Glen
Moderator
Just a little N.B., Glen. Up to the mid-1850s, promotion in the British army officer ranks up to the rank of Colonel was almost exclusively by purchase only. It had to be agreed to, and had to come from the rank directly beneath (i.e. so you couldn't just buy your way into senior management in the space of a few months, though you could do it over the course of a decade) and there was scope to be breveted (i.e. given an "Acting" rank promotion, which gave no increase in pay and was temporary only) and it was possible to be promoted on merit, but being promoted on merit alone, even for a truely gifted officer, was the path to reaching the rank of Captain by your mid-30s at best, and reaching Major only if you were lucky, such was the volume of the officers willing and able to buy themselves to the promotions you were seeking despite being clearly unsuitable. IIRC, Richard Sharpe of the Cornwell novels only gets to the rank of Colonel because he himself acquires the all-important contacts in Horse Guards. It's a minor change, and now that I've written half an essay it now feels incredibly petty o) but far more realistic to suggest that Stetson simply did not have the cash to buy himself the promotions.
Thankfully, this system of rank purchase did not extent to senior ranks, which is probably why the British army during the Napoleonic Wars and others was thankfully well-stocked with genuinely talented Generals, though every army has its share of total hopeless cases.
Incidentally, still loving the story, and I noticed the little cameo there. Honestly very happy to wait and indeed to see others get there first, but I'm still genuinely looking forward to finding out if any of my "relatives" have a part in this story
Oh, and FYI, Rossall was on the short list of possible names for the founder of The Devil's Army - maybe next time, eh.