General officers in the Confederate States Army Edmund Kirby Smith, who was appointed general late in the war and into the PACS. Pierre G.T. Beauregard, had also initially been appointed a PACS general but was elevated to ACSA two months later with the same date of rank. These generals outranked all other grades of generals, as well as all lesser officers in the Confederate States Army. The first group of officers appointed to general were Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and Pierre G.T. Beauregard, with their seniority in that order. This ordering caused Cooper, a staff officer who would not see
Confederate Army of the Potomac Virginia. The army was formed from Confederate units defending northeastern Virginia, which arrived over the course of April to July 1861. Philip St. George Cocke was appointed to command the area of Virginia along "the line of the Potomac" and to muster the local militia companies into Confederate service. Regiments from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina also arrived in Virginia and were assigned to Cocke's command. On May 21, Cocke was replaced in command in northeastern Virginia by Milledge L. Bonham, who was in turn superseded by P. G. T. Beauregard ten days later. Beauregard divided his army