In fact it appears to me that at the start of the Civil War your officer selection was on whether your face fitted or not. OK, you had a regular Officer corps, but then regiments were dreamed up and led by local notaries.

 

Not an entirely bad thing as the regimental system as said above is a tribal thing. Which is why Labour hates it.

Believe it or not, in WW1 Sunday would be in 7th heaven. We even had regiments for shorties. 

Tiger your last crossed with mine. Weren't you singing the praises of "Young Napoleon"? Hope not. or was he a typical West point man.

 

Every army has bad officers.

What precisely was the commissioning selection process for a "hostilities only" Officer during the Civil war?

Ironically, Grant held a fear of the sight of blood.

Oddly enough until the 1920's the national guard held to the tradition of electing it's officers below the rank of major when Harry Truman who had been barely elected to his WW1 post took part in dismantling it as some of his superiors had proven themselves morons. Ranks major and above had to be approved by both the Army and the States Governor from which the unit originated.  

 

 

 

 

We had a Yeomanry recruited from local populations and officered by Landowners with regular Army Colonels. First class for putting down civil unrest, especially in the mid 1800's.

 

I don't know if you're the same but all our Public (i.e. Private) Schools had an Officers' Training Corps (re-named Combined Cadet Force) from which "Temporary" Officers were commissioned in WW1 but then trained to Platoon Commander level at their regimental depot.

 

 I think in WW2 all non-regular officers joined as Other ranks and were selected for Officer training after 3 months. They then went to a hell-hole called Eaton Hall, or an equivalent overseas.

 

I was selected on account of my staggering beauty but that's another story. 

 

The Germans had an excellent system. You did your basic training then joined your unit. If you were any good and were noticed, you continued with your job but wore an officer's pip on your sleeve and were given the appointment "Fahnenjunker" literally "Flag leader" but meaning "Officer aspirant".

 

You were then reported on more closely by your superiors, and if you continued well, you were sent to an Officer training school like "Bad Tolz" for the SS. 

I flunked Hitlerjugend.

Nor did I make Pimpf.

 

University OTC. 3 year voluntary engagement. 

 

Everyone trained as an Infantryman for year one. Training was done by 3rd year Infantrymen. You did cert B Part 1, then went "Special to arm"; Gunner, Engineers, electrical and mechanical engineers, Intelligence (the Black Cadets loved that) Medic (They loved that too) or stay in Infantry (if you were good enough to train others.)

 

2nd year you did cert B Part 2, and you were eligible to apply for a Territorial (reserve) commission and go and join a territorial unit, or you might be appointed Under-Officer to run a whole sub-unit like a sergeant major. (Although junior to an officer, it was in fact harder to get this appointment)

 

You could also apply for a Graduate Entry Regular Commission which was dependant on getting a degree. As I did.

 

There were guys who joined as Probationary Regular Commissioned officers, paid by the Army, and had to serve 5 years after graduating, and rejoin their parent Regiments for summer training. 

 

A lot of this to us was an extension of the school cadet system, so we went in knowing what it was like and obviously we continued since we'd enjoyed our school service.

 

There is a strong mixture of regular Army inside the university OTC, Training majors, serving officers doing a 3 year university course, 1 training Sergeant in each sub-unit, so you're told pretty quickly if you're good enough for a regular commission. And you have to go away for regular Army interview boards for that. Great fun. 

There are always two sides to a story and although the purchase system had been extremely successful in avoiding any military involvement in British politics and had see off Napoleon, amongst many others, nobody can deny it did inflict a great deal of injustice on others. Some excellent officers would serve 20-30 years and never rise above Captain and it must have taken a toll on them to have raw men come in over their heads, who had never fired a shot in anger. Also, some wealthy men would buy a Captain’s commission in any regiment, then never turn up, but simply go home on half pay, using the purchase as a stepping stone, so that they could then buy a Major’s commission in a more prestigious regiment. It was also not uncommon for men to buy the commissions from other men, giving them a profit on the deal, but in 1821 the government laid down tarrifs for commissions and anybody found breaching these regulations would find themselves in court. Lord Lucan, mentioned above, was a case in point where wealth could override experience. Although an experienced soldier, it was only the purchase system which allowed him to buy the commander’s post of the 17th Lancers, thus ousting Anthony Bacon, a long serving officer of brilliance, who quit the army in disgust and sold his talents abroad. Lucan paid £25.000 for the privilege, a full £20,000 above the going price and not many could compete with that kind of money.