Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, was part of the Union Army's futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city, it is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle to U. S. President Abraham Lincoln as a "butchery."Burnside's plan was to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg in mid-November and race to the Confederate capital of Richmond before Lee's army could stop him. Bureaucratic delays prevented Burnside from receiving the necessary pontoon bridges in time and Lee moved his army to block the crossings.
When the Union army was able to build its bridges and cross under fire, direct combat within the city resulted on December 11–12. Union troops prepared to assault Confederate defensive positions south of the city and on a fortified ridge just west of the city known as Marye's Heights. On December 13, the "grand division" of Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin was able to pierce the first defensive line of Confederate Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson to the south, but was repulsed. Burnside ordered the grand divisions of Maj. Gens. Edwin V. Sumner and Joseph Hooker to make multiple frontal assaults against Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's position on Marye's Heights, all of which were repulsed with heavy losses. On December 15, Burnside withdrew his army, ending another failed Union campaign in the Eastern Theater. In November 1862, Lincoln needed to demonstrate the success of the Union war effort before the Northern public lost confidence in his administration. Confederate armies had been on the move earlier in the fall, invading Kentucky and Maryland, although each had been turned back, those armies remained intact and capable of further action.
Lincoln urged Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to advance against the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, he replaced Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell with Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, hoping for a more aggressive posture against the Confederates in Tennessee, on November 5, seeing that his replacement of Buell had not stimulated Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan into action, he issued orders to replace McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. McClellan had stopped Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland, but had not been able to destroy Lee's army, nor did he pursue Lee back into Virginia aggressively enough for Lincoln. McClellan's replacement was the commander of the IX Corps. Burnside had established a reputation as an independent commander, with successful operations earlier that year in coastal North Carolina and, unlike McClellan, had no apparent political ambitions. However, he felt himself objected when offered the position, he accepted only when it was made clear to him that McClellan would be replaced in any event and that an alternative choice for command was Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, whom Burnside disliked and distrusted.
Burnside assumed command on November 7. In response to prodding from Lincoln and general-in-chief Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, Burnside planned a late fall offensive; the plan relied on quick deception. He would concentrate his army in a visible fashion near Warrenton, feigning a movement on Culpeper Court House, Orange Court House, or Gordonsville, he would shift his army southeast and cross the Rappahannock River to Fredericksburg, hoping that Robert E. Lee would sit still, unclear as to Burnside's intentions, while the Union Army made a rapid movement against Richmond, south along the Richmond and Potomac Railroad from Fredericksburg. Burnside selected this plan because he was concerned that if he were to move directly south from Warrenton, he would be exposed to a flanking attack from Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, whose corps was at that time in the Shenandoah Valley south of Winchester. He believed that the Orange and Alexandria Railroad would be an inadequate supply line. While Burnside began assembling a supply base at Falmouth, near Fredericksburg, the Lincoln administration entertained a lengthy debate about the wisdom of his plan, which differed from the president's preference of a movement south on the O&A and a direct confrontation with Lee's army instead of the movement focused on the city of Richmond.
Lincoln reluctantly approved the plan on November 14 but cautioned his general to move with great speed doubting that Lee would react as Burnside anticipated. The Union Army began marching on November 15, the first elements arrived in Falmouth on November 17. Burnside's plan went awry—he had ordered pontoon bridges to be sent to the front and assembled for his quick crossing of the Rappahannock, but because of administrative bungling, the bridges did not arrive on time. Burnside first requisitioned the pontoon bridging on November 7 when he detailed his plan to Halleck; the plan was sent to the attention of Brig. Gen. George Washington Cullum, the chief of staff in Washington. Plans called for bot
Little Round Top
Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—the companion to the adjacent, taller hill named Big Round Top. It was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left flank on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Little Round Top was arguably the decisive terrain in the Battle of Gettysburg as it’s capture by the Confederates would have allowed Lee to enfilade the Union lines with cannon fire leading to their defeat. Confederate victory at Gettysburg would have opened the way to Washington for the Confederate Army and potential victory in the Civil War. Little Round Top was defended by the brigade of Col. Strong Vincent; the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, fought the most famous engagement there, culminating in a dramatic downhill bayonet charge, one of the most well-known actions at Gettysburg and in the American Civil War. Little Round Top is a large diabase spur of Big Round Top with an oval crest that forms a short ridgeline with a summit of 63 ft prominence above the saddle point to Big Round Top to the south.
