Administration turns paper armies into field armies

The crowded western command cast includes Grant, Halleck, Sherman, Thomas, Buell, Rosecrans, McPherson, the two Johnstons, Beauregard, Bragg, Hood, Kirby Smith, and Forrest. The larger point is administrative capacity rather than a simple ranking of personalities. Union formations also lost men to furloughs and detachment, but Confederate records were especially vulnerable to desertion, poor accounting, mistaken assignments, and transport failures. A soldier listed on a return did not add combat power if he could not physically reach his unit. Commanders therefore had to distinguish nominal strength from troops actually present and supportable in the field. Logistics and staff work could change the real balance without changing the headline size of an army.