How many Generals were there?
As with everything else, you have to define your terms. Both sides had militia generals, both had their share of promotions held up or shelved, and then there were commanding officers in a region who felt they had a right to promote people to General grades. If you limit the question to General officers in the non-militia service who were properly nominated and appointed (ie all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed) my count is Union – 564, Confederate – 401. There’ll always be debate about these numbers, but for the definitive word on the matter I refer you to Dave Eicher’s great work: Civil War High Commands Stanford University Press, 2001.
