Officers

• Officers in the Federal Army were responsible for carrying out the administration of the Army and conducting strategic planning on the battlefield. Officers decided how to provision the Army's resources, how to administer law in the army, conducted strategic planning on the battlefield and held the responsibility for outcomes as result of high-level planning. Officers were also responsible for recruitment planning of both regular soldiers and volunteers. For example, an ordinance captain would be responsible for commanding an ordinance company, handling all strategic planning and administration to carry out ordinances missions received from higher officers.
  
  

Non-Commissioned Officers

• Non-commissioned officers (corporals and sergeants) on the other hand were responsible for tactical planning and supervising soldiers to carry out missions. Tactical planning involved taking the strategic plan drawn up by officers and devising the mechanics to accomplish the officer's objectives. Non-commissioned officers implemented and carried out the tactical plan in accordance with the strategic plan. For example, if a platoon sergeant received a strategic plan to take part of a fort, he would coordinate with other platoons involved in the strategic plan to develop a battle plan to accomplish the objective. Thereafter, he would lead his platoon to carry out the tactical plan and help capture the fort.
  
  

Privates

• Privates are all soldiers below the ranks of non-commissioned officers. A private in the Federal Army had the responsibility to follow orders and carry out directives as tasked to him by a non-commissioned officer, or even sometimes directly from an officer. The role of the regular soldier was to carry out the specific duties of tactical plans as assigned to him to accomplish a mission. For example, a private in the Federal Army might receive instructions to guard a specific path on route to an objective the unit is moving towards. His sole responsibility at that point is to only allow those authorized to use the path. Privates did most of the fighting during the Civil War.
  
  

Federal Army Bureaus

• During the Civil War, Federal soldiers had a diverse range of duties dictated by their particular bureau. The Federal Army had 10 different bureaus at the start of the War. Those Bureaus included Quartermaster, Ordnance, Engineering, Topographic Engineering, Medical, Paymaster, Inspector General, Judge Advocate General, Subsistence and Adjutant General. Around 1863, the Federal Army consolidated the Topographic Engineering and Engineering bureaus, while adding a Cavalry Bureau.
  
  Even though a Federal soldier received duties according to his rank from his bureau, the first rule of thumb for a soldier in battle is to take orders from higher-ranking soldiers. It was not uncommon for an ordnance soldier to find himself carrying out infantry-related tasks when the battlefield required it, for example.