How Did Someone Raise a Regiment?

[Manassas 1861]

I always hear of men raising their own companies or regiments. But what went into raising a regiment, how did they do it?

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

The easy answer is one's wealth and ego.

 

[jepridgen]

Usually, the one doing the raising had wealth, political connections at some level, family connections to someone in power, well known prior military experience, or a combination of these factors (the more the better). Prospective regimental commanders would get authorization from the governor of said state and put out advertisements. They would also usually have men in mind to raise companies. Companies could also be called together as a muster to form a regiment upon being called up by the governor. At that point, elections could decide who was commander.

Companies were usually raised at the local level (county or city) by local militia leaders, community leaders, etc, with the above "qualifications". They could be raised independently to answer a call or as part of an effort to raise a regiment. There was variance to this throughout the war and between north and south.

 

[James Brenner]

In addition, because of the many unaffiliated companies being raised, serving regular army officers could request leaves of absence to accept commissions in the then-forming volunteer regiments.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

I would imagine at least some of the time there would be a community meeting with patriotic speeches and a recruiting officer standing by to sign men up.

A good place to recruit for in rural areas would be the post office or the front porch of the general store. Somewhere everyone had to go.

Pastors who supported the war might also give a sermon encouraging enlistment.

 

[John Winn]

And maybe some free whiskey - like they did at polling places.

 

[Caddo Militia]

The History of Col. Gray's 28th Louisiana Infantry by Jeff McFarlane includes the formation of the regiment. As the days of April, 1862, slowly lengthened, the farmers of north Louisiana had more on their minds than just getting seed planted. The first week of April brought disastrous news with the fall of Island No. 10 and the defeat of the Southern forces at a church named Shiloh. To the south, Union warships were advancing up the Mississippi River and preparing to attack New Orleans. The war was getting closer to home. Independent of each other, community leaders and prominent businessmen in the north Louisiana parishes of Bienville, Bossier, Claiborne, Jackson and Winn began to hold rallies, meetings and get-togethers to recruit volunteers to defend their homes, their state and the South. Crisscrossing Claiborne Parish, Marcus O. Cheatham held rallies in Athens, Haynesville, Homer, Lisbon and Summerfield to recruit members for a company of infantry to be known as the Claiborne Invincibles. At the rally in Lisbon on April 13, 31-year-old Joseph Benjamin Hammonds joined Cheatham's company and left a pregnant wife and three small children at home. On May 10, the newly formed company departed from Homer, having been ordered to report to Monroe where the men were mustered into Confederate service as Company D, with Cheatham as captain. The Marks Guards from Bossier Parish were mustered in as Company B on the 14th and other companies were added upon their arrival. When 10 companies were assembled, they were organized into the 28th Louisiana Infantry, with Henry Gray as colonel, William Walker as lieutenant colonel and Thomas Pool as major. The regiment numbered 902 men. Given the rural nature of North Louisiana, it is not surprising that almost 95 percent of the men of the 28th named their occupation as farmer. Fifteen other occupations were listed, ranging from physician, to teacher, to merchant, to daguerrotypist. The average age of the men in the regiment at the time of their enlistment was 26, with 15 percent being less than age 20 and five percent older than age 35. Following the unit's organization in Monroe, it was ordered to a training camp approximately five miles north of Vienna where it would spend the next two months. Accustomed as most of the men were to a life outdoors, drilling and marching under a hot Louisiana summer sun toughened them for the harsh rigors of military campaigning which lay ahead.

 

[James Brenner]

And I'll bet pretty girls had something to do with encouraging enlistment, too. Reminds me of the movie, The White Feather.

