J. Boone Bartholomees, Jr.

Investigates the staff operations of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia

6 x 9, 352 pages
cloth, ISBN 1-57003-220-3, $34.95t

ABOUT THE BOOK

In performing the myriad tasks associated with organizing, training, equipping, moving, and fighting large armies, military commanders require the assistance of staff officers. Operating in the name of the commander, staff officers perform vital planning and supervisory duties in specialized functional areas. They seldom receive much historical attention, since commanders necessarily take responsibility for both successes and failures. However, no modern army and few ancient armies have been successful without efficient behind-the-scenes staff work.

Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was no exception. Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons examines how the staff officers of that army and its subordinate corps, divisions, and brigades were selected, trained, and organized and explores what staff officers did, how they did it, and how effective they were. This volume surveys the entire scope of Army of Northern Virginia staff operations from quartermaster and commissary duties to medical and routine administrative functions to intelligence, command and control, and combat operations. It assesses the major problems faced in each functional area and the degree of success achieved armywide and at subordinate headquarters. It also examines issues as diverse as staff officers' personal relations with commanders, headquarters management and living arrangements, staff coordination, and the amount of authority that staff officers possessed.

J. Boone Bartholomees, Jr., concludes that although the Army of Northern Virginia's staff system reflected more the traditional personal style of staff operations than the modern system that was emerging in Europe at the time, the staff nonetheless managed to keep a large army in the field for four years under difficult conditions. This unique study approaches topics familiar to Civil War readers from a new perspective-that of the staff.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J. Boone Bartholomees, Jr. is a professor of military history at the United States Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

REVIEWS

"So much has been written about the Civil War that there would seem to be no new ground to be broken. This book, however, does that. One of the most neglected aspects of the Civil War is the manner in which commanders exercised command over troops in battle."
"This book has much to recommend it. The author has done a very good job of sifting through the various regulations issued . . . Bartholomees's organizational approach over the book's first five chapters is well taken . . ."—Civil War History

"At first glance Buff Facings would seem a book aimed only at those who already possess a good background in Civil war history or military science, but the author succeeds in presenting his subject in a manner that will appeal to a much broader audience."—Journal of the American Civil War

"Bartholomees's detailed, informative book is worth the attention of every historian of the Civil War era."—North Carolina Historical Review