Al Mackey (@almackey.bsky.social)

The Right Hand of Command This book by Professor R. Steven Jones focuses on the use of personal staffs in the Civil War, particularly by selected US Army commanders. "On paper, Civil War commanders had the organization at hand to give them the help they sorely needed--the military staff. Civil War…

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The Right Hand of Command This book by Professor R. Steven Jones focuses on the use of personal staffs in the Civil War, particularly by selected US Army commanders. "On paper, Civil War commanders had the organization at hand to give them the help they sorely needed--the military staff. Civil War historians Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones call the military staff a commander's 'management team,' assigned to make the general's job easier. Staff systems in both North and South were alike, for the Confederate Army copied the U.S. Army's staff organization. Every general with a field command had a staff, sometimes called a 'general staff,' sometimes a 'field staff.' That staff was divided in two: One-half was the special staff, which handled the problems of supply and transportation for the command, be it division, corps, or army; the other was the 'personal staff,' which kept the records of the army and sent orders to combat units." … https://studycivilwar2.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/the-right-hand-of-command/