Who was the highest ranking Confederate officer during the U.S. Civil War?
Robert E. Lee was the only officer appointed to the position of general-in-Chief, which was created late in the war by the Confederate Congress on January 23, 1865, but it had been debated as early as February 27, 1862. Jefferson Davis voiced his rejection (and veto) of creating this position to the Congress on March 14 of that year, believing that such a general could “command an army or armies without the will of the president.” Davis performed much of the responsibilities of a general-in-chief himself throughout the war, acting as both a military operations manager and commander-in-chief.
