Authorized strength

atlantis

Sergeant Major
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
Did each side have a authorized strength number that was realistic in terms of needs and available resources or were congressmen on each side just guessing when they set the number.
You see each side increasing the number and I am curious how the numbers were determined, not just the process but why a certain number was selected. I am making the assumption that the congress on each side had at least a rough idea of how many military age men were available to them.
Hope everyone has had a pleasant weekend.
 
I think it started out as a guess before any actual serious campaigning began. After that the number of men needed in the ranks was dependent on accelerating casualty losses and the developing military situation. Most everyone initially assumed that the war would be short, decided by a decisive battle or two, so expectations quickly had to be altered.
 
For the Union, the initial quotas were made on the states population of military age men. I would imagine that this could be determined by the 1860 census. Congress did originally cap the amount of volunteers at 500,000 in July of 1861. If I remember correctly Congress increased the amount later, ether ‘62 or ‘63. I am not sure how they came up with the 500,000 number though.
 
Force structure and force development was not very scientific through WWII. During the ACW, the size of a regiment and smaller units was set by the ability of the commander to control his troops in the field through pre-electronic communications. Infantry regiments performed many logistical functions now performed by specialized units. Infantrymen were detailed to such ad hoc missions, and their parent units often lost track of those individuals. Even during WWII, the Army created specialized units in a "conveyor belt mass production" manner without careful assessment of the troop to task requirements of a theater. Consequently, arriving units were either re-assigned to missions for which they were not trained or dealt out as individual replacements to line units. An ACW example is the way heavy artillery units were diverted from coastal defense missions to line infantry missions.
 
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