Question of the Week: 3/28-4/3/22

Who is one deserving colonel who never made brigadier general?



10 Responses to Question of the Week: 3/28-4/3/22

  1. Colonel Daniel Leasure of the 100th Pennsylvania, a longtime brigade commander in the IX Corps.

    1. Colonel Stapleton Crutchfield, who was Chief of Artillery for Jackson during the Valley Campaign and commanded artillery for the Army of NOVA at almost every major engagement

  2. Colonel George Washington Roberts personally led a team of fifty volunteers in a night raid against the most powerful Rebel gun defending Island No.10. Taking advantage of the thunderstorm-affected evening of April 1st 1862, five rowboats of lightly armed soldiers of the 42nd Illinois Infantry rode the current of the Mississippi River south, striking out with oars once within a couple hundred yards, and gained the beach just as lightning flashed, revealing the landing party. Rebel sentries fired muskets to sound the alarm and fled to their camp; and Colonel Roberts got to work, he and his men spiking six pieces of artillery, including the powerful 80-pound pivot gun, within three minutes. Returning to their boats, the party pulled away, against the current, back north to safety as the Rebel defenders streamed towards the beach. But they were too late: the damage had been done, and Colonel Roberts and his raiders escaped in the darkness.
    A few days later, more volunteers from the 42nd Illinois rode aboard the USS Carondelet, acting as “marines” during Commander Walke’s daring run past Island No.10. And on April 8th the Rebel defenders of Island No.10 surrendered.
    Colonel Roberts, in command of the 3rd Brigade of Sheridan’s Third Division at Stones River was hotly engaged on the morning of 31 DEC 1862 and was killed in action in the area known as “Hell’s Half Acre.”
    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10589398/george-washington-roberts

  3. Does this apply to only FULL colonels? If not, Lt. Col. Rufus Dawes comes to mind. Though he was brevetted to Brigadier General with a date of promotion of March 1865, he wasn’t nominated for that until 1866. He also turned down a promotion to full colonel in 1864.

  4. I just saw a post by Ted Savas that jogged my failing memory! George Washington Rains, the Chief Chemist of the Confederacy, Superintendent of the massive Augusta Powder Works, was only a colonel in Confederate service. Definitely deserved a promo! And if Old Sparky had quickly marched to Augusta, rather than detour through the fleshpots of Georgia, South Carolina, et al, the war might actually have ended sooner.

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