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Enlistment

Blessing of the Sword It was a scene repeated throughout the South, especially in the opening days of the war: the leave-taking could be as brief and simple as a fleeting embrace and a promise to remember and return. Among the leaders of the land, however, departure was often marked by a solemn ceremony with family and faithful friends, and often such ceremonies were capped by the presentation of an ornately engraved edged weapon.

Seldom in American history have men gone forth to war with enthusiasm such as that manifested in 1861. Patriotism reached a fever peak in the days following Fort Sumter's surrender. Blaring bands, fiery speeches, and the excitement in the air brought citizens streaming into recruiting stations.

To make things easier, bounty systems were established to reward love of country with hard cash. Posters offered impressive sums to recruits as the war progressed. But greed was not the prime factor motivating the first soldiers. A tingling current of patriotism pervaded the North. Flag and country were precious words. The Union must be preserved. Treason had reared its head and would be crushed.

The hurly-burly of recruiting was almost too much to resist. Golden-tongued orators exhorted and pleaded as bugle and drum attacked "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and "Dixie." Old campaigners from the Mexican War inflamed the blood. Lawn-clad maidens vowed eternal devotion to the cause.

On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 three-month volunteers. By May 3, after realistic consideration of the nation's needs, he asked for 500,000 men to serve three-year enlistments. The quota was topped by 200,000. With a standing army of only 16,000, and lacking machinery for a large-scale military organization, the federal government was almost helpless as war began. Recruiting was done by the states, and troops were technically state militia at the beginning.

Would-be soldiers were brought in at the company level, a company consisting of fifty to a hundred men. Prominent citizens and civic leaders organized companies, hunting recruits and signing them up on their muster lists until the required number were enrolled. As a reward, the organizer became a captain or lieutenant and his company went off to camp, where it was made part of a regiment. State-created regiments eventually came under federal control.

Uniforms and equipment came from states, community subscription, or wealthy citizens. In due time, government issue reached the soldiers, but local officials carried the burden in the beginning. Some regiments trained in camps near home. Others took train and ship for Washington to protect the capital. Along the way, patriotic ladies from Baltimore and Philadelphia offered refreshments.

By 1863, Lincoln called for a draft. The law was loose and allowed for paid substitution. Conscription never produced a great volume of men for the North, and it led to the horrible draft riots in New York City, in which unwilling draftees touched off a holocaust. Despite the draft, famed regiments like the Pennsylvania Bucktails continued to rely on enlistment, and sent recruiting parties whirling through city streets to drum up new blood.

Excitement in the South, when war began, was probably greater than that which ran through the North. Tension over secession had existed for years, and Southern citizens felt a combination of relief and elation that the issue had finally been resolved. There was no shortage of thoughtful men who decried the disruption of union, but their voices were drowned in the popular clamor for action. Southern patriotism was stirred by the drive for independence. If America had been justified in breaking the bonds laid on her by England, the argument ran, was not the South justified in dissolving unwelcome ties with the North?

Because of desire to flout federal authority, the Southern soldier became a "rebel." Self-determination was not his only spur. The North, he felt, had made war unavoidable and was about to invade his land. Protection of family and fireside were cause enough for enlistments. The host gathered from far and near. Hat-waving civilians greeted green troops making their way through the James River Canal to western Virginia. The city of Winchester, in that state, turned out to welcome Tennessee riflemen. Mississippi volunteers waved their Bowie knives in exultation as they received the salute of General Beauregard, the hero of Fort Sumter.

As in the North, the burden of raising and equipping troops fell on the states. They were given help by cities and municipal organizations. These contributed funds to send forth such splendid units as the Washington Artillery of New Orleans and the Georgia Hussars of Savannah, whose outfit cost $25,000. Most companies were not so fortunate. Lacking funds, they turned to local seamstresses for uniforms and neighborhood artisans for equipment. Volunteer ladies sewed day and night on clothes. Household stocks supplied bedspreads, quilts, buggy robes, and oilcloth piano covers. These were made into blankets and waterproofs for field use.

