Question

8thvacav · #1 07-27-2004, 11:49 PM

I was wondering if any of you could answer a question for me. Was there any
rhyme or reason to the way that the Armies were organized? I'm not talking
about Lee and going from two corps to three corps... What I'm wondering
about is how they decided which regiments would make up which brigade, and
which brigade would be attached to which division in which corps... Does
that make sense? Or when they were reorganizing the armies, what was the
reasoning behind how they did that? Does anybody have a clue?

Thanks, Martin

gary · #2 07-28-2004, 10:24 PM

Closest I can figure out is that within the Union, if the organization was raised within a certain department, the department would assign them to a brigade.

That's one heckuva good question and I've never paid attention to it before.

johan_steele · #3 07-29-2004, 08:03 AM

The CSA generally tried to keep Regiments from the same state together... well at least until Bragg felt that might be politically dangerous for him. THe Union... I swear to god there has to have been some sort of rhyme or reason to it... though I can't find it. The closest thing I can come up w/ is Regiments were grouped together by their time of enlistment and their arrival to the area of operations... but even that doesn't quite work.

God Luck and when you find the answer please share it w/ everyone else.

gary · #4 07-29-2004, 09:52 PM

Remember for the Confederacy there was the big shuffle in '62 when the one year enlistments expired and the conscription went into effect. Units were disbanded and new ones raised - sometimes virtually as the same entity. In other cases they went to other brigades. I never did try to figure it out.

jenna · #5 07-31-2004, 10:58 AM

They also continued to combine units together as the war went on that had sustained great losses and could no longer be concidered a unit on their own. Then they lumped as many units, regiment, together to form brigades. Take the Iron Brigade ( or the I-Run Brigade as my brother so fondly calls them. He's a Southern sympothisor) was made up of units souly from the midwest, with 3 regiments from Wisconsin, and the others of Minnesota and I believe Iowa ( someone correct me if I am wrong).

gary · #6 07-31-2004, 12:18 PM

The I-Run Brigade (LOL) was composed of the Second Wisconsin, Sixth Wisconsin, Seventh Wisconsin, Nineteenth Indian and 24th Michigan. Later the 1st New York Sharp Shooters Battalion was added to the Brigade and the Brigade lost its pure Western identity.

jenna · #7 07-31-2004, 02:40 PM

Thanks Gary, I knew the Wisconsin units. Believe it or not, at a wayside on I94 headed out of the Dells at Lyndon Station, they have a marker plaque dedicated to the Iron Brigade. We also have a huge 2nd. WI re-enacting community, going from the 2nd WI CO A to CO K. Not too many with the sixth or the seventh. We also have a professor at Carrole College, Lance Hertigan, that has writen several books on the Iron Brigade. If I recall correctly, they were disbanded and remustered in with other Brigades after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Glad you found the "I-Run" funny. My brother and his group came up with that.

jenna · #8 08-01-2004, 11:34 AM

This does not help answer the question, but I felt this tid bit of info deffinately fell into this category, but I had to share it. I have a book, Everyday Life During the Civil War by Micheal J. Varhola, and I call this the civilian re-enactors bible, since it covers a little bit of everything. But it does have a section in there on how the army was broken down, not how they came to organize their regiments. But this was interesting....

"In practice, regiments were perpetually understrength and usually consisted of three hundred to five hundred men. One reason for this among Union units is that after Northern states had raised regiments of troops, they made no effort to reinforce them once they were depleted and instead preferred simply to form new regiments when they had to provide additional troops. One exception is the state of Wisconsin, which recruited soldiers for service in existing regiments. For this reason, many generals liked to have at least a few full-strength Wisconsin regiments in their commands."

I knew I liked Wisconsin for a reason!

johan_steele · #9 08-02-2004, 06:53 PM

Jenna, Minnesota did the same thing... glad to see another midwesterner. Mayhaps I'l see you at a Living History sometime.

Welcome aboard

tamaroa · #10 08-04-2004, 08:47 AM

Can't remember where I read it but it was an acknowledged fact that having companies raised from the same town had a steadying influence on the men. They did not want to cut and run in front of their boyhood friends and neighbors for fear of bringing shame to the them and the town.

Here in Rockland County, the Population was sparse so there might be one or two companies with all Rocklanders in it such as the 95th NYI, or the 6th New York Heavy Artillery. But generally speaking, a regiment was raised in a geographical area such as the Hudson valley. After they were trained and went into the field....well, its anybody's guess!