Located in Cumberland Township two miles south of Gettysburg, with a rugged, steep slope rising 150 feet above nearby Plum Run to the west, strewn with large boulders. The western slope was free from vegetation, while the summit and eastern and southern slopes were wooded. Directly to the south was its companion hill, Big Round Top, 130 feet higher and densely wooded. There is no evidence that the name "Little Round Top" was used by soldiers or civilians during the battle. Although the larger hill was known before the battle as Round Top, Round Top Mountain, sometimes Round Hill, accounts written in 1863 referred to the smaller hill with a variety of names: Rock Hill, High Knob, Sugar Loaf Hill, Broad Top Summit, granite spur of Round Top. Historian John B. Bachelder, who had an enormous influence on the preservation of the Gettysburg battlefield favored the name "Weed's Hill," in honor of Brig. Gen. Stephen H. Weed, mortally wounded on Little Round Top. Bachelder abandoned that name by 1873.
One of the first public uses of "Little Round Top" was by Edward Everett in his oration at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. The igneous landform was created 200 million years ago when the "outcrop of the Gettysburg sill" intruded through the Triassic "Gettysburg plain". Subsequent periglacial frost wedging during the Pleistocene formed the hill's extensive boulders. About 4 p.m. on July 2, 1863, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps began an attack ordered by General Robert E. Lee, intended to drive northeast up the Emmitsburg Road in the direction of Cemetery Hill, rolling up the Union left flank. Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood's division was assigned to attack up the eastern side of the road, Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws's division the western side. Hood's division stepped off first, but instead of guiding on the road, elements began to swing directly to the east in the direction of the Round Tops. Instead of driving the entire division up the spine of Houck's Ridge, parts of Hood's division detoured over Round Top and approached the southern slope of Little Round Top.
There were four probable reasons for the deviation in the division's direction: first, regiments from the Union III Corps were unexpectedly in the Devil's Den area and they would threaten Hood's right flank if they were not dealt with. S. Sharpshooters at Slyder's farm drew the attention of lead elements of Brig. Gen. Evander M. Law's brigade, moving in pursuit and drawing his brigade to the right. In the meantime, Little Round Top was undefended by Union troops. Maj. Gen. George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles's III Corps to defend the southern end of Cemetery Ridge, which would have just included Little Round Top. Sickles, defying Meade's orders, moved his corps a few hundred yards west to the Emmitsburg Road and the Peach Orchard; this caused a large salient in the line, too long to defend properly. His left flank was anchored in Devil's Den; when Meade discovered this situation, he dispatched his chief engineer, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, to attempt to deal with the situation south of Sickles's position.
Climbing Little Round Top, Warren found only a small Signal Corps station there. He saw the glint of bayonets in the sun to the southwest and realized that a Confederate assault into the Union flank was imminent, he hurriedly sent staff officers, including Washington Roebling, to find help from any available units in the vicinity. The response to this request for help came from Maj. Gen. George Sykes, commander of the Union V Corps. Sykes dispatched a messenger to order his 1st Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. James Barnes, to Little Round Top. Before the messenger could reach Barnes, he encountered Col. Strong Vincent, commander of the third brigade, who seized the initiative and directed his four regiments to Little Round Top without waiting for permission from Barnes, he and Oliver W. Norton, the brigade bugler, galloped ahead to reconnoiter and guide his four regiments into position. Upon arrival on Little Round Top and Norton received fire from Confederate batteries immediately. On the western slope he placed th
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was an American soldier and international statesman, who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. During the American Civil War Grant led the Union Army as its commanding general to victory over the Confederacy with the supervision of President Abraham Lincoln. During the Reconstruction Era, President Grant led the Republicans in their efforts to remove the vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery. From early childhood in Ohio, Grant was a skilled equestrian, he served with distinction in the Mexican -- American War. Upon his return, Grant married Julia Dent, together they had four children. In 1854, Grant abruptly resigned from the army, he and his family struggled financially in civilian life for seven years. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Grant joined the Union Army and rose in rank to general. Grant was persistent in his pursuit of the Confederate enemy, winning major battles and gaining Union control of the Mississippi River. In March 1864, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to Lieutenant General, a rank reserved for George Washington.
