General Order Number 3


General-in-Chief 
Armies of the Confederate States

OFFICIAL BROADSIDE CONFEDERATE PRINTING with the Publication Date: February 6th, 1865, being the January 23, 1865, appointment of Robert E. Lee  as the "General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States." 

General Orders,No. 3.    Adjutant And Inspector General's Office,  Richmond, February 6, 1865.

I. The following act of Congress is published for the information of the Army:

AN ACT to provide for the appointment of a General-in-Chief of the armies of the Confederate
States.

Section 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact that there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, an officer who shall be known and designated as ' General-in-Chief,' who shall be ranking officer of the Army, and as such shall have command of the military forces or the Confederate States.

Sec 2. That the act providing a staff for the general who may be assigned to duty at the seat of Government is hereby repealed, and that the General-in-Chief who may be appointed under the provisions of this act shall have a staff not less than that now allowed a general m the field, to be assigned by the President, or to be appointed by him, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
"Approved January 23,1865."

II. General Robert E. Lee having been duly appointed General-in-Chief of the armies of the Confederate States will assume the duties thereof, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

III. General Orders, No. 23, of 1864, is hereby revoked.

By order: S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.
Robert E. Lee accepted the appointment of  CSA General-in-Chief  on January 31st, 1865: 
"Deeply impressed the the difficulties and responsibilities of the position, and humbly invoking the guidance of the Almighty God, I rely for success upon the courage and firmness of the people, confident that their united efforts under the blessing of Heaven will secure peace and independence." —R. E. Lee upon being appointed General-In-Chief
"Providence raises up the man for the time, and a man for this occasion, we believe, has been raised up in Robert E. Lee, the Washington of the second American Revolution." —The Richmond Dispatch, February 7, 1865
"Public demand led to [Lee’s] reluctant acceptance of an appointment as general-in-chief. The Confederate Congress and Virginia Legislature adopted resolutions asking for Lee’s appointment, but Lee told the president that he did not want the job. Davis was hard pressed to sustain his administration, though, and wanted to share responsibility. On February 9, Lee accepted a rank similar to that bestowed upon Washington." —Richard B. McCaslin, Lee in the Shadow of Washington

Originally five officers in the South were appointed to the rank of general, and only two more would follow. These generals occupied the senior posts in the Confederate Army, mostly entire army or military department commanders, and advisers to Jefferson Davis. This rank is equivalent to general in the modern U.S. Army, and the grade is often referred to in modern writings as "full general" to help differentiate it from the generic term "general" meaning simply "general officer"

All Confederate generals were enrolled in the ACSA to ensure that they outranked all militia officers, except for Edmund Kirby Smith, who was appointed general late in the war and into the PACS. P.G.T. Beauregard, had also initially been appointed a PACS general but was elevated to ACSA two months later with the same date of rank. These generals outranked all other grades of generals, as well as all lesser officers in the Confederate States Army.

The first group of officers appointed to general were Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and P.G.T. Beauregard, with their seniority in that order. This ordering caused Cooper, a staff officer who would not see combat, to be the senior general officer in the CSA. That seniority strained the relationship between Joseph E. Johnston and Jefferson Davis. Johnston had been the only general officer in the U.S. Army who left for the South, so he considered himself the senior officer in the Confederate States Army and resented the ranks that Davis had authorized. However, his position in the U.S. Army was staff, not line, which was evidently a criterion for Davis regarding seniority and rank in the Confederate Army.

On February 17, 1864, legislation was passed to allow Davis to appoint an officer to command the Trans-Mississippi Department, with the rank of general in the PACS. Edmund Kirby Smith was the only officer appointed to this position. Braxton Bragg was appointed a general in the ACSA with a date of rank of April 6, 1862, the day his commanding officer Albert Sidney Johnston died in combat.

The Congress passed legislation in May 1864 to allow for "temporary" general officers in the PACS, to be appointed by Davis and confirmed by the Senate, and given a non-permanent command by Davis. John Bell Hood was appointed a "temporary" general on July 18, 1864, the date he took command of the Army of Tennessee in the Atlanta Campaign, but this appointment was not confirmed by the Congress, and he reverted to his rank of lieutenant general in January 1865. In March 1865, Hood's status was spelled out by the Confederate Senate, which stated:
Resolved, That General J. B. Hood, having been appointed General, with temporary rank and command, and having been relieved from duty as Commander of the Army of Tennessee, and not having been reappointed to any other command appropriate to the rank of General, he has lost the rank of General, and therefore cannot be confirmed as such.
By 1865 Jefferson Davis had lost widespread support throughout the South. As the Confederacy’s fortunes worsened, there was a growing sense that Davis lacked the political and, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, the military skills needed to deliver victory and independence from the Union. Davis’s increasingly restive detractors began looking for ways to diminish the president’s role and expand that of their great general, Robert E. Lee.

