Union officers' exam.

[Gary of CA]

It's well documented that the Union Army as well as the Confederates both had review boards to determine the competency of an officer. Officers failing to pass the examination were mustered out of service. In reading the history of the Fourteenth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Colored) Regiment, some questions were recorded therein. I share them with you now:

1) How many ranks to form a company?
2) What is the distance between the ranks?
3) How are the file closers posted?
4) What are the principles of the step?
5) What are the principles of the facings?
6) What about the dress?
7) How do you break a column of platoons to the right or to the left?
8) How do you form into a line on the right or left?
9) Discuss the school of the battalion.
10) How do you regulate the mustering of troops for pay?
11) How are the muster rolls prepared?
12) How are the pay-rolls prepared?
13) The keeping of company books.
14) What are the duties of the sentinels.
15) How do you make the soldier's descriptive list?
16) How do you select a camp-ground?
17) Discuss making of a camp.
18) Discuss the location and the making of the sinks.
19) How do you keep tents and clothing dry?
20) Discuss the policing of camps.

So, do you think you'd pass and be an officer?

[Brian Baird]

Re: Union officers' exam.

Gary,
I find these interesting. Scott Cross & I portrayed regular army officers examining volunteer officers at the WIG’s Ft. Grainger event back in 2006. Scott’s research for the officer’s examination in the Army (Dept) of the Cumberland in 1862 had more to do with mathematics, geography, English comprehension, etc. than just drill and army regulations.
Brian Baird

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Re: Union officers' exam.

It greatly depends upon if the board is for volunteer officers of "traditional"infantry or artillery regiments or officers of the USCT. As Mr. Baird had mentioned, a liberal arts type exam was more commonplace for normal volunteer officers, but a different appoach was taken to those seeking or holding a commision with a USCT regiment. Those tests were often a combination of math, science and English as well as tactics and regulations. This was a reaction by the War Department to problems with some white leaders not being qualified, i.e. enlisted men who just wanted commisions at any cost, folks with no leadership ability but had some connections, or potential officers without a basic educational background. The boards convened in several places throughout the US (Philadelphia, Cincinnatti, and St. Louis are the ones that immediately come to mind) and were semi-successful at weeding out the unprepared and on the flip side, helped some people with leadership potential become officers who might not normally have done so.

[CYoungJSU]

Re: Union officers' exam.

I remember Lee White having a copy of a Confederate officer's exam from 1864 I believe. Maybe he can weight in here. Those exams were not as easy as one might expect. Here is a snippet of an article I wrote for our blog on the Army of Tennessee concerning the death of Andrew Jackson's grandnephew:


John S. Donelson was born in the White House on May 18, 1832, and was standing at the bedside of his granduncle when the ex-president died in 1845. According to John's stepmother, Elizabeth, the dying Jackson called John to his side, "kissed him and gave him his blessing and parting admonitions [.] He told him not to weep for him[,] that he hoped to meet him in Heaven & that he must be a good boy, obey his parents, keep the Sabath[sic] holy, and not neglect his salvation." John cast his lot with the Confederacy on May 14, 1861, when he was mustered into Company E of the 154th (Senior)Tennessee Regiment as a 2nd lieutenant. His promotion to 1st lieutenant came in August 1861, and his appointment to captain occurred on June 27, 1862. Captain Donelson received a severe wound during the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) on December 31, 1862, and was subsequently killed on September 19, 1863, at the Battle of Chickamauga while serving on Brigadier Preston Smith’s staff as Acting Assistant Adjutant-General (A.A.A.G.). His effects were placed in his brother’s care but no record of his burial was documented. According to the Compiled Service Records (CSRs), Donelson’s captaincy had not been filled by December 1863, due to “the captain-elected” having “failed to pass ex board and appointment not made.”

[Brian Baird]

Re: Union officers' exam.

Ross,
I agree. I found that a union army artillery volunteer officer that was cashiered out of the Army of the Cumberland became a Captain of a USCT Cav. Company later in the war... Capt David Stone, Stone's Kentucky Battery, USV.
Brian Baird