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I would also like a partial list. Due to work and educational requirements, I don't know how many I can do, but would like to try!

I don't have preferences, I would be honored to do the bio of just about any general in the war.

AU Tiger

Um.... Maybe it would be best if you DIDN"T give me Benjamin "Spoons" Butler. My dislike of him would likely bleed through, and the disparaging profanity would put some people off.

Thought for you (that you may have already had) - if you get a whole load of time poor creatures like us who baulk at taking on the full job, you could split the volunteers into 'full time' and 'part time'. Give a full group of 50 (or whatever) to the full timers, and then give the rest to the part timers, who could grab one or two whenever they have time. You could have a thread to 'register' who had grabbed what, and monitor progress. That way, you might have a quality variabilty problem, rather than a number of volunteers problem. Even the quality variabilty could be controlled, because you could feed the rejects back in to the pool with (helpful) comments and get it reworked either by its author, or someone else.

The credits issue might get tricky, but I for one would be happy to be known as one of some collective group (you know, 'thanks to ...(all the fulltimers), and the Civil War Generals Geeks group')... [edit: although the actual title would need to be thought up!)]

Okay, at this very minute I am going through generals, figuring out which to assign to whom. In the meantime, I came across another bio that Marecone had done, which also can serve as an example. In contrast to Forrest, Gen. Allen is not well known, but it's still possible to come up with a good, interesting summary of his life and career, as you can see:

Maj. Gen. Robert Allen (b.1811, d.1886). Allen was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. After graduating in the bottom third of his class, he fought in the Mexican War, and was brevetted a major for gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. He moved from the Artillery to the Quartermaster's Department, eventually being named chief quartermaster for the Pacific Department. Again, in the Civil War, he was appointed chief quartermaster, this time for the Union Department of the Missouri. Allen's challenge was to create an efficient and competent department out of a corrupt agency. He was successful, and he was placed in charge of the entire Mississippi Valley. Allen supplied all major and secondary operations in the region, including Gen. Ulysses Grant's Vicksburg campaign and Gen. William T. Sherman's Atlanta campaign. Later, his sphere of duty was expanded to include all areas west of the Mississippi River, except for California. Allen ranked only behind Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs in responsibility, spending an estimated $111 million in his duties as quartermaster. After the war, he stayed in the army until his retirement in 1878. Allen died on August 5, 1886, while traveling abroad. He was buried in Switzerland.

Okay, what I’ve decided to do is start off by giving everyone five obscure generals to start with (or, to be more accurate, five generals who are not in the game as 25-percenters or 100-percenters, but are not necessarily obscure). My reason is that these all bios need to be reasonably uniform in terms of style and content, so it will be far easier for all of us if you each begin with five, I critique them, and then having learned from my critiques you go on to do as many more as you’d like and have time for. And my reason for assigning the less important guys first is that these should take less time for you to write and for me to go through. The second step will be giving out the more famous generals (i.e., the 25- and 100-percenters), as well as the rest of the others.

So, I’ll first parcel out generals to those of you who have confirmed on this thread that you want to be involved. Since no one has expressed a desire to do only Union or only Confederate, I’m simply going down the list alphabetically (though I’ll be skipping to the T’s because one of you insists on writing up Zealous B. Tower).

For anyone else thinking of volunteering, we still have hundreds more that are unassigned.

Missouri Rebel:
Adams,_D.W.
Adams,_J.
Adams,_W.W.
Alexander,_E.P.
Allen,_H.W.

Doktor:
Allen,_W.W.
Alvord,_B.
Ames,_A.
Ammen,_J.
Anderson,_D.H.

Twotribes:
Anderson,_G.B.
Anderson,_G.T.
Anderson,_J.P.
Anderson,_J.R.
Tower,_Z.B.

Dog robber (but let me know if you only want to do forts, and I’ll reassign):
Anderson,_R.
Anderson,_S.R.
Andrews,_C.C.
Andrews,_G.L.
Archer,_J.J.

RERomine:
Armstrong,_F.C.
Arnold,_L.G.
Arnold,_R.
Asboth,_A.S.
Ashby,_T.

HMSWarspite:
Augur,_C.C.
Averell,_W.W.
Ayres,_R.B.
Bailey,_J.
Baird,_A.

ross_ntu:
Baker,_A.
Baker,_E.D.
Baker,_L.S.
Baldwin,_W.E.
Banks,_N.P.

scout1:
Barksdale,_W.
Barlow,_F.C.
Barnard,_J.G.
Barnes,_J.
Barnes,_J.K.

AU Tiger:
Barnum,_H.A.
Barringer,_R.C.
Barry,_J.D.
Barry,_W.F.
Bartlett,_J.J.


That’s the list for now. Later tonight I’ll try to write up some specific guidelines and requests.

ORIGINAL: Gil R.



AU Tiger:
Barnum,_H.A.
Barringer,_R.C.
Barry,_J.D.
Barry,_W.F.
Bartlett,_J.J.

LOL. Barnum is a most unfortunate name for a google search....

Do you have pictures of these generals or do we need to dig some up? There is a good site for such and there obviously is not a copyright on any considering the timeframe.

Here is the link;

http://www.generalsandbrevets.com/

Mo Reb

Thanks, but there's no need: we already have photos of all of the generals in the game.

Did you use the one of Barnum H. A. showing off his bullet wound?

http://americanart.si.edu/helios/Americ ... llw05b.jpg

Yuk!

Shall we include any info on accomplishments before or after the war such as education, upbringing, and post-war service? Or should we just concetrate primarily on war years?

Edit...sorry just read the part about the specific guidelines in your post above. I should really read the whole posts sometimes. Dagum short attention span.

