Soldier Life || The Lieutenant Colonel || Episode 12

Welcome back to Soldier Life! Today, I’m doing a post on the Lieutenant Colonel! I’ve done some advanced research, and I’m gonna go ahead and tell you that information on the Lieutenant Colonel and the full Colonel is not as detailed as the lower ranks. So be prepared for these posts to be shorter 😉

As usual, I will link the last post in this series here. And also, I will give my general disclaimer that I am not a military nor 1860’s expert. These are just things I wished I had known about the era or thought other authors/history buffs would find helpful/interesting. The posts are non-biased and intended for all readers. I hope you enjoy!

The Lieutenant Colonel

Unlike our British counterparts, during the War Between the states, a Lieutenant Colonel was not the commander of a regiment. In fact, there were no duties specified for him at all! It was simply understood that if the full colonel were to be injured, killed, or otherwise absent, he was to take command. So naturally, he would need to understand the duties of regiment commander. When the Lieutenant Colonel was present, he was subject to whatever duties the Colonel required of him. Sometimes these were tasks he could have preformed himself but could be delegated to a subordinate.

According to Kautz’s Customs of Service for Officers of the Army, “The Lieutenant-Colonel, when not the senior officer of the Regiment, has precisely the same kind of duties that the Major is required to perform: Field Officer of the Day, the Command of Detachments, Field Officer’s Court-Martial, etc.  Four companies are sufficient to constitute a Lieutenant-Colonel’s Command, when the Regiment is divided about among several posts.”

So, if you have a Lieutenant Colonel in your story, just make sure you have him giving orders and filling out paperwork and being saluted by those lower-ranking 😊 You should be good to go!
 
That’s it for now! Hope you have a blessed day!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22