Confederate calls for soldiers - Which Dates ?

[Gavrilo Sartorys]

While searching some information about the dates corresponding to the multiple Confederate calls for soldiers, I found on Wikipedia that the Confederate Congress issued a call for 400,000 men and militia on January 23, 1862. But another paragraph mentioned this call issued as from August 8, 1861, such as many other sources online.

• March 6, 1861 : 1st call for 100,000 volunteers & militia
• August 8, 1861 / January 23, 1862 : 2nd call for 400,000 volunteers & militia

Then, the three Conscription Acts were passed respectively on April 16, 1862 ; September 27, 1862 and February 17, 1864.
Can anyone tell me where the date of January 23, 1862 comes from ?

With such information, I'm both trying to figure an average number of volunteer units available on the first phase of my board game (mid-1861 / early 1862) and also using primary sources to write a little essay on the Civil War as a student of History.

 

[RedRover]

The act of January 23, 1862 allowed the President to call upon the States to fill quotas for volunteers for "three years" service (rather than the previous 1 year).

From a Confederate digest of military laws, relative to the act of Jan. 23, 1862.

 

[Gavrilo Sartorys]

Thanks @RedRover , I thought I was becoming crazy yesterday evening ! If I get it correctly, the act of August 8, 1861 "only" authorized the creation of 400,000 more one-year-term units. Then the act of January 23, 1862 modified both maximum military force available and minimum term of service (three years). Right ?

In which book / online text (PDF) could I get the whole part relative to these multiple calls for volunteers ? What are your sources from the first text you quoted ?

I'm summarizing all available units (by state) created between March 6, 1861 and January 23, 1862, in order to analyze the difference between Union and Confederate numbers before the Conscription Laws were issued.

For example, some twenty-five Alabama infantry regiments & five Alabama infantry battalions were created between these two calls :
• Dept. Northern Virginia → 4th /5th /6th /9th /10th /11th /12th /14th /15th Regt + 8th Bn
• Dept. Peninsula → 8th /13th Regt + 3rd Bn
• Dept. Norfolk → 3rd Regt
• Dept. No.2 → 7th /16th Regt + Foster's Bn
• Dept. Alabama & West Florida → 1st /2nd /17th /18th /19th /20th /21st /22nd /23rd /24th /25th Regt + 2nd /4th Bn
This number culminated to more than fifty Alabama infantry units during the 1863-1864 period.

 

[RedRover]

The August 8, 1861 act says essentially:

Most of the Confederate mobilization acts can be found in this 1864 digest of CSA military and naval laws.

Digest, Military and Naval Laws... CSA, google books


During 1861 the CSA had a Regular Army, which consisted of principally officers. Only recruited a few hundred enlisted artillerymen, etc.
Then created the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, which initially consisted of such troops as were tendered to the CSA by the States.
The Volunteers were organized under separate CSA laws, like the ones discussed above, but for the most part considered part of the Provisional Army once mustered into CSA service...

Some of the State units tendered to the CSA under the Provisional Army act had already been organized by their States before March 6, 1861, and subsequently transferred to the CSA.

It's evident that only President Davis had a handle on who was organized under what law and how.

Here's a chart of the Confederate quotas assigned during 1861.

 

[Stryker65]

Noticeably absent from the orders is any allowance for a Regular Army. Seeing that the Confederacy tried making one, I guess that was just posthaste and everything was messed up.

 

[JHughes81]

Digest, Military and Naval Laws... CSA, google books

preciate the link, i collect and try to look at as many of these as I can, as time permits.

 

[RedRover]

Noticeably absent from the orders is any allowance for a Regular Army. Seeing that the Confederacy tried making one, I guess that was just posthaste and everything was messed up.

There was a regular army. The US Army officers who resigned their commissions with the US service to join the Confederacy were generally commissioned in it, at the same grade lately held. There was allowance for about 10,000 or so enlisted men in several regiments, but very few actually enlisted. During the war most of the regular officers served with the volunteer forces. For example, Lt. Joe Wheeler of the CS regular army applied for a colonelcy of an Alabama Volunteer regiment, and received it, etc. Philip B. Spence recalled...

Confederate Veteran

www.google.com

The Confederate army was principally composed of soldiers who joined State units to meet quotas, subsequently mustered into the service of the Confederacy. A few of these volunteer units were designated Confederate States Regiments... and would have survived the war as organizations, though during its course their personnel were volunteers or conscripts.


There were, in some of the seceding States, raised some regular State troops, but having been only organized and raised in the weeks before entering Confederate service, such State "Regular" units were not distinct from the balance of the volunteers.

Along with State Volunteer units, they were indiscriminately combined into the "Provisional Army of the Confederate States" upon being tendered to the Confederacy.

The 1st Regular regiment of Georgia retained only the name "First Georgia Regulars" as a distinction of their initial organization.
North Carolina's convention passed an ordnance tendering its State troops and Volunteers to the Confederacy...

Lt. Gen. D.H. Hill stated post-war that the lack of even a small "old" regular army was a great impediment to the Confederate army, whose discipline remained imperfect throughout the conflict. He contrasted with the US forces, which had the small regular army as a model or standard of discipline for at least the volunteer officers and units to imitate...

 

[Stryker65]

Richard P. Weinert wrote an article called The Confederate Regular Army in which he revealed that the Confederates tried to make a Regular Army out of 200-some-odd number of enlisted deserters from the US Army. Didn't turn out so well; half got captured at New Orleans and the other half became part of the 4th Mississippi Cavalry.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Richard P. Weinert wrote an article called The Confederate Regular Army in which he revealed that the Confederates tried to make a Regular Army out of 200-some-odd number of enlisted deserters from the US Army. Didn't turn out so well; half got captured at New Orleans and the other half became part of the 4th Mississippi Cavalry.

No to hijack this thread, but do you know what happened to the enlisted deserters who were captured at New Orleans - were they shot or punished for deserting the US army?

 

[Stryker65]

No to hijack this thread, but do you know what happened to the enlisted deserters who were captured at New Orleans - were they shot or punished for deserting the US army?

Okay, so I just reread Weinert's paper, and I got a couple things wrong.
- First, it was actually 400+ deserters...
- Second, they didn't get captured at New Orleans but rather at Henderson's Hill
- Third, it was the 2nd Mississippi Cavalry.

I'll have to look further into the Henderson's Hill stuff.

 

[Stryker65]

So on Henderson's Hill: I can find no other references on how Edgar's battery was made up of Regular Army deserters, other than Weinert's paper. It seems, however, that the entirety of Edgar's battery was exchanged two months later, so no executions there...