation of US officers.  In the rear or quiet times, you wore the best uniform you could afford.  In the field, you wore undress, and sometimes worse according to circumstances.

Mike,

It's a small world. Your friend, the late Danny Snyder, CMF, first introduced me to this book circa Fall 2000, and my copy has long since been given to some young wag who was interested in staff work. I'm glad you could find this material to be useful.  

--Last edited by Bill on 2008-03-16 22:05:12 --