For over a year Grant's Army of the Potomac fought the Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee in the Overland Campaign and at Petersburg. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, the war ended. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated. Grant continued his service under Lincoln's successor President Andrew Johnson and was promoted General of the Army in 1866. Disillusioned by Johnson's conservative approach to Reconstruction, Grant drifted toward the "Radical" Republicans. Elected the youngest 19th Century president in 1868, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, created the Department of Justice, prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan, he appointed Jewish-Americans to prominent federal offices. In 1871, Grant created the first Civil Service Commission; the Democrats and Liberal Republicans united behind Grant's opponent in the presidential election of 1872, but Grant was handily re-elected. Grant's new Peace Policy for Native Americans had both failures. Grant's administration resolved the Alabama claims and the Virginius Affair, but Congress rejected his Dominican annexation initiative.
Grant's presidency was plagued by numerous public scandals, while the Panic of 1873 plunged the nation into a severe economic depression. After Grant left office in March 1877, he embarked on a two-and-a-half-year world tour that captured favorable global attention for him and the United States. In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term. In the final year of his life, facing severe investment reversals and dying of throat cancer, he wrote his memoirs, which proved to be a major critical and financial success. At the time of his death, he was memorialized as a symbol of national unity. Historical assessments of Grant's legacy have varied over the years. Historians have hailed Grant's military genius, his strategies are featured in military history textbooks. Stigmatized by multiple scandals, Grant's presidency has traditionally been ranked among the worst. Modern scholars have shown greater appreciation for his achievements that included civil rights enforcement and has raised his historical reputation.
Grant has been regarded as an embattled president who performed a difficult job during Reconstruction. Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, to Jesse Root Grant, a tanner and merchant, Hannah Grant, his ancestors Matthew and Priscilla Grant arrived aboard the ship Mary and John at Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Grant's great-grandfather fought in the French and Indian War, his grandfather, served in the American Revolution at Bunker Hill. Afterward, Noah married Rachel Kelley, the daughter of an Irish pioneer, their son Jesse was a fervent abolitionist. Jesse Grant found work as a foreman in a tannery, he soon met his future wife and the two were married on June 24, 1821. Ten months Hannah gave birth to their first child, a son. At a family gathering several weeks the boy's name, was drawn from ballots placed in a hat. Wanting to honor his father-in-law, who had suggested Hiram, Jesse declared the boy to be Hiram Ulysses, though he would always refer to him as Ulysses.
In 1823, the family moved to Georgetown, where five more siblings were born: Simpson, Orvil and Mary. At the age of five, Ulysses began his formal education, starting at a subscription school and in two private schools. In the winter of 1836–1837, Grant was a student at Maysville Seminary, in the autumn of 1838, he attended John Rankin's academy. In his youth, Grant developed an unusual ability to manage horses. Since Grant expressed a strong dislike for the tannery his father put his ability with horses to use by giving him work driving wagon loads of supplies and transporting people. Unlike his siblings, Grant was not forced to attend church by his Methodist parents. For the rest of his life, he prayed and never joined any denomination. To others, including late in life, his own son, Grant appeared to be an agnostic, he inherited some of Hannah's Methodist quiet nature. Grant was apolitical before the war but wrote, "If I had had any political sympathies they would have been with the Whigs. I was raised in that school."
Grant's father wrote to Representative Thomas L. Hamer requesting that he nominate Ulysses to the United States
Battle of Shepherdstown
The Battle of Shepherdstown known as the Battle of Boteler's Ford, took place September 19–20, 1862, in Jefferson County, Virginia, at the end of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. After the Battle of Antietam, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia prepared to defend against a Federal assault that never came. After an improvised truce for both sides to recover and exchange their wounded, Lee's forces began withdrawing across the Potomac River on the evening of September 18 to return to Virginia. Lee left behind a rearguard of two infantry brigades and 44 or 45 guns under his chief of artillery, Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton, to hold Boteler's Ford. Shortly before dusk on September 19, Union Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin sent two regiments, the 1st U. S. Sharpshooters and the 4th Michigan, across the Potomac River at Boteler's Ford, they attacked Pendleton's rearguard. Pendleton incorrectly reported to Gen. Robert E. Lee that he had lost all 44 guns of his artillery reserve.
