Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register
Illustrated, appendices, 436 pp., 2008. University of Missouri Press, 2910 LeMone Blvd., Columbia, MO 65201, $50 plus shipping. Bruce S. Allardice’s Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register is a unique reference work. As the sub-title indicates, the book is a register of the 1,583 individuals who attained and ended their careers as colonels in the Confederate armies. Arranged in alphabetical order, the list includes both line and staff officers. The biographical sketches range from the famous, John S. Mosby, to the relatively obscure, Charles James Elford. Each biographical entry contains the vital information — birth and death dates, antebellum education and career, prewar military experience, dates of rank, regimental command, postwar career and place of burial. Certain men garner lengthier descriptions due to their importance and renown. Where applicable, Allardice lists the location of the individual’s private papers. To his credit, Allardice has written a lengthy introduction that examines “What is a ‘Confederate Army Colonel’?” He explains laws on the selection and appointment of men to the grade, delineates a colonel’s role in an army, and provides a wealth of statistical data on them. He also explains how to use the register. The author notes that 1,907 officers held the rank of colonel at some point in their service to the Confederacy. Of that number, 324 were promoted to a generalcy. It is the remaining officers, 1,583 of them, who are given biographical treatment in the book. In appendices, Allardice lists the colonels who attained the rank of general and the 232 men who served as colonels in the various states’ armies. Finally, he names the 171 Southerners who were accorded the honorary title of “colonel.” Allardice has obviously plowed through an array of material and information, some of which is contradictory, in compiling this register. The result is, however, a very usable and valuable reference source on the men who were appointed/commissioned by the Confederate government to the rank of colonel. For historians and scholars, Allardice’s efforts are of inestimable worth. For serious readers of the conflict’s fascinating figures and campaigns, this book offers no stirring narratives. It is a work of prodigious research and is recommended without reservation. Reviewer: Jeffry D. Wert is a retired Pennsylvania high school teacher. He is the author of eight books on the Civil War, including his recent Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J.E.B. Stuart.
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