 

[Stryker65]

It worked like this in the Union:

1. President calls for troops, and sends quotas to each state's governor.
2. Governor selects leading men, military or otherwise, and gives each man a temporary colonelcy and the authority to raise a regiment in a certain area (usually representative districts) within a certain amount of time (usually 2-3 months).
3. Temporary colonel selects a recruiting station in a town in the area (or a building if in a big city) and puts out posters. If he's a militia colonel, he might call on members of his militia unit to enlist. If he's a prominent politician, he might call a Town Hall or other big meeting to encourage enlistments.
4. When Temporary Colonel gets enough volunteers, the state recruiting director (usually a Regular Army officer on detached duty) shows up and musters the men into federal service.
5. Governor appoints officers (usually line officers in already-serving units, sometimes Regular Army officers with impressive records, and sometimes the Temporary Colonel if he's done a good job), and regiment goes off to war.

(Alternate 4: If Temporary Colonel reaches the time limit and doesn't have enough volunteers, the number of men he has is folded into a different Temporary Colonel's recruiting effort. The best example of this is the 178th New York Infantry, which took about a year to form and was the product of combining twelve unsuccessful recruiting efforts. Only one of the twelve Temporary Colonels got a commission.)

 

[Trooper "D"]

I always hear of men raising their own companies or regiments. But what went into raising a regiment, how did they do it?

Pleading and bootlicking.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

The best example of this is the 178th New York Infantry, which took about a year to form and was the product of combining twelve unsuccessful recruiting efforts. Only one of the twelve Temporary Colonels got a commission.

How did that work for enlistment purposes? Were some of the guys in that regiment basically twiddling their thumbs for a year or were they able to stay home waiting for the regiment to fill up?

 

[The Ninth Ohio]

In New York for German regiments after a certain point there was a committee which chose the leadership for the next regiment to be raised.

 

[Trooper "D"]

How did that work for enlistment purposes? Were some of the guys in that regiment basically twiddling their thumbs for a year or were they able to stay home waiting for the regiment to fill up?

That is a good question. I am interested if anyone has an answer.
Cheers!
Happy Independence Day!

 

[James Brenner]

It wasn't unusual for a gap to exist between when a regiment began organizing and when it was actually mustered in, usually no more than a couple of months. As recruiting officers enlisted the volunteers, they would send them to camps of rendezvous and instruction. There, the companies would be formed into regiments, sometimes with units from elsewhere in the state. During this period, they may or may not have learned to drill ( School of the Soldier), but they received no pay, uniforms, or equipment until officially mustered into service. In Ohio in 1861, lack of pay created problems, but the governor was able to get authorization for pay once the regiment was half filled. By 1862, I think most of these issues had been resolved.

 

[Stryker65]

How did that work for enlistment purposes? Were some of the guys in that regiment basically twiddling their thumbs for a year or were they able to stay home waiting for the regiment to fill up?

Because their units were raised in smaller areas (primarily "the first seven Senatorial districts of the state"), they most likely stayed in camps in the area (sometimes hotels), with leave to go back home as could be expected. The regiment as a whole was not fully formed until June 20, 1863, and that period of anywhere from 4 to 7 months would be really boring. As it was the combination of twelve different commands, and there was a war on, the recruit commands were mustered in by companies, and so muster dates stretched from June to October, 1863, as did the times when those companies were sent to the front. So even after arriving in Washington DC, some companies waited there for five months, while others waited only a week before being sent to Mississippi.

 

[James Brenner]

I mis-spoke a little bit ago. Federal policy in 1861 required a company to be completely full before it could be mustered into service and field and staff officers could not be mustered until the regiment was complete. This is particularly true of the 3rd through 13th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Ohio's initial 3-year units. Reorganization of these "new" (they had initially volunteered for 90 days) regiments could take weeks, and all the men could do was wait without pay, qualified officers or clothing - to include blankets. In mid-August 1861, Governor Dennison was able to get the regulation modified so that a lieutenant could muster in with half a company.

That helped somewhat, but Dennison persuaded the War Department to appoint a lieutenant at the beginning of the organization process and allow for mustering-in as soon as a volunteer was recruited. Dennison also received authorization to muster in the quartermaster, adjutant, surgeon, and assistant surgeon prior to completion of a regiment's organization. (Source: Harry L. Coles, Ohio Forms an Army)