Reenlistment Union Army

pgraves

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Dec 27, 2010
Location
Huntsville, Alabama
My ggrandfather reenlisted in Oct 64 at the end of his original 3 year enlistment with the Purnell Legion and was tranferred to the 1st MD Inf Regt. He was from Cecil County, MD. Would he have been paid a bounty to take the place of someone who would have been drafted from that county? Aside from such a bounty, did the federal government pay a reeinlistment bonus?
 
The answer to both your questions is yes but the principal source of enlistment bounties came from the states who supported the regiments in which one enlisted. Federal plans went from giving re-enlistment furloughs, supplying Zoauve uniforms to payment of bounties. Stanton, in one of his panics, gave MOHs for a regiment to extend their enlistments. Draft dodgers , including Teddy Roosevelt's Father and Grover Cleveland, usually paid more than the $400 legal price for hiring a substitute. How many of these substitutes were veterans is not known but I doubt if they were significant in number.
 
In 1864 there was a large number of regiments that were coming to the end of their three year enlistments and the federal government did take steps to promote their reenlistment. There was a $400 federal bonus and a 30 day furlough offered to all reenlistees. In addition the soldier got the title 'veteran volunteer' and there was a chevron that they wore on their uniform. If 3/4ths of a regiment reenlisted then they went home on leave as a group to recruit additional members, and they retained their regimental number and the title 'veteran volunteer' when they returned. States tossed in additional bonuses but they varied.

If your relative reenlisted in 1864 then he probably got all the incentives that the federal government offered as well as whatever Maryland provided. And his transfer to the 1st Maryland could have been at his request. Purnell Legion was pretty much a homeguard organization througout the war while the 1st Maryland had a battle record that rivaled any other union regiment you would care to mention. He could have been looking for more action that the Purnell Legion provided.
 
In 1864 there was a large number of regiments that were coming to the end of their three year enlistments and the federal government did take steps to promote their reenlistment. There was a $400 federal bonus and a 30 day furlough offered to all reenlistees. In addition the soldier got the title 'veteran volunteer' and there was a chevron that they wore on their uniform. If 3/4ths of a regiment reenlisted then they went home on leave as a group to recruit additional members, and they retained their regimental number and the title 'veteran volunteer' when they returned. States tossed in additional bonuses but they varied.

If your relative reenlisted in 1864 then he probably got all the incentives that the federal government offered as well as whatever Maryland provided. And his transfer to the 1st Maryland could have been at his request. Purnell Legion was pretty much a homeguard organization througout the war while the 1st Maryland had a battle record that rivaled any other union regiment you would care to mention. He could have been looking for more action that the Purnell Legion provided.
KeyserSoze,
I am looking for some more information on the re-enlistment of Union soldiers beginning in December of 1863 and running into 1864. My great-grandfather did re-enlist with the 1st NY Lt. Artillery, Battery B. The only account I have seen is from a memoir written by a fellow soldier claiming that 75 of the available 100 men re-enlisted, which seems like a very high percentage to me. They had a 4 gun battery and the 100 available may be correct or close as they had not yet recovered from Gettysburg and the fall campaigns. If you have any additional thoughts on this or sources to recommend, please do. Much appreciated and thanks for listening. sg
 
Great questions and some very informative answers. It never ceases to amaze me the depth of knowledge of many of the forum members.
 
In 1864 there was a large number of regiments that were coming to the end of their three year enlistments and the federal government did take steps to promote their reenlistment. There was a $400 federal bonus and a 30 day furlough offered to all reenlistees. In addition the soldier got the title 'veteran volunteer' and there was a chevron that they wore on their uniform. If 3/4ths of a regiment reenlisted then they went home on leave as a group to recruit additional members, and they retained their regimental number and the title 'veteran volunteer' when they returned. States tossed in additional bonuses but they varied.

If your relative reenlisted in 1864 then he probably got all the incentives that the federal government offered as well as whatever Maryland provided. And his transfer to the 1st Maryland could have been at his request. Purnell Legion was pretty much a homeguard organization througout the war while the 1st Maryland had a battle record that rivaled any other union regiment you would care to mention. He could have been looking for more action that the Purnell Legion provided.

This happened with the 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery A. At the end of their 3 year enlistment, they were offered a bonus and 30 day furlough to reenlist - a majority did, and during the furlough they recruited to fill in for the few that did not reenlist.
 
There were a couple of factors at play here. First, the federal government offered incentives for the veteran (experienced) soldiers to stay in the field and extend their enlistments. As mentioned above, it was $400 and a 30 day furlough. But keep in mind that the states, counties and municipalities also had draft quotas to meet. Some offered enlistment incentives of their own, such as a $300 bounty from the state, $100 from the county, and $50 from the city if one voluntarily enlisted and reduced the number of men who needed to be drafted. The federal government allowed reenlisted veterans to be credited to local draft quotas, and some of the localities paid their enlistment bonuses to the veterans as well if they reenlisted and were credited to their quota. Look through the records for any unit with a large number of reenlistments and you will find several disputes about where reenlisted soldiers were credited.
 
In 1864 there was a large number of regiments that were coming to the end of their three year enlistments and the federal government did take steps to promote their reenlistment. There was a $400 federal bonus and a 30 day furlough offered to all reenlistees. In addition the soldier got the title 'veteran volunteer' and there was a chevron that they wore on their uniform. If 3/4ths of a regiment reenlisted then they went home on leave as a group to recruit additional members, and they retained their regimental number and the title 'veteran volunteer' when they returned. States tossed in additional bonuses but they varied.

If your relative reenlisted in 1864 then he probably got all the incentives that the federal government offered as well as whatever Maryland provided. And his transfer to the 1st Maryland could have been at his request. Purnell Legion was pretty much a homeguard organization througout the war while the 1st Maryland had a battle record that rivaled any other union regiment you would care to mention. He could have been looking for more action that the Purnell Legion provided.
In the Fall of 1864, the infantry of the Pernell Legion, which had become an independent regt., was transferred to the 1st MD. They had been serving with the AoP during the Overland Campaign.
 
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