Many enlistments were short-term at the beginning, and the government was forced into a bounty and furlough system to bring twelve-month men back into the army when their original terms expired. Despite the patriotism of 1861, volunteer troops proved inadequate in number, and by spring of 1862, Davis adopted conscription.

Turning citizens into soldiers was a back-breaking task. Practically none of the volunteers had any military experience and there were few to teach them. West Point graduates, when available, took over instruction duties. Mexican War veterans lent a hand. Discipline was crippled at the start because most volunteers elected their own officers at the company level. Having elevated a former acquaintance, the men were illdisposed to take orders from him. Since he knew no more of the military than the men who elected him, the new lieutenant was forced to tread lightly. The Civil War soldier resented the "military manner" as something appropriate to European martinets but unthinkable when applied to free Americans. An Alabama cotton planter or Iowa farmer was willing to get on with the war but resented anything that smacked of "playing soldier."

Training camps sprang up across the nation and the "awkward squad" became an everyday sight. Close order drill and the housekeeping tasks of army life were taught at first. Use of weapons and rudimentary maneuvers came later. Federal soldiers guarding the capital often found themselves drilling in the shadow of the Washington Monument but most of the western troops went into camp near their points of enlistment.

Volunteers away from home for the first time found camp life fascinating at the start. Sleeping in the open and broiling beef over campfires, away from desk and shop, the recruit felt he had achieved a dream existence. The military rituals of reveille and taps, band music for parades, ceremonies attendant on raising and lowering the flag, were stimulating and impressive. Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognized or more apt to render emotion than the call Taps. Taps (Extinguish Lights or Lights Out)

The glamour faded fast. Guard duty, fatigue details, kitchen police, constant inspections, and fitful weather took their toll of tempers. With the edge of their enthusiasm blunted, the volunteers found ways of avoiding onerous duties and began to complain of things in general. They were becoming soldiers.

As company-grade officers imparted basic training, their superiors embarked on the enormous task of creating armies that could be self-sufficient in the field. They had little but theory to work with, for the nation had never conceived of such forces as were coming into being. Quartermaster organizations to supply food and clothing were basic, as was the ordnance service for weapons and ammunition. Engineers to provide transportation, signalmen to transmit messages, medical personnel to supervise mass sanitation as well as repair wounds - all were mustered into service and assigned to appropriate units.

In this preliminary stage, strong central control was necessary to progress. Such control was exercised by Lincoln and his Cabinet, but denied to Jefferson Davis. "States rights" had led to secession, and the individual states were jealous of their prerogatives. Davis was authorized to receive arms and munitions from Southern states for the Confederacy, provided the supplies should be volunteered by the "consent of the state." Wearing down local political leaders to the point where they sacrificed minor rights for a major cause taxed the strength of the Confederate president and his associates.

Gradually, the armies of both sides emerged as entities. Tables of organization were similar in terminology, North and South. The company was the smallest basic unit in the field, where infantry was concerned (its equivalent in the cavalry was a troop; in the artillery, a battery). Several companies, or their equivalents in other services, made up a regiment. A regiment contained some thousand men in theory. In practice, after losses in battle, regiments had considerably less. A regiment had a number and state designation: the 17th Illinois, the 52nd Tennessee. Regiments were grouped together in varying numbers to create a brigade; brigades were grouped to make a division; divisions were grouped to make a corps.

Several corps created an army, such as the Army of the Potomac or the Army of Northern Virginia. Southern brigades, divisions, and corps were larger numerically than their Northern counterparts. As Northern and Southern armies built up, enormous military reviews were held at Richmond and Washington. Lincoln often attended them with interest; Davis did so less frequently.

John S. Blay. Enlistment. The Civil War; A Pictorial Profile. Bonanza Books, New York, 1958.

Geoffrey C Ward. The Civil War: an illustrated history. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copywright 1990.

Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers Brainard. With the escalating combat and the depletion of the Federal armies' ranks, men from the state of New York answered the call for volunteers in early 1862. The 146th New York Infantry, formed from these volunteers, became known as "Garrard's Tigers." This book is a tribute to the deeds and valor of this regiment.

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