Quote:
Originally Posted by kato13
I just read a little about Custer and apparently he was a Brigadier General of Volunteers at 23. This rank did not aparently apply to the regular army.
"At the end of the Civil War (April 15, 1865), Custer was promoted to major general of volunteers, but was reduced to his permanent grade of captain in the regular army."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Armstrong_Custer
Never knew there was any sort of differentiation
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Yes, Volunteer rank was later known as temporary or wartime rank. I recently read a biography of Eisenhower. During the middle part of WW2, he held three and then four stars, but was still a permanent colonel. During WWI, he rose to lieutenant colonel, fell back to captain or major at the end of it, and took something like 13 years to get back to LTC.
Also during the Civil War, up to about 1910, one could have a "brevet" rank, too. A very temporary promotion, in which one's commander could authorize you to act as if you were one rank higher, likely to command a larger formation. Your pay and permanent rank, however, were unaffected until a normal promotion caught up to you.