Buff facings and gilt buttons : staff and headquarters operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 /

Bartholomees, a retired US Army staff officer and professionally trained historian, finds that Robert E. Lee's Confederate army staff exhibited traits of both earlier, premodern staffs and the more professional and highly trained staffs developed by the Prussian army in the late 19th century. Giving Lee's staff more credit than some scholars, Bartholomees concludes that "while they certainly were not modern, staffs in the Army of Northern Virginia met most of the tests we demand from staffs today." Indeed, the success of Lee's army against a larger, better equipped enemy is "strong testimony on behalf of the effectiveness of the staff system." In by far the best, most detailed, and most authoritative study of any Civil War army staff, the author examines all aspects of staff work in Lee's army: quartermaster and commissary operations, the medical branch, ordnance, intelligence, command and control, and day-to-day administrative routine. The book also assesses relations between field and staff officers, the degree of staff training, and the varying levels of authority wielded by staff officers. A major new study of the Civil War. Endnotes. All levels. R. G. Lowe University of North Texas