Talk:List of American Civil War brevet generals (Union)

Plan for and Progress on Article Revision
I plan to revise and greatly reduce the sections removed from this List of American Civil War brevet Generals (Union) on the page User:Donner60/Draft of part of Union brevet generals list. I also plan to modify the notes section, possibly removing some of the items already included but perhaps adding a few dates of appointments by President Lincoln or other notable items. I do not plan for these items to be very large. I think the article is neatly and concisely arranged considering the material needed to identify these officers, their actual ranks and their dates of appointment, rank and confirmation. I don't want to add so much that it will appear too long. I think the article is currently ok after removal of the end sections on the substantive rank Union generals. Most if not all of the brevets for Union generals who also held a substantive rank are at least noted in the List of American Civil War Generals (Union) Usually these are brigadier generals with major general brevets, because the brevet brigadier appointments would have been superseded by the actual appointments. Please be patient. I am working on the longer List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate) first. This is more in need of revision and reduction. Donner60 (talk) 20:31, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Ephraim R. Eckley
The above named individual has a congressional biography, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000036, that says he was brevetted Brigadier General, and local biography, https://books.google.com/books?id=lNcyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA785&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false , that says the same. None of the usual lists of brevets say he did. I find nothing to corroborate his claim.

Please advise. Should his brevet mention be removed from his article, or added here? Roseohioresident (talk) 18:39, 17 May 2016 (UTC)


 * After many years, I am looking over this article and article. Some improvements certainly are in order. As to Eckley, regardless of what the Congressional bio shows, United States War Department, The Military Secretary's Office, Memorandum Relative to the General Officers in the Armies of the United States During the Civil War, 1861–1865 (Compiled from Official Records.) 1906 does not list Eckley as a brevet general. That is the official definitive source. None of the reliable modern historians who have books compiling lists of and brief bios of Union generals, Hunt and Brown, Warner, Eicher and Eicher and Sifakis list him as a brevet general. These and other sources are in the references. The brevet mention should be removed from his article and I will do that and leave a footnote about the bio error after posting this message. Donner60 (talk) 04:22, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Need for cleanup?
As I have been working my way through the List of American Civil War generals (Union), cleaning up the infoboxes, adding information, etc., I have found a large number of men on this list who were given brevet promotions, but their substantive rank remained at colonel or lower. Shouldn't they be deleted after making certain that they're on this ACW brevet generals list? Spacini (talk) 21:36, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The introduction of the generals list says "while some 1,600 officers received or were nominated for brevets as general officers in the course of the war (or immediately following it for service during the war), only a small selection is listed here; for the sake of brevity, only those who held governorships or national offices, served as presidential cabinet secretaries, received the Medal of Honor, were killed in action, were department heads within the army, or had notable relations are listed here." So while I would support a deletion of the brevet generals from the substantive generals list, as simple as because they have their very own list here, there may be some need for discussion. ...GELongstreet (talk) 05:21, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * As many times as I've read that introduction, I do not recall that passage, but I thank you for the reminder. I'm not sure I agree with the inclusion of any brevet generals on the list of generals with substantive rank at brigadier general or higher, considering that this list exists, but it is already very lengthy as it is. Thinking.... Spacini (talk) 15:27, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Should the List of American Civil War generals (Union) include those who, like Strong Vincent, were posthumously promoted and not confirmed? I would think it shouldn't as he was at the rank of colonel before he was mortally wounded. Spacini (talk) 18:55, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I think posthumous definitely belong there, but I´m not sure about the unconfirmed ones. Probably in an extra section like in the Confederate generals list? Be it with or without a list on their own, they deserve to be mentioned and not just for the brevets alone ... GELongstreet (talk) 13:39, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I made a beginning on the list of generals and deleted most of the brevet generals - those listed just for family relations, political offices or for earning the MOH. For now I left those who were killed, those who led army departments, the ones who got incomplete or revoked promotions and the few that became U.S. Presidents. ...GELongstreet (talk) 11:43, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I also copied this section to the talk page of the generals list. ...GELongstreet (talk) 11:44, 4 July 2016 (UTC)