Zack
First Sergeant
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2017
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
What did officers do if a regiment was reduced by casualties to an odd number of men? How would they create the files? Would one man be left hanging in a company?
In the Confederate Army it was not uncommon to combine regiments. If you look through Dyer's Compendium you will find examples of that.What did officers do if a regiment was reduced by casualties to an odd number of men? How would they create the files? Would one man be left hanging in a company?
Off hand I would think a fifteen man company reduced to less then a platoon would just be merged into another rifle company. As far as what was the norm at the time in the above situation I would have to defer to other posters I.e. @unionblue @johan_steele @novushomus @Saphroneth @67th Tigers .Let’s say you had a company with 15 soldiers. Deployed in line of battle it would look like this:
1111111
11111111
Or this:
11111111
1111111
Either way you’ve got someone dangling on the end. Would they just have the dangling soldier at the end? Would he be in the front or rear rank?
The odd number man would be in the front rank, same as if in action the front rank man falls the rear rank man steps up to fill the hole.Let’s say you had a company with 15 soldiers. Deployed in line of battle it would look like this:
1111111
11111111
Or this:
11111111
1111111
Either way you’ve got someone dangling on the end. Would they just have the dangling soldier at the end? Would he be in the front or rear rank?
What they actually did was that the tactical companies were equalized. The administrative companies were permanent, but the tactical ones were equal because that's what they're for - they define a tenth of the tactical battalion and all the manoeuvres are built on the assumption that the companies are equivalent.Off hand I would think a fifteen man company reduced to less then a platoon would just be merged into another rifle company.
What did officers do if a regiment was reduced by casualties to an odd number of men? How would they create the files? Would one man be left hanging in a company?
They started doing this after Shiloh. Off top of my head, I know the 13th and 15th Arkansas were both merged after the battle, and neither would serve unconsolidated for the rest of the war. And they kept doing this with other units, like the 6th and 7th Arkansas, the 1st and 27th Tennessee, the 6th & 9th Tennessee, etc. After casualties around Atlanta and then after the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, entire brigades of regiments were consolidated.toward the end of the war because of a reduction in numbers.
They started doing this after Shiloh. Off top of my head, I know the 13th and 15th Arkansas were both merged after the battle, and neither would serve unconsolidated for the rest of the war. And they kept doing this with other units, like the 6th and 7th Arkansas, the 1st and 27th Tennessee, the 6th & 9th Tennessee, etc. After casualties around Atlanta and then after the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, entire brigades of regiments were consolidated.
This was common more out west than with Lee in the East because of the amount of replacements sent to defend Richmond, as well as the zeal carried by the Army of Northern Virginia, hence why its not until 1864, when the manpower pool has completely dried up, that Lee has to start doing some merging. For example, after the casualties suffered at Gettysburg, Lee combines the former brigades of Archer and Heth/Brockenbrough together (eventually, they would be split and the remnant of Archer's Tennesseans brigade joined by the remnant of Bushrod Johnson's old brigade). Then, after casualties at the Wilderness and especially after the disaster at Spotsylvania, the 2 Louisiana Tiger Brigades were merged into a single brigade, and so too were the remaining Virginians of E. Johnson's division. Other then this, though, I do not know of any other mergers were done within Lee's Army, at least those where the unit retained both identities, as it did in the West.
It is actually a complex question.What did officers do if a regiment was reduced by casualties to an odd number of men? How would they create the files? Would one man be left hanging in a company?