The office was effectively abolished on April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Federal forces at Appomattox, Virginia.

On February 6, General Robert E. Lee was appointed to the position and served in that capacity until the end of the American Civil War.

President Jefferson Davis voiced his rejection (and veto) of creating this position to the 1st Confederate States Congress on March 14, 1862, believing that such a general could "command an army or armies without the will of the President.

"[2] Davis performed many of the responsibilities of a general in chief himself throughout the war, acting as both a military operations manager and commander-in-chief.

Lee (from March to May 1862) and General Braxton Bragg (from February 1864 to January 1865) also performed related duties, as they were military advisers to Davis, or "charged with the conduct of military operations in the armies of the Confederacy.