Here is the key for the Orders of Battle I will present in future post so you will know how to interpret them. As you can see they are tabulated with each box identifying a particular characteristic.
Key to ACW Orders of Battle
Infantry and Cavalry
Brigade Designation: Name of Brigade [number in brigade] | | |
Name of Brigade Commander | | |
Name of Regiment | Troop Quality | Record of Casualties |
Armament | Strength | Number of stands – Size of Regiment |
Artillery
Name of Battery | | |
Battery Leader | Troop Quality | Record of Casualties |
Armament | Designation | |
Troop Quality consists of 5 categories
Troop Quality | Description | Examples |
Green | Troops that have seen little/ no action | |
Regular | Well trained who have seen some action | |
Old Lag | Battle-fatigued or troops near the end of their enlistment period | |
Veteran | Battle experienced troops | |
Elite | Tough, professional regiments | e.g. Hood’s Texans, Iron Brigade, Barksdale’s Mississippians, Louisiana Tigers, Berdan’s Sharpshooters |
Armament is as follows:
RM = 1st Class Rifle e.g. Springfield/Enfield;
AR = Austrian Rifle/M1842 rifle or Inferior Rifle
SB = smoothbore musket
BLC = Breech Loading Carbine
BLR = Breech Loading Rifle
SSR = Sharpshooter Rifle
Information for armament for Union troops comes from Army of Potomac October-December 1862 Ordnance Bureau Quarterly Return as unfortunately, the July-September 1862 Quarterly Return was destroyed by a fire. It is accepted that some units may have received different types of firearms after the Maryland Campaign concluded. Many regiments carried multiple types of firearms in varying quantities. With a few exceptions, I have used for each regiment only the kind of firearm that a majority of the soldiers in that particular unit carried.
The percentage of different armaments from this Quarterly Return breaks down as follows:
Type of Armament | Percentages |
First Class Rifles | 76 |
Inferior Rifles | 24 |
Rifled Muskets | 90 |
Smoothbore Muskets | 10 |
Based on other sources these seem to be reasonable figures.
Strength is the number of troops engaged. This is perhaps the most contentious area particularly for the battle of Antietam. The numbers are based first and foremost on Carmen’s numbers but also’ best estimates’ based on a variety of different approaches including percentage values of present for duty figures that attempt to account for straggling and numbers based on regimental frontages when these are known.
Number of bases per Regiment is determined by the following Table
Number in Regiment | Number of bases | Size of Regiment |
<120 | 1 | 120 men per base |
120-240 | 2 | small |
240-360 | 3 | small |
360-480 | 4 | standard |
480-600 | 5 | standard |
600-720 | 6 | large |
720-840 | 7 | large |
840-960 | 8 | large |
Generally with 4 figures per base this is a ratio of 1 figure to 30 men.
Artillery Batteries are designated as Rifled [R], Smoothbore [SB] or Mixed[M].
Number and type of artillery pieces are recorded as actual types from ‘Artillery Hell’ by Johnson & Anderson. Sometimes battery strengths may be combined to simplify them overall.