West Pointers at Army Headquarters

McClellan and members of his staff

There are a couple of reasons why I have not been posting lately.  One is that I accepted the position of Chief Guide at Antietam National Battlefield back in October.  That has taken up a great deal of my time and though rewarding, has taken me away from my Maryland Campaign studies.

The other reason is that I have become increasingly fascinated with something that I first posted about here back in December.

That is I have undertaken a study of all the West Point graduates who served at the Battle of Antietam.  Studying Cullem's Register and with some help from the library staff at West Point, I have amassed what I think is a pretty complete list of all the graduates.  They range from Joseph Mansfield in the Class of 1822 to the fifteen second lieutenants of the Class of 1862 who served with the Army of the Potomac.  One of these young officers was Mansfield's son Samuel who was on his way to western Maryland to serve with his father.

In between the Mansfields, father and son are about 194 officers.  I say 'about' because there are several who I suspect served in the Maryland Campaign but I don't have absolute confirmation of their presence.  Circumstantial evidence indicates yes but I am still working on them.  And then there is John Pelham and Tom Rosser.  Members of the June 1861 class, they stayed at the Academy long after their states (Alabama and Texas) seceded hoping to receive their diploma.  However with the firing of Fort Sumter, they had no choice to resign doing so just a few short weeks from their graduation.  Pelham later said that not receiving his diploma was the greatest regret of his life. 

Of these 194, only 30 served with Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia.  The remainder, 164 are with McClellan but this number also includes Dixon Miles and Jesse Reno who were killed before the battle, and John Reynolds, unhappily serving back in Pennsylvania.  The Union to Confederate ratio of 5.4:1  really surprised me.  I thought there were many more Confederates than that.  On closer examination however, the ratio is much closer if you just include general officers.  There are a total of 63 generals with 42 Federals and 21 Confederates.  This is exactly a 2:1 ratio which seems closer to what we feel seems right. 

The numbers are very startling when you just look at the Army headquarters which we will do here.  The Army of the Potomac headquarters with 36 West Pointers including McClellan had more West Point officers total than Lee had in his entire Army.  Lee had only four officers who graduated from the Military Academy who can be said to have worked on his staff.  The numbers are below starting with Lee:

Position	Name	Rank	Year of Graduation	Class Rank
Commander	Robert E. Lee	General, CSA	1829	2 of 46
Chief of Staff	Robert H. Chilton	Colonel, C.S.A.	1837	48 of 50
Military Secretary	Armistead Long	Colonel, C.S.A.	1850	17 of 44
Ordnance Officer	Edward P. Alexander	Lieutenant Colonel, C.S.A	1857	3 of 38
Chief of Artillery	William Pendleton	Brigadier General C.S.A.	1830	5 0f 42