Early on September 20, Porter sent two brigades across the Potomac on a reconnaissance-in-force. Major Charles Lovell's brigade of Regulars encountered Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill's "Light Division" about a mile from the river. While withdrawing back to the ford Hill's men attacked under a withering hail of federal artillery fire, which inflicted tremendous casualties. Col. James Barnes's brigade was ordered to the top of the bluffs to cover the retreat, two more Federal brigades were ordered to cross to the Virginia side of the river. After a violent clash along the heights bordering the river, Porter ordered a withdrawal. However, the colonel of the inexperienced 118th Pennsylvania refused to retire until orders were received through the proper chain of command. In this engagement, their first time under fire, the 118th Pennsylvania were driven in by four Confederate brigades and suffered 36% losses; the total Union dead and wounded at Shepherdstown makes it the bloodiest battle fought in what would become the state of West Virginia.
The battle convinced both army commanders. George McClellan decided that an active pursuit of the enemy was not possible at this time and established a defensive posture along the Maryland bank, and for the Confederates, Robert E. Lee chose to abort his army's movement back into Maryland. With the Confederates driven from Northern soil, President Abraham Lincoln used the opportunity to issue the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862; the Civil War Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 343 acres of the battlefield in more than 10 acquisitions since 2004. Kennedy, Frances H. ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1998. ISBN 0-395-74012-6. McGrath, Thomas A. Shepherdstown: Last Clash of the Antietam Campaign, September 19–20, 1862. Lynchburg, VA: Schroeder Publications, 2007. ISBN 978-1-889246-39-0. Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983. ISBN 0-89919-172-X. National Park Service battle description Pawlak, Kevin R. Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital.
Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-62619-925-5. Battle of Shepherdstown in Encyclopedia of West Virginia Battle of Shepherdstown in Encyclopedia Virginia
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States of America as a working, viable republic; the Union Army was made up of the permanent regular army of the United States, but further fortified and strengthened by the many temporary units of dedicated volunteers as well as including those who were drafted in to service as conscripts. To this end, the Union Army fought and triumphed over the efforts of the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. Over the course of the war, 2,128,948 men enlisted in the Union Army, including 178,895 colored troops. Of these soldiers, 596,670 were wounded or went missing; the initial call-up was for just three months, after which many of these men chose to reenlist for an additional three years. When the American Civil War began in April 1861, there were only 16,367 men in the U.
S. Army, including 1,108 commissioned officers. 20% of these officers, most of them Southerners, choosing to tie their lives and fortunes to the Army of the Confederacy. In addition 200 West Point graduates who had left the Army, including Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Braxton Bragg, would return to service at the outbreak of the war; this group's loyalties were far more divided, with 92 donning Confederate gray and 102 putting on the blue of the Union Army. The U. S. Army consisted of ten regiments of infantry, four of artillery, two of cavalry, two of dragoons, three of mounted infantry; the regiments were scattered widely. Of the 197 companies in the army, 179 occupied 79 isolated posts in the West, the remaining 18 manned garrisons east of the Mississippi River along the Canada–United States border and on the Atlantic coast. With the Southern slave states declaring secession from the Union, with this drastic shortage of men in the army, President Abraham Lincoln called on the states to raise a force of 75,000 men for three months to put down this subversive insurrection.
Lincoln's call forced the border states to choose sides, four seceded, making the Confederacy eleven states strong. It turned out that the war itself proved to be much longer and far more extensive in scope and scale than anyone on either side, Union North or Confederate South, expected or imagined at the outset on the date of July 22, 1861; that was the day that Congress approved and authorized subsidy to allow and support a volunteer army of up to 500,000 men to the cause. The call for volunteers was met by patriotic Northerners and immigrants who enlisted for a steady income and meals. Over 10,000 Germans in New York and Pennsylvania responded to Lincoln's call, the French were quick to volunteer; as more men were needed, the number of volunteers fell and both money bounties and forced conscription had to be turned to. Between April 1861 and April 1865, at least 2,128,948 men served in the Union Army, of whom the majority were volunteers, it is a misconception that the South held an advantage because of the large percentage of professional officers who resigned to join the Confederate army.
At the start of the war, there were 824 graduates of the U. S. Military Academy on the active list. Of the 900 West Point graduates who were civilians, 400 returned to the Union Army and 99 to the Confederate. Therefore, the ratio of Union to Confederate professional officers was 642 to 283; the South did have the advantage of other military colleges, such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute, but they produced fewer officers. Though officers were able to resign, enlisted soldiers did not have this right. While the total number of those is unknown, only 26 enlisted men and non-commissioned officers of the regular army are known to have left the army to join the Confederate army when the war began; the Union Army was composed of numerous organizations, which were organized geographically. Military division A collection of Departments reporting to one commander. Military Divisions were similar to the more modern term Theater. Department An organization that covered a defined region, including responsibilities for the Federal installations therein and for the field armies within their borders.