Early proposals for expanding Lee’s authority included the idea of simply making him Commander-in-Chief and thus de facto leader of the Confederacy. This never came to pass, in large part because Lee himself made it clear that he had no wish to encroach upon Davis’s authority. Despite this there was a widespread desire among the public, as reflected in this Act of the Confederate Congress, for Lee’s role to be expanded and Davis’s diminished. On February 6, 1865 Adjutant and Inspector General Samuel Cooper issued General Orders #3, which announced Lee as the General-in-Chief.

This Act gave formal expression to this important shift in the Confederate South. A highly important piece of Confederate legislation, these orders not only represent the culmination of Robert E. Lee's career, but had significant effects on the outcome of the war. After Lee was appointed "General in Chief" he became, like Washington for the North, the central figure in which the Confederates placed their hopes. Consequently, when Lee surrendered to Grant, the implications were profound. "Without their Washington, Southerner’s realized their revolution was over" (McCaslin, 191).


The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America 


Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents 
Sept. 5, 1774 to July 1, 1776


September 5, 1774
October 22, 1774
October 22, 1774
October 26, 1774
May 20, 1775
May 24, 1775
May 25, 1775
July 1, 1776

Commander-in-Chief United Colonies & States of America

George Washington: June 15, 1775 - December 23, 1783



Continental Congress of the United States Presidents 
July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781

July 2, 1776
October 29, 1777
November 1, 1777
December 9, 1778
December 10, 1778
September 28, 1779
September 29, 1779
February 28, 1781



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March 1, 1781
July 6, 1781
July 10, 1781
Declined Office
July 10, 1781
November 4, 1781
November 5, 1781
November 3, 1782
November 4, 1782
November 2, 1783
November 3, 1783
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November 22, 1785
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June 5, 1786
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February 1, 1787
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January 21, 1789


Presidents of the United States of America

D-Democratic Party, F-Federalist Party, I-Independent, R-Republican Party, R* Republican Party of Jefferson & W-Whig Party 


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United Colonies and States First Ladies
1774-1788


United Colonies Continental Congress
President
18th Century Term
Age
09/05/74 – 10/22/74
29
Mary Williams Middleton (1741- 1761) Deceased
Henry Middleton
10/22–26/74
n/a
05/20/ 75 - 05/24/75
30
05/25/75 – 07/01/76
28
United States Continental Congress
President
Term
Age
07/02/76 – 10/29/77
29
Eleanor Ball Laurens (1731- 1770) Deceased
Henry Laurens
11/01/77 – 12/09/78
n/a
Sarah Livingston Jay (1756-1802)
12/ 10/78 – 09/28/78
21
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794)
09/29/79 – 02/28/81
41
United States in Congress Assembled
President
Term
Age
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794)
03/01/81 – 07/06/81
42
07/10/81 – 11/04/81
25
Jane Contee Hanson (1726-1812)
11/05/81 - 11/03/82
55
11/03/82 - 11/02/83
46
Sarah Morris Mifflin (1747-1790)
11/03/83 - 11/02/84
36
11/20/84 - 11/19/85
46
11/23/85 – 06/06/86
38
Rebecca Call Gorham (1744-1812)
06/06/86 - 02/01/87
42
02/02/87 - 01/21/88
43
01/22/88 - 01/29/89
36

Constitution of 1787
First Ladies
President
Term
Age
April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797
57
March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
52
Martha Wayles Jefferson Deceased
September 6, 1782  (Aged 33)
n/a
March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817
40
March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825
48
March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829
50
December 22, 1828 (aged 61)
n/a
February 5, 1819 (aged 35)
n/a
March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
65
April 4, 1841 – September 10, 1842
50
June 26, 1844 – March 4, 1845
23
March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849
41
March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850
60
July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853
52
March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857
46
n/a
n/a
March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
42
February 22, 1862 – May 10, 1865
April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869
54
March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877
43
March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1881
45
March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881
48
January 12, 1880 (Aged 43)
n/a
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
21
March 4, 1889 – October 25, 1892
56
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
28
March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901
49
September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909
40
March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913
47
March 4, 1913 – August 6, 1914
52
December 18, 1915 – March 4, 1921
43
March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923
60
August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929
44
March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933
54
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
48
April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953
60
January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961
56
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
31
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969
50
January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974
56
August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977
56
January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981
49
January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
59
January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993
63
January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001
45
January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009
54
January 20, 2009 to date
45



Capitals of the United Colonies and States of America

Philadelphia
Sept. 5, 1774 to Oct. 24, 1774
Philadelphia
May 10, 1775 to Dec. 12, 1776
Baltimore
Dec. 20, 1776 to Feb. 27, 1777
Philadelphia
March 4, 1777 to Sept. 18, 1777
Lancaster
September 27, 1777
York
Sept. 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778
Philadelphia
July 2, 1778 to June 21, 1783
Princeton
June 30, 1783 to Nov. 4, 1783
Annapolis
Nov. 26, 1783 to Aug. 19, 1784
Trenton
Nov. 1, 1784 to Dec. 24, 1784
New York City
Jan. 11, 1785 to Nov. 13, 1788
New York City
October 6, 1788 to March 3,1789
New York City
March 3,1789 to August 12, 1790
Philadelphia
Dec. 6,1790 to May 14, 1800       
Washington DC
November 17,1800 to Present




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