This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles
This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Maryland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Maryland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MarylandWikipedia:WikiProject MarylandTemplate:WikiProject MarylandMaryland articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Virginia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Virginia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.VirginiaWikipedia:WikiProject VirginiaTemplate:WikiProject VirginiaVirginia articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Higher education, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of higher education, universities, and colleges on Wikipedia. Please visit the project page to join the discussion, and see the project's article guideline for useful advice.Higher educationWikipedia:WikiProject Higher educationTemplate:WikiProject Higher educationHigher education articles
Latest comment: 2 years ago5 comments3 people in discussion
Assigned to duty as brigadier general, April 8, 1864, by General E. Kirby Smith. Mortally wounded at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, April 30, 1864; died, May 2, 1864. Not duly appointed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis or confirmed by the Confederate States Senate.
What is the relevance of this for Lee? It seems to be part of the old debate over whether Randal could be classified as a general, in particular whether he was the youngest general of the war. Valetude (talk) 10:12, 21 November 2021 (UTC)Reply
I suppose it wasn't related to Lee but simply to Randal's inclusion in that list of generals, especially as there was no article for more info abaout the rank issues yet. In case of cases ask @Donner60: who added said note. ..GELongstreet (talk) 13:44, 21 November 2021 (UTC)Reply
@GELongstreet: Sorry for not responding sooner; I have been more busy in real life than I wish to be for the past few months and have been almost entirely offline.
You are correct. When I added the note about Randal in 2011, there was no article about him. Perhaps more to the point, each of the names of the other officers mentioned were preceded by their grade as a general officer. Randal also was identified as a brigadier general without clarification. In fact he was not appointed or confirmed as a general officer but was simply one of the officers assigned to duty as brigadier generals by E. Kirby Smith. I thought that distinction was worth mentioning since he was the only officer mentioned whose actual grade was colonel. Some time after I added the note, and wrote the article about Randal, someone removed the identification of the general officers by grade in this article. I can't think of a reason for this; maybe someone thought they were just unnecessary but I think they had been identified as such specifically to show here the future Confederate generals who were also members of Lee's West Point class. Without those grade designations, a reader now needs to look at each of the articles and discern the reason why those members of the class are mentioned in connection with Lee. Those familiar with Civil War generals might pick it up without further designation or explanation but other readers might need to look up each article to pick up the pattern.
Without the identification of the grades of the others as general officers as the article now reads, the note about Randal might seem superfluous, at least if one considers all of the officers mentioned simply to be high ranking Civil War (Confederate) officers. So I had what I considered a reason for the footnote when it was added, i.e., to note that Randal was the only officer in the list who was not appointed a general by Jefferson Davis or confirmed by the Confederate Senate despite his identification in the article simply as a brigadier general. I think it could still be informative and relevant to point out that Randal's official status was different from the other officers named but perhaps that could be a matter of opinion when the others are no longer specifically identified as having been general officers.
Some sources do list Randal as a general but Ezra J. Warner does not include him in Generals in Gray. Bruce S. Allardice has a sketch about him on pages 192-193 in More Generals in Gray.. He notes that Randal was mortally wounded just two weeks after he was assigned to duty as a brigadier general by E. Kirby Smith, and died two days later. John and David Eicher, in Civil War High Commands at page 608, include Randal in the list of "might have beens." As explained in the book at page 587, these include officers who were appointed or nominated as generals, and possibly even served as such, but were never confirmed or commissioned. Others were "acting" generals because of important assignments but were not actual generals.