Union Recruits

David Knight

First Sergeant
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Feb 26, 2012
Location
Pontefract, Yorkshire.
After years of reading about the Civil War and all the regiments named and numbered for the states they represent.

I assume that there were recruits from the parts of the US that were not states in the 1860's so which battalions were they allocated to? Were they recruited into regular battalions of the US Army?

Also wondering why the USCT battalions did not have a state attribution?

Any help greatly appreciated.
 
Not sure if it is what you are looking for since California was a state at the time of the Civil War, but there was for a time a California Brigade with the Army of the Potomac, though the majority of the recruits came from the city of Philadelphia. After the battle of Ball's Bluff however Pennsylvania claimed the brigade, the regiments were renamed to Pennsylvania regiments, and the California Brigade became the Philadelphia Brigade.

Their brightest moment in the war was at the Angle on the 3rd Day of Gettysburg, where the 69th and 72nd Pennsylvania (formerly the 2nd and 3rd California) held out against elements of Armistead's brigade in bitter fighting.


The California Brigade
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In West Philadelphia Born and Raised
Daniel Landsman

When the Civil War broke out, residents of the west coast wanted to have a presence in the eastern theater. However, with nearly 3,000 miles separating the state of California and the Army of the Potomac and no railroad connecting the west coast to the east, sending a brigade of infantrymen across the wild country would be an ambitious goal. Instead, a group of Californians asked Oregon Senator Edward Baker to head east and raise a brigade in the name of California.

senator-edward-baker_0.jpg

Oregon Senator Edward Baker went to Pennsylvania to raise a brigade in the name of California.
Library of Congress
In April 1861, Baker was commissioned by Abraham Lincoln to raise a California brigade in Philadelphia. The first regiment Baker organized, the 1st California, consisted of Philadelphians and was placed under immediate charge of Colonel Isaac Wistar, who had been a ranger in California during the 1850s. By October Baker’s brigade had grown to its full size, consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th California Infantry.

The 3rd California had another name at the time of conception. Known as the Philadelphia Fire Zouaves, the men of the 3rd California were easily recognizable by their uniforms, which were inspired by the Zouaves of the French army. Dressed in light blue pants cut wide with red stripes and a cut away jacket with a row of bright blue buttons, the Philadelphia Fire Zouaves drew considerable attention as they marched through the streets of Philadelphia.

The rest here:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/california-brigade
 
After years of reading about the Civil War and all the regiments named and numbered for the states they represent.

I assume that there were recruits from the parts of the US that were not states in the 1860's so which battalions were they allocated to? Were they recruited into regular battalions of the US Army?

Also wondering why the USCT battalions did not have a state attribution?

Any help greatly appreciated.

I am not sure what you are asking. Are you asking about troops from US Territories? If so then each Territory would need to be studied to see what occurred there. I will start with Oregon.

Oregon had considerable numbers of people from Southern states but remained loyal to the Union. Still recruitment for the Union was slow and Oregon only formed a cavalry regiment and an infantry regiment. The infantry regiment formed fairly late in the War. The War Department supplied uniforms, arms, and equipment. Olney's Cavalry Company was also called into Federal service but appears to have been equipped by the citizens of The Dalles.

The regiments raised by Oregon was used exclusively to keep hostile Indians in check, guard overland trails, guard military poets and to counter operations by pro-Confederate bands and lawless elements. This does not exclude the possibility that some residents of Oregon did not join regiments in other places (California?).
 
The Washington Territoral legislature od 1861-62 was Democratic and did not overly support the Union. In the end only one US Volunteer Infantry Regiments was raised and all but four of its companies were recruited in California. They seem to have performed much the same as the Utah regiments.

Remember the Federal Government withdrew Federal troops from the territories. The Federal property and the job those pre War soldiers were doing in those territories sill needed to be guarded and maintained. The limited manpower in the territories allowed them to replace the Federal troops that had been withdrawn but did not provide many troops to leave the territories for other service.
 
Most of the colored units with state designations were organized before the USCT was formally created, and accordingly were redesignated when they became part of the later. Also the majority of those early units were Union formations from Confederate states, notably Louisiana.
 
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