December 6, 1864
There arrived
Captain Alden, with 253 brevets, of all grades, for the Army of the Potomac. Do
you know what a brevet is, and the force thereof? A brevet commission gives the
dignity, but not always the pay or the authority, of the rank it confers. If,
for example, a colonel is breveted general, he may wear the stars and may rank
as general on courts-martial, but, unless he be specially assigned by
the President, he has only the command of a colonel, just as before. A colonel
brevetted general in the regular army draws the pay of a general when
assigned to duty by the President; but a brevet in the volunteers can
under no circumstances bring additional pay. Brevets, like other appointments
by the President, must be confirmed by the Senate before they become permanent.
At any rate, however, they last from the time of appointment to the time of
their rejection by the Senate. The object of brevets is to pay compliments to
meritorious officers without overburdening the army with officers of high rank.
As aforesaid, there
came a grist of these papers in all grades, from 1st lieutenant up to
major-general. All the Headquarters' Staff, with few exceptions, were brevetted
one grade, in consequence of which I should not wonder if the Senate rejected
the whole bundle! Barstow is Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel; Biddle, ditto; Duane
has two brevets, which brings him to a full Colonel, and will give him a
colonel's pay, if he can be assigned, as they are in the regular army. We are
all very melancholy over General Williams, who, though one of the most deserving
officers in the whole army, could not be brevetted because that would make him
rank the Adjutant-General of the whole army, Brigadier-General Thomas. They
were not so careful to except Barnard, whom they formerly made a Major-General
though his chief, Delafield, was only a Brigadier. It is to be
considered, however, that Major-General Barnard had found leisure from his
military duties to publish a criticism on the Peninsular Campaign, or, in other
words, a campaign document against McClellan, which is a circumstance that
alters cases. I should say, that the statement that General Meade was only a Brevet
Major-General in the regular service was a mistake naturally arising from
the confusion with the other letters of appointment. . . .
General Grant was
at the Headquarters for about an hour. He brought with him Captain de
Marivault, a French naval officer and a very gentlemanly man. I took him as far
as Fort Wadsworth, and showed him it and the neighboring line. He has had great
chances of seeing this war, as he was at New Orleans, and, later, Admiral
Dahlgren allowed him to go into Charleston, where he even went about in the
city. Oh! I forgot to mention, in particular, that Rosencrantz is brevetted a
Major, at which he is much pleased. There followed much merriment in the camp
over shoulder-straps, those who had been promoted giving theirs to the next
grade below. Majors' straps were scarcest and were in great demand. The General
was in high spirits (as he might well be, with a letter of appointment in his pocket)
and stood in front of his tent, joking with his aides, a very rare performance with
him. “Now here's Lyman,”1 said he, looking like Mephistopheles in good
humor, “he has no brevet, but I am going to write to the Governor of
Massachusetts to make him a Field Marshal.” Whereat he rubbed the side of his
long nose, as he always does when he laughs.
_______________
1 Lyman, being a volunteer aide, was not eligible
for a brevet.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 289-91
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