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U.S. Army and Navy Officer Ranks During the Civil War

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The conflict of the Civil War brought about changes to the officer ranks of the U.S. Navy that had gone unaddressed in peacetime. A number of wartime developments realigned the equivalence of army and navy officer ranks, and the ranks of staff corps officers within the navy. These changes are outlined month by month in the table below.

Naval officers had complained for decades about the lack of higher grades, flag officer ranks that would equate to general officers in the army. Legislation to that effect had been proposed several times, but never successfully. Though both army and navy regulations gave senior captains precedence equal to major generals or brigadier generals, in practice this was not always recognized. In 1857 Congress authorized the temporary rank of "flag officer" for captains commanding a squadron. In October 1861, President Lincoln issued an executive order that flag officers would rank with major generals.

The navy's "staff" or "civil" officers also had complaints: Their status was not established by regulation until the 1840s and by law in the 1850s, and then with "relative rank," so a surgeon would have a position and status corresponding to a lieutenant, but would not hold an actual lieutenant's rank, and would have no command authority. As surgeons, paymasters (supply officers) and engineers attained years and decades of service, they were bothered that they did not get recognition similar to that of line officers or of their counterparts in the army.

The relative ranks "next after lieutenant" and "next after master" were a result of aligning medical officer grades with line officer ranks in 1841, while keeping the highest relative rank for a surgeon at the level of commander, or major in the army. An officer ranking "next after lieutenant" would have status junior to all naval lieutenants or army captains, but senior to all masters or first lieutenants.

With the wartime emergence of the navy as an important part in the strategy of cutting off the South, Congress revisited the issue in the course of expanding the navy to wartime scale. With "An Act to establish and equalize the Grade of Line Officers of the United States Navy," July 16, 1862, the navy was for the first time authorized the flag grades of rear admiral and commodore, and a naval line officer equivalent was established for every army officer rank.

Congress had been silent on the staff corps officers of the navy, however. Because their previous relative ranks had been based on the old line officer structure, some senior staff officers felt their status should be clarified with regard to the new line ranks. On March 13, 1863, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles issued a general order that realigned and generally increased the relative ranks of the staff corps, bringing them more into line with those of comparable officers in the army. This included giving bureau chiefs the temporary relative rank of commodore while so serving, and the granting of relative rank to naval constructors for the first time. Because Congress did not confirm these ranks through legislation, they were rescinded in 1869.

See also: U.S. Navy Staff Corps and Relative Ranks.

All text and images © Justin T. Broderick, 2013-2020 unless otherwise indicated.