Those named for states referred to Southern states, occupied. It was more common to name departments for regions. District A subdivision of a Department
Portland, Maine
Portland is a city in the U. S. state of Maine, with a population of 67,067 as of 2017. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, more than one-third of Maine's total population, making it the most populous metro in northern New England. Portland is Maine's economic center, with an economy that relies on tourism; the Old Port district is known for its 19th-century nightlife. Marine industry still plays an important role in the city's economy, with an active waterfront that supports fishing and commercial shipping; the Port of Portland is the largest tonnage seaport in New England. The city has seen growth in the technology sector, with companies such as WEX building headquarters in the city; the city seal depicts a phoenix rising from ashes, a reference to the recoveries from four devastating fires. Portland was named after the English Isle of Dorset. In turn, the city of Portland, Oregon was named after Maine. Portland itself comes from the Old English word Portlanda, which means "land surrounding a harbor".
Native Americans called the Portland peninsula Machigonne. Portland was named for the English Isle of Portland, the city of Portland, was in turn named for Portland, Maine; the first European settler was Capt. Christopher Levett, an English naval captain granted 6,000 acres in 1623 to found a settlement in Casco Bay. A member of the Council for New England and agent for Ferdinando Gorges, Levett built a stone house where he left a company of ten men returned to England to write a book about his voyage to bolster support for the settlement; the settlement was a failure and the fate of Levett's colonists is unknown. The explorer sailed from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to meet John Winthrop in 1630, but never returned to Maine. Fort Levett in the harbor is named for him; the peninsula was settled in 1632 as a trading village named Casco. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony took over Casco Bay in 1658, the town's name changed again to Falmouth. In 1676, the village was destroyed by the Abenaki during King Philip's War.
It was rebuilt. During King William's War, a raiding party of French and their native allies attacked and destroyed it again in the Battle of Fort Loyal. On October 18, 1775, Falmouth was burned in the Revolution by the Royal Navy under command of Captain Henry Mowat. Following the war, a section of Falmouth called The Neck developed as a commercial port and began to grow as a shipping center. In 1786, the citizens of Falmouth formed a separate town in Falmouth Neck and named it Portland, after the isle off the coast of Dorset, England. Portland's economy was stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807, which ended in 1809, the War of 1812, which ended in 1815. In 1820, Maine was established as a state with Portland as its capital. In 1832, the capital was moved East to Augusta. In 1851, Maine led the nation by passing the first state law prohibiting the sale of alcohol except for "medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes." The law subsequently became known as the Maine law, as 18 states followed.
On June 2, 1855, the Portland Rum Riot occurred. In 1853, upon completion of the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal, Portland became the primary ice-free winter seaport for Canadian exports; the Portland Company manufactured more than 600 19th-century steam locomotives. Portland became a 20th-century rail hub as five additional rail lines merged into Portland Terminal Company in 1911. Following nationalization of the Grand Trunk system in 1923, Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia, resulting in marked local economic decline. In the 20th century, icebreakers enabled ships to reach Montreal in winter, drastically reducing Portland's role as a winter port for Canada. On June 26, 1863, a Confederate raiding party led by Captain Charles Read entered the harbor at Portland leading to the Battle of Portland Harbor, one of the northernmost battles of the Civil War; the 1866 Great Fire of Portland, Maine, on July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration, destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes.
More than 10,000 people were left homeless. By act of the Maine Legislature in 1899, Portland annexed the city of Deering, despite a vote by Deering residents rejecting the annexation, thereby increasing the size of the city and opening areas for development beyond the peninsula; the construction of The Maine Mall, an indoor shopping center established in the suburb of South Portland, during the 1970s, economically depressed downtown Portland. The trend reversed when tourists and new businesses started revitalizing the old seaport, a part of, known locally as the Old Port. Since the 1990s, the industrial Bayside neighborhood has seen rapid development, including attracting a Whole Foods and Trader Joes supermarkets, as well as Baxter Academy, an popular charter school. Other developing neighborhoods include the India Street neighborhood near the Ocean Gateway and Munjoy Hill, where many modern condos have been built; the Maine College of Art has been a revitalizing force downtown, attracting students from around the country.
