Dick Hudson, Your observation about generals getting medals for merely being able to hear gunfire certainly seems to be true now, but in the Civil War a brigadier general (on either side) was statistically more likely to be killed in action than was a private. Brigadier generals in that war actually led their brigades (well, most of them), often on horseback, which made them preferred targets for sharpshooters on both sides. Even generals of higher rank were killed in action or mortally wounded: Stonewall Jackson, James B. McPherson, and Leonidas Polk come immediately to mind. And I seem to recall that SIX Confederate generals died at the Battle of Franklin, TN in November 1864. Tom Pearson