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 of orders to Beauregard since he was more familiar with the terrain. During the First Battle of Bull Run, which occurred on July 21, Colonel Nathan Evans' brigade from the Army of the Potomac began the opening stages of the fighting on Matthews Hill, reinforced by two brigades from Johnston's army. As the fighting shifted to Henry House Hill, Cocke's and Jubal Early's brigades along with units from Bonham's brigade from Beauregard's army, along with the rest of Johnston's army, were shifted to the Confederate left wing. An attack by Early's brigade on the Union right flank at about 4