And here is McClellan's staff

Position	Name	Rank	Year of Graduation	Class Rank
Commander	George B. McClellan	Major General U.S. Army	1846	2 of 59
Chief of Staff	Randolph Marcy	Brigadier General U.S.V.	1832	28 of 44
Aide-de-Camp	Bowman N. Sweitzer	Lieutenant Colonel-Staff	1853	24 of 52
Aide-de-Camp	Edward M. Hudson	Lieutenant Colonel-Staff	1849	22 of 43
Aide-de-Camp	George A. Custer	Captain-Staff	June 1861	34 of 34
Aide-de-Camp	James P. Martin	First Lieutenant 7th Infantry	1860	23 of 41
Escort	James B. McIntyre	Captain, 4th Cavalry	1853	49 of 52
Chief of Cavalry
Chief of Cavalry	John Buford	Brigadier General U.S.V.	1848	16 of 38
Chief of Artillery
Chief of Artillery	Henry J. Hunt	Brigadier General U.S.V.	1839	19 of 31
Ammunition Reserve Train	William D. Fuller	First Lieutenant 3rd Artillery	June 1861	25 of 34
Regular Engineer Battalion
Chief Engineer	James C. Duane	Captain, Engineers	1848	3 of 38
Engineer Battalion	Cyrus B. Comstock	First Lieutenant Engineers	1855	1 of 34
Engineer Officer	Miles D. McAlester	First Lieutenant Engineers	1856	3 of 49
Engineer Battalion	Charles Cross	First Lieutenant Engineers	May 1861	2 of 45
Engineer Company	George L. Gillespie	Second Lieutenant Engineers	1862	2 of 28
Topographical Engineers
Senior Topographical Engineer	Nicolas Bowen	First Lieutenant, Topographical Engineers	1860	4 of 41
Assistant Topographical Engineer	John M. Wilson	First Lieutenant, Topographical Engineers	1860	12 of 41
Assistant Topographical Engineer	Alonzo H. Cushing	First Lieutenant, 4th Artillery	June 1861	12 of 34
Adjutant General
Adjutant General	Seth Williams	Brigadier General U.S.V.	1842	23 of 56
Assistant Adjutant General	George Ruggles	Colonel-Staff	1855	19 of 34
Assistant Adjutant General	Albert V. Coburn	Lieutenant Colonel-Staff	1855	17 of 34
Assistant Adjutant General	James A. Hardie	Lieutenant Colonel-Staff	1843	11 of 39
Inspector General
Inspector General	Delos B. Sackett	Colonel-Staff	1845	32 of 41
Assistant Inspector General	Nelson Davis	Major-Staff	1846	49 of 59
Provost Guard
Assistant Provost Marshal	William D. Wood	Major, 17th Infantry	1845	37 of 41
Aide de Camp	James J. Van Horn	Captain, 8th Infantry	1858	14 of 27
Provost Guard	George A. Gordon	Captain, 2nd Cavalry	1854	30 of 46
Provost Guard	Royal T. Frank	Captain 8th Infantry	1858	18 of 27

Commissariat
Chief of Commissariat	Henry F. Clarke	Colonel-Staff	1843	12 of 39
Assistant Commissary of Subsistence	Porter A. Parker	Lieutenant Colonel-Staff	1856	9 of 49
Commissary of Subsistence	Thomas Wilson	Captain-Staff	1853	29 of 52
Quartermaster
Chief Quartermaster	Rufus Ingalls	Lieutenant Colonel-Staff	1843	32 of 39
Assistant Quartermaster	Charles G. Sawtelle	Captain-Staff	1854	38 of 46
Quartermaster Guard	Marcus Reno	Captain, 1st Cavalry	1857	20 of 38
Ordnance
Assistant Ordnance Officer	William H. Harris	First Lieutenant, Ordnance	June 1861	8 of 34
Assistant Ordnance Officer	Francis H. Parker	Second Lieutenant, Ordnance	June 1861	20 of 34

Here is the breakout of McClellan's staff by West Point year-group.

Class	Names
1832 (1)	Marcy, R.
1839 (1)	Hunt, H.
1842 (1)	Williams, S.
1843 (3)	Hardie, J. Clarke, H. Ingalls, R.
1845 (2)	Sacket, D. Wood, W.
1846 (2)	McClellan, G. Davis, N.
1848 (2)	Duane, J. Buford, J.
1849 (1)	Hudson, E.
1853 (3)	Sweitzer, N. Wilson, T. McIntyre, J.
1854 (2)	Gordon, G. Sawtelle, C.
1855 (3)	Comstock, C. Colburn, A. Ruggles, G.
1856 (2)	McAlester, M. Porter, A.P.
1857 (1)	Reno, M.
1858 (2)	Van Horn, J.  Frank, R.
1860 (3)	Bowen, N. Wilson, J. Martin, J.
May 1861 (1)	Cross, C.
June 1861 (5)	Harris, W. Cushing, A. Parker, F. Fuller, W. Custer, G.
1862 (1)	Gillespie, G.

What conclusions can we draw from this?