The basic elements that every bio should have are:

Full name and highest rank held during the Civil War at the beginning, followed by years of birth and death. (This should look just as it does in Marecone's bios.)

Basic biographical information regarding what the general did before the Civil War. Of particular note would be graduation from West Point or VMI, as well as prior military service (e.g., in Mexico). Also of interest would be their own stated views regarding the secession crisis -- were they southerners who chose loyalty to state over loyalty to country, or northerners who opposed secession, etc.

Role during Civil War, including battles fought, occasions leading to promotion (including dates), military units commanded, and significant accomplishments (or blunders). This should be the primary focus.

Anything of interest that they did after the war.

Any famous or colorful quotes or anecdotes. (For example, the bio of Sedgwick would have the quote about not hitting an elephant at that distance.)

In addition to writing bios, it would be very helpful if you'd provide your opinion on what the ratings of the generals should be in the game. Since we have only 50 or so 25- and 100-percenters, this means that all the other generals, with few exceptions, have randomized ratings, and it would be great if these could be historically accurate as well. So as you research these guys, please see if you can come up with ratings, which I'll then enter into the appropriate file for a future patch.

These are the ratings for generals along with the numerical values:
Terrible = 0
Bad = 1
Poor = 2
Normal = 3
Fair = 4
Good = 5
Great = 6
Excellent = 7
Superb = 8

And these are the five areas for which each general is rated according to that system:

Initiative: Adds to the movement of brigades in detailed combat; affects the movement initiative of the division/corps/army on the main map
NOTE: At the strategic level, initiative is almost entirely a matter of the commanding general of whatever military group is trying to move. During detailed battles, the bonus is from both the brigade's general (if there's one assigned) and the general commanding the military group to which the brigade is attached (usually a division.). (Before a battle the "Initiative Check" is heavily weighted toward using the score of the highest ranking officer on each side.)

Leadership: helps disorganized units regain order; gives morale boost for rallying; has chance of negating effects of fatigue from forced march
NOTE: Similarly, brigade commander has most of the effect, but generals can also periodically try to rally any unit under their command.

Tactics: Increases damage done by brigades in combat
NOTE: Just for brigade commanders

Command: Determines the chance of bringing out-of-command units back into command; helps brigades change formation; helps units resist charges; enables units to enter dangerous zones (i.e., certain hexes where they ordinarily would be at a penalty because of terrain type and/or proximity to enemy units)
NOTE: The restoring of out-of-command units function is more a function of generals commanding higher military groups (armies/corps), but the other functions of the Command rating are solely for brigadier generals. (Some of the other functions use average between bde. general's rating and the rating of the group's general (typically a division commander).)

Cavalry: Increases damage done by charging cavalry in combat
NOTE: Only generals who have cavalry experience will be given a Cavalry rating, so for most generals there will be only four poll-threads rather than five. If there is a general for whom there is no cavalry poll-thread even though there should be (perhaps because of cavalry experience in the war with Mexico), please let me know and I'll add the poll.

ORIGINAL: Gil R.
Leadership: helps disorganized units regain order; gives morale boost for rallying; has chance of negating effects of fatigue from forced march
NOTE: Similarly, brigade commander has most of the effect, but generals can also periodically try to rally any unit under their command.

Tactics: Increases damage done by brigades in combat
NOTE: Just for brigade commanders

1. Shouldn't Leadership have an effect on training? I.e. the rate at which troops improve in quality while resting. Generals at all levels should have some influence on this.

2. In detailed combat, it's the tactical skill of the player that's being tested, so I can understand that the tactical skill of the commanding general doesn't come into it. However, in quick combat the tactical skill of the commanding general should surely be important.

Leadership does also affect the disposition of troops under generals, and the chances of generals teaching them special abilities (e.g., Chargers, Diggers, etc.). I forgot to note that.

Yes, I believe that Tactics does influence the outcome of Quick Combat.

Thanks for the quick reply...

ORIGINAL: Gil R.
Yes, I believe that Tactics does influence the outcome of Quick Combat.

This is quite an important point; I hope the game's manual will confirm it. I suppose most players are likely to use quick combat for at least some battles; some players will use it for all battles; and it's obligatory for all battles when playing by e-mail.

Incidentally, I point out that play balance is affected if the tactical skill of the top generals is taken into account in quick combat but not in detailed combat. It means that, with detailed combat, the USA will escape part of the penalty for its initially inferior lineup of top generals.

Concerning the biography on Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest above and the limits to the number of characters noted in these biographies, I suggest just entering the birth and death date in parenthesis as (1821–1877) instead of (b. 1821, d. 1877).  Even among genealogical biographies this is the accepted format.  If you are not counting spaces as characters, this alone would save us four characters.   

ORIGINAL: dh76513

Concerning the biography on Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest above and the limits to the number of characters noted in these biographies, I suggest just entering the birth and death date in parenthesis as (1821–1877) instead of (b. 1821, d. 1877). Even among genealogical biographies this is the accepted format. If you are not counting spaces as characters, this alone would save us four characters.

Your point makes sense, but I already did all of the governors this way and want to be uniform, plus that 3000-char. limit isn't an absolute limit -- if a bio goes to 3010 characters it's not the end of the world. So we can afford the extra four characters.

Having trouble with the Andersons. Other than the "Civil War Generals" series I cant figure out a good search pattern to find these men with just the first intial of the name.

I of course have several Libraries near by, but I dont get out much and the best one is on the Marine Corps Base and my sticker is expired, I would have to renew it to go there.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Are you saying that you can't figure out their names from the Web, and therefore can go no further? I can check on that, if you can't.

In case people haven't found it, this is a very useful site, with links to some others:

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/generals.html

Do you have a time limit on getting these done? I am in the middle of a testing cycle that wraps up wednesday afternoon....