The historic Porteous building on Congress Street was restored by the College. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 69.44 square miles, of which 21.31 square miles is land and 48.13 square miles is water. Portland is situated on a peninsula in Casco Bay on the Gulf of Maine and
Sergeant major
Sergeant major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. In Commonwealth countries, the various degrees of sergeant major are appointments held by warrant officers. In the United States, there are various grades of sergeant major, but they are all of the same pay grade of E-9. However, the Sergeant Major of the Army and the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, as their respective service's Senior Enlisted Advisor, receive a special rate of basic pay, higher than all other sergeants major. In 16th century Spain, the sargento mayor was a general officer, he commanded an army's infantry, ranked about third in the army's command structure. In the 17th century, sergeant majors appeared in individual regiments; these were field officers, third in command of their regiments, with a role similar to the older, army-level sergeant majors. The older position became known as "sergeant major general" to distinguish it. Over time, the term sergeant was dropped from both titles, giving rise to the modern ranks of major and major general.
The full title of sergeant major fell out of use until the latter part of the 18th century, when it began to be applied to the senior non-commissioned officer of an infantry battalion or cavalry regiment. It is about this time that the U. S. and British histories with the American Revolutionary War. A sergeant major is an appointment, not a rank, it is held by the senior warrant officer of an army or marine unit. These appointments are made at several levels, for example: the senior warrant officer of a company, battery or squadron; the title consists of the unit title followed by'sergeant major', abbreviated by the initials. A sergeant major of a regiment or battalion is known as a regimental sergeant major, rather than a "regiment sergeant major" or "battalion sergeant major". In the Australian Defence Force, in addition to CSMs and RSMs, the most senior warrant officer of the army carries the appointment of Regimental Sergeant Major of the Army; the sergeant-major of a unit is directly responsible to the commanding officer for all matters pertaining to dress, discipline, performance and morale of the non-commissioned members of that unit.
Sergeant majors are addressed as "sir" or "ma'am" by subordinates, as "sergeant major" or by their full title by superiors. In the British Armed Forces, the plural is sergeant majors and not sergeants major as it is in the United States; the appointment of sergeant major is given to the senior non-commissioned member within sub-units and some formations of the Canadian Army. The regimental sergeant-major is the senior sergeant major in a battalion-sized unit, including infantry battalions and artillery, armoured and signal regiments; this appointment is held by a chief warrant officer. The same position can be held by a master warrant officer in anticipation of promotion, or a shortage of available chief warrant officers. In company-sized units, the company sergeant-major holds the rank of master warrant officer, although in some cases, it may be held by a warrant officer if the company is smaller, or in a shortage of available master warrant officers. In artillery batteries, this appointment is known as battery sergeant-major, while in units with a cavalry heritage, the term is squadron sergeant-major.
In company-sized sub-units of battalions or regiments, the company sergeant-major answers both to his or her officer commanding for matters pertaining to the company in particular, to the regimental sergeant-major on matters of concern to the regimental sergeant-major. Company sergeant-majors and their equivalents are addressed as "Sergeant-Major" or by rank. By subordinates, they are referred to as "Sir", "Ma'am", or "Warrant" as appropriate. "CSM" is a title reserved for use by the commanding officer. Regimental sergeant-majors are never addressed as "Sergeant-Major", they are addressed by rank or as "Mr" or "Ms", thereafter by subordinates as "Sir" or "Ma'am". "RSM" is reserved for use by the commanding officer. In some unusual cases, a chief petty officer 1st class or chief petty officer 2nd class in the Royal Canadian Navy may succeed to a sergeant-major's position in units with a large number of "purple trades", such as service battalions; the forms of address remain the same, except that chief petty officers 1st and 2nd class are never addressed as "Sir" or "Ma'am", but as "Chief".
The opera Leo, the Royal Cadet by Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron includes a character "Battalion Sergeant Major at the Royal Military College of Canada" and song "The Royal Cadet - The Battalion Sergeant Major". The senior cadet of the Royal Military College of Canada was a battalion sergeant major from 1878–1923 and from 1934–42. Since 1952, the senior cadet is known as a cadet wing-commander. Sergeant major is a rank in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. While technically it is the 6th level of rank, below corps sergeant major and above staff sergeant major, it, along with the other two, are specialized ranks and not part of the normal progression, which would proceed from staff sergeant to inspector. A sergeant major appointment exists in
United States Army
Captain
Brevet Major
