Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[27] under the special direction of a general officer or colonel, almost invariably placed in that position by right of seniority, who takes a large share in all the decisions which affect them, and who is the only medium between them and the department. The latter corps are, in the first place, the engineers and topographical engineers, separated until 1862, and united since that period; and then the various branches of the service, much more independent of each other, which, with us, constitute the military administration. Under the name of departments they perform their functions both in the army and in the War Department, where their hierarchical chiefs have each a separate bureau, which nearly corresponds to our administrative divisions(directions).

In these varied functions the corps above mentioned partake of the character of our supervising department (intendance), with this important difference, however, that most of them are composed of officers in active service. Taken from the army, with the exception of paymasters and surgeons, who have simply an assimilated military rank, they do not leave their army grade on entering upon the discharge of departmental duties, and may, by means of a simple exchange, resume their places in the ranks of combatants. They have therefore the same prospects as the latter, and may, like them, come out of their respective army corps with a general's epaulette. The late war has shown by many examples the advantages of such a system of promotion. Thus, one of the generals who achieved most distinction on the field of battle, Hancock, a simple captain-quartermaster, commanded with success an army corps, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army for his services. Hence it is that rivalries and jealousies are very rare between officers of the line and those of the staff corps, and the frequency of rotation among them, by initiating each in turn into the details of every branch of the service, imparts to them an amount of information that is found invaluable in the isolated life of the frontiers, which entails upon them such manifold duties. Here, again, the Americans have done well in not pushing the system of special services to excess.

The adjutant-general's department, composed of officers from the rank of captain to that of colonel, was, in 1861, commanded