What is the difference between a Division Pioneer and a Regimental Pioneer?
Upvote:4
The distinction appears to have been a ruse by Rosenkranz to entice the selection of good men, instead of rogues, to fill the initial assessment from the regiments. In his History of the Pioneer Brigade Geoffrey L. Blankenmeyer notes:
General Rosecrans' original order of formation inferred that the men selected for pioneer duty would stay with their mother regiments during a march and that he would detach them when they were required for pioneer duty. At least that is what the General originally communicated to the regimental Colonels. However, this expressed intent may have been a ruse "intended to ensure that the regiments detailed their best men and not their dregs" for this detail. The Colonels did indeed detail their most talented men to the Pioneers. However, it was discovered soon thereafter that the original core of Pioneers would become a separate unit permanently detached from their former comrades. The result was the development of a lasting bitterness among the regimental brass for Rosecrans' brain-child. The bitterness within the brass began as soon as this news was announced and lasted for the duration of the unit's existence.
Within two months of the Pioneer Brigade's initial creation it had been amassed and undergone 3-4 weeks of specialized training; and then returned to the Army of the Cumberland in time for the Battle of Stones River. There, as a reserve brigade, it stemmed the initial Rebel onslaught, buying time for Rosenkranz to rally his force and recover a victory.
This is supported by a quote in that history from Philip L. Shiman1 supporting this speculation.
Every regiment had its share of shirkers as well as active, intelligent soldiers. Naturally, (regimental) colonels looked for every opportunity to get rid of the no-good soldiers. Had they known that the men assigned as pioneers would be put permanently in a pioneer brigade, they would have chosen their worst soldiers. Realizing this, Rosecrans told the colonels that the pioneers would stay close to the regiments and provide pioneer support to them directly. The colonels therefore selected their best, most talented men, in the expectation that they could use their pioneers as they saw fit. Therefore, (history) should consider it quite a compliment. that (an individual) should have been selected for the Pioneer Brigade. It meant his colonel thought highly of him.
More on the History, organization, and Battles of the Army of the Cumberland available here in Vol. I and Vol. II of Major General George H. Thomas' History of the Army of the Cumberland (1875).
References:
- Shiman, Philip L. Engineering and Command : The Case of William S. Rosecrans 1862 - 1863; in The Art of Command in the Civil War , Edited by Steven E. Woodworth, University of Nebraska Press, 1998
More post
- 📝 Why did the communist party lose in Telangana in India's first general elections?
- 📝 Why did France just give up without a major fight in WW2?
- 📝 Counterfactual reasoning and analogical reasoning
- 📝 What was the most important change that took place in American society as a result of the New Deal?
- 📝 Was the enclosure responsible for the supply of factory workers in 18th and 19th Century England?
- 📝 How did Lincoln legitimize the constitutionality of his Emancipation Proclamation?
- 📝 Why is the Spanish-American War not called the Spanish-Cuban-American War?
- 📝 Why was Kentucky not admitted to the Union in 1789?
- 📝 Tombstone-covered floor in Churches
- 📝 Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
- 📝 How is the Byzantine(Eastern Roman) different from Western Roman?
- 📝 When did the Egyptians stop wrapping their dead in bandages?
- 📝 When Lenin met Mussolini, what was Mussolini's impression of Lenin?
- 📝 Mesopotamia laws 196, 197 and 198
- 📝 What was Finland's position in World War Two?
- 📝 Advanced sub-saharan civilizations prior to cross-atlantic slave trade?
- 📝 Who was Charles Kingston O'Mahony?
- 📝 When did the allies start evacuating from the Dunkirk mole during the Dunkirk evacuation?
- 📝 Could the Circus Maximus audience distract the racers?
- 📝 Were soldiers in the World Wars paid?
- 📝 Why do Eastern European countries have the greatest female-to-male ratio?
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union support the development of their atomic bomb in 1949?
- 📝 Did Theodore Roosevelt ever say the "things that will destroy America" quote?
- 📝 How did western saloons lock up for the night?
- 📝 The name of a symbolic group of historical christian figures that appear on cathedrals and other imagery around Europe
- 📝 Why did Europeans and Asian countries develop much faster than African countries
- 📝 Who was the earliest historian of the Greco-Roman world to write something substantial about China?
- 📝 What was the difference between Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval in the 19th Century French army?
- 📝 What was the first recorded reference to the fact that the sun rises and sets at different times across the Earth?
- 📝 Does anyone recognize the identity and location of this octagonal structure?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is the difference between a Division Pioneer and a Regimental Pioneer?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages?
- 📝 What is the difference between NKVD and OGPU (USSR)
- 📝 What is the difference between a professional historian and an amateur?
- 📝 In the British empire, what was the difference between a Governor General and a Viceroy?
- 📝 What is the difference between "diallektes" and "aesymnetes"?
- 📝 What is the difference between "seigneurie" and "manor"?
- 📝 What was the difference in the minds of the Romans between human sacrifice and gladiator games?
- 📝 What was the difference between a WWII Engineer General Service Regiment and a Service Unit?
- 📝 What is a difference between the revolution in Egypt that sprung recently and the Russian Revolution of 1917
- 📝 What is the difference between a culture and a civilization?
- 📝 What was the difference between Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval in the 19th Century French army?
- 📝 What is the difference between "liege-vassal" and "simple vassal"?
- 📝 What is the difference between a typescript and manuscript?
- 📝 What is the difference between Taino and Puerto Rican?
- 📝 What is the difference between Anatolia and Asia Minor?
- 📝 What is the difference between annexing, occupying and taking over a country?
- 📝 What is the difference between galli and metragyrtai?
- 📝 What is the difference between Mughals and Afghanis?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Nobel Banquet and the Nobel Anniversary Dinner?
- 📝 In the French Empire, what was the difference between french colonies éphémèras and comptoirs français?
- 📝 What is the difference between an extensive revolution and an intensive revolution?
- 📝 What is the difference between archeology and defacing a tomb?
- 📝 What is the difference between the union free state and the territories controlled by the federal government?
- 📝 What is the main difference between an Emperor, a King, a Char, a Sultan, a Dictator, a Dynast and a Tyrant?
- 📝 What was the difference between the Sykes Picot and League of Nations Mandate?
- 📝 What was the shortest time between a historical event occuring and a museum opening dedicated to said event?
- 📝 What is the earliest evidence of contact between Ireland and Egypt?
- 📝 What is the small country between USSR and Mongolia in 1935?