I count seven on the Army List as of Q1 1861, but reading the Army List was a pain and I may have missed some. Colonels with a higher brevet rank John Garland Colonels by rank Thomas Lawson Thomas Fauntleroy Phillip St. George Cooke Matthew Payne Washington Seawell Colonels by brevet only RE Lee - ThreadSky

saphroneth.bsky.social • 11 days ago

I count seven on the Army List as of Q1 1861, but reading the Army List was a pain and I may have missed some.
Colonels with a higher brevet rank
John Garland

Colonels by rank
Thomas Lawson
Thomas Fauntleroy
Phillip St. George Cooke
Matthew Payne
Washington Seawell

Colonels by brevet only
RE Lee

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saphroneth.bsky.social•11 days ago

Of these, two (Garland and Lawson) are dead by the end of June, Cooke and Seawell continue serving the Union through the war in some fashion, Payne dies 1862 and Lee is obvious, but the closest other one to him is Fauntleroy. He joins the VA Provisional Army but resigns when the CS Army absorbs it.

scoobyshakespeare.bsky.social•11 days ago

This page has 3 more. Edmund Brooke Alexander (frontier duty through 1863, then provost and recruiting), John J. Abert (head of Topographic Engineers, ret. 9/61), & George H. Thomas (who deserves every honor, but was only a major until he was promoted to replace Lee).

https://www.nps.gov/rich/learn/historyculture/-if-virginia-stands-by-the-old-union-robert-e-lee-resigns-from-the-u-s-army.htm

saphroneth.bsky.social•11 days ago

Abert is listed as born in MD and being appointed from DC on the Army Register, so didn't fall into the quadrat (I used "Appointed From"); Edmund B. Alexander is listed as born in KY and appointed from KY. Thomas of course is VA but not a Col at the start of the year.

saphroneth.bsky.social•11 days ago

Of course, depending on how you count brevets either Garland or Lee doesn't count anyway! And I don't think there's a time point where Lee and Thomas are US colonels simultaneously - and of course if you go late enough in 1861 there's loads more officers of Colonel and up, even some from VA.

scoobyshakespeare.bsky.social•11 days ago

Thomas, "the Rock of the Chickamauga" is the clearest contrast to Lee: a Virginian from a slaveholding family who as a child hid in the woods from Nat Turner's rebellion, who was galvanized *against* slavery as a result, stayed loyal to the Union at great cost, whose family never forgave him for it.

scoobyshakespeare.bsky.social•11 days ago

Thomas also had a few words to say re Civil War revisionism.

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