List of American Civil War generals (Acting Confederate)

Details concerning Confederate officers who were appointed to duty as generals late in the war by General E. Kirby Smith in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, who have been thought of generals and exercised command as generals but who were not duly appointment and confirmed or commissioned, and State militia generals who had field commands in certain actions in their home states but were never given appointments or commissions in the Confederate States Army are in this list. Not all colonels or lower ranking officers who exercised brigade or division command at any time are in this list but those most often erroneously referred to as generals are in the list. A few acting or temporary Confederate generals were duly appointed and confirmed as such. The full entries for these officers are in the List of American Civil War generals (Confederate).

Abbreviations and notes:

After the fall of Vicksburg, communication between the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department and the Confederate government in Richmond was slow and difficult. The commander of the department, General E. Kirby Smith, appointed several officers to duty as brigadier generals and as major generals. He tried to get President Jefferson Davis to formally appoint these officers and nominate them to the Confederate Senate for approval. While Davis did appoint some of Smith's earlier nominees, at least nine officers who were appointed by Smith late in the war and may have served in the capacity of generals for a period of time were never appointed and confirmed by the civilian authorities. The ten acting generals assigned to duty by General Smith listed below are in this category. One of them, Horace Randal, was killed in action while commanding a brigade at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry under the overall command of General Smith.

The following Confederate officers are often referred to in historical writings as generals but their appointments were never completed or confirmed or their commissions were not properly delivered. The appointments of a few were withdrawn before they were voted upon by the Confederate Senate. Some of the officers' appointments were nominated to but not confirmed by the Confederate Senate. Some of the officers' commissions as generals were not delivered until after they had died. In a few cases, promotions of officers to general officer grades were posthumous even as early as the dates of appointment or nomination and clearly were meant only to be tokens of respect or honor. Other general officer commissions remained undelivered when the war ended. At least two general officer appointments that appear in the historical record were unauthorized battlefield appointments which were not approved and confirmed by the civil authorities as the war was coming to a close. Nonetheless, these officers are notable because of their assignments or actions in the capacity of a general, almost always a brigadier general. The Eichers call most or all such officers "might-have-beens." About 24 of the officers in the alphabetical tables above are shown by Warner and Wright as full grade general officers but in fact their appointments, confirmations or commissions were incomplete or they died or the war ended before they received their commissions. The entries for these officers will be moved to the section below as the article is completed.

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