This is a list of American Civil War brevet generals that served the Union Army.
Information on brevet appointments or awards for these officers still may be found at List of American Civil War Generals (Union).
The appointment, nomination, confirmation and commissioning of most Civil War brevet awards occurred in the years 1866 through 1869 but the great majority of these were antedated for purposes of rank to the "omnibus" date of March 13, 1865.
The further step of commissioning almost always took place, barring death of the nominee, without great delay, usually within one or a few weeks.
An appointment or nomination made by President Lincoln means the officer could have exercised command at his brevet grade, if so assigned, and been referred to as a general during the course of the war.
Many awards were made to lower grade staff officers for faithful and efficient services.
The brevet awards could not convert these officers into generals retroactively no matter how valuable their service may have been.
The letter would note that the appointment was contingent on the President nominating and the U.S. Senate confirming the promotion or award.
Since most of the brevet awards were made after the end of the war, candidates would not be told to report to a senior officer for orders unless they were still on duty and might be given some higher or different assignment.
Following the usage of the Eichers in Civil War High Commands, "grade" signifies the position or level in the officer hierarchy (e.g. brigadier general, major general) and "rank" refers to the order of precedence within the grade, signified by the date from which the award "ranks", regardless of the actual date of appointment by the President of the United States or confirmation by the United States Senate.
The Eichers effort to change the common usage of the word "rank" for grade is probably futile.
A change in usage might create more confusion than it eliminates but "grade" will be used on this page, especially in the column headings, since the reason for this use is explained in this introduction.
The abbreviation USA means the grade was awarded in the regular United States Army.
Notes are limited for each entry and generally are in a few major categories to keep the size of a large page from increasing more.
USMA indicates a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Resignation, retirement and muster out dates for volunteer officers are (or will be) noted, although they were omitted in the original version of the page.