Chapter II: Part 2

We may test the accuracy of this estimate of theirs briefly as follows: The total military population of the 11 seceded States in 1861 was 984,475, not taking into account that about one-fourth of our territory and population became unavailable for recruiting purposes within one year of the breaking out of the war. If we add one-tenth for the extension of the military age by Confederate law down to 17 and up to 50, we have 98,447; and, if we add 12 per cent. for youths reaching military age in four years, we have 118,137, aggregating 1,201,518. But from this we must deduct, as military writers agree, 20 per cent. for men exempt for physical and mental disability, viz., 240,303, which leaves available for military duty in the four years of the war, through the whole extent of the Southern territory, 961,215. Now, if we accept the figures of the State historians, we have 935,000 enrolled in the Confederate Army; and the reports of the United States War Department state that, exclusive of West Virginia, there were 55,000 soldiers in the Union Army from these same Southern States, which makes an aggregate of 990,000 men furnished to both armies, which, it will be observed, is nearly 30,000 more than the entire military population! Without going any further, this shows that there has been serious error in the above estimates of Confederate enrollment.

But there are several other matters to be considered. In the first place, by the spring of 1862 at least one-fourth of the territory of the seceded States was under the control of the United States Army; and, therefore, that much of the territory was not available as a source of supply for the Confederate Army. This cuts off nearly one-fourth of the military strength. Calculated on this basis, the writers alluded to make the aggregate of Southern soldiers more than 200,000 in excess of the entire military population!

Again, the conscript law, drastic as it was, was very imperfectly executed, as those in charge of it at the time amply testified. The opposition of the Governors of Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina to the conscript law will be remembered. We must also remember that thousands of men were employed on the railroads, in the Government departments and in various branches of manufacture necessary for the support of the army and the people, and also for agricultural labor. It must also be remembered that there were thousands of men in all the Confederate States exempted by State authority.

If these things are considered, it becomes plain that the previously quoted estimates of the several States of the Confederacy cannot possibly be accepted as at all near the real facts.

Let us now compare these estimates of the Southern writers quoted with the military population of some of the States:

The military population of Virginia in
1861, exclusive of West Virginia, is
estimated by Livermore at 116,000
Add one-tenth for extension of military
age down to seventeen and up to fifty 11,600
Add twelve per cent. for youths maturing
to seventeen in four years 13,920
-------
Total 141,520
Deduct exempts for physical and mental
defects, twenty per cent 28,304
-------
Available military population 113,216

But the representative writer in "_The South_" puts the number of men furnished by Virginia to the Southern armies at 175,000, which is 61,784 more than the available military population! Could there be a more palpable _reductio ad absurdum_?[13]

Besides, as I have shown, in Virginia and all the States there were large numbers of men exempt as State officers. This considerably increases the twenty per cent. which Colonel Fox says are in all countries exempted from military service.

Take next Florida:

Her military population in 1861 was 15,739
Add one-tenth for extension of military
age down to seventeen and up to fifty 1,573
Add twelve per cent. for youths attaining
seventeen years in four years 1,888
-------
19,200
Deduct exempts, twenty per cent. 3,840
-------
Available military population 15,360

But the writer quoted by Mr. Adams states that Florida furnished 15,000 to the Confederate States army, and the War Office records show that she furnished the Union army 1,270; making a total of 16,270, which is 900 more than the entire available military population!

Georgia.--Military population in 1861
was 111,005
Add one-tenth for extension of military
age down to seventeen and up to fifty 11,100
Add twelve per cent. for youths attaining
seventeen years in four years 13,320
-------
Total 135,425
Deduct twenty per cent. for exempts 23,085
-------
Available military population 112,340

But the alleged enrollment in the Confederate States army is 120,000, which is 7,110 more than the available military population, making no allowance for the failure of the conscript officers to put into the army every man liable to military duty, and none for the thousands exempt from service.

North Carolina.--Military population
was 115,369
Add one-tenth for the extension of military
age down to seventeen and up to
fifty 11,500
Add twelve per cent. for youths maturing
to seventeen years in four years 13,800
-------
Total 140,669
Deduct twenty per cent. for exempts 28,133
-------
Leaving available 112,536

Alleged Confederate enrollment 129,000; furnished to the Union army, 3,156; total, 132,156; which is 19,620 more than the available military population, although in one-fourth of the State the conscript law could not be executed, and although many thousands were exempted from service by State law.

South Carolina.--Military population 55,046
Add one-tenth as above 5,504
Add twelve per cent. as above 6,605
-------
Total 67,155
Deduct twenty per cent. 13,231
-------
Leaving available 53,924

The alleged Confederate enrollment was 75,000, which is more than 21,000 in excess of the total number of men available for service, though here also there were thousands of State exemptions.

Mississippi.--Military population 70,295
Add one-tenth for extension of military
age 7,029
Add twelve per cent. for youths maturing
to military age in four years 8,435
-------
Total 85,759
Deduct twenty per cent. for exempts 17,151
-------
Leaving available 68,608

The alleged Confederate enrollment was 70,000, and furnished to the United States army 515, which is nearly 2,000 more than the total military population, taking no account of the large number of exempts and of the failure to execute the conscript act.

Alabama.--Military population was 99,667
Add one-tenth for the extension of military
age down to seventeen and up to
fifty 11,500
Add twelve per cent. for youths maturing
to seventeen years in four years 11,796
-------
Total 121,959
Deduct twenty per cent. for exempts 24,391
-------
Leaving available 97,568

The alleged Confederate enrollment was 90,000, and furnished to the Union army, 2,576, making a total of 92,576; which is within 5,000 of the total available, taking no account of the large number exempted for State officers and other causes, and taking no account, either, of the number of men who could not be reached by the conscript officers.

Tennessee.--Military population 159,353
Add one-tenth as before 15,935
Add twelve per cent. as before 19,222
-------
Total 194,510
Deduct twenty per cent. 38,902
-------
Leaving available 155,608

The alleged Confederate enrollment was 115,000, and the State furnished the Union army 31,092, a total of 146,092, which is within 9,000 of the total available military population, without taking account of the men not reached by the conscript officers, and, further, taking no account of the fact that so large a part of the State was in occupation of the Federal armies.

As to Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, it is enough to say that they were in that Trans-Mississippi Department of which the Confederate Government lost control in July, 1863. Hence, it is not surprising that even those inflated estimates of the number of men furnished the Confederate army fall far short of the estimated military population. In Arkansas, however, the estimate comes within 5,000 of the total available,--58,289 out of 63,665.

In the light of the facts just stated we must conclude that the Southern writers quoted by General Adams have, in their zeal for the honor and glory of their several States, greatly overestimated the number of men contributed by the same to the Confederate armies. This would be more probable _a priori_, than that the leading men in the Confederate army and Government who were at the sources of information, and who ought to have been well informed, should have so enormously underestimated the strength of the armies of the South; but the tests to which we have now submitted the figures given by these State historians demonstrate their error beyond the possibility of doubt. They must be cut down by several hundred thousand. A large element of this error is to be found, as I have suggested, in the failure to observe the great number of re-enlistments that undoubtedly took place, especially in 1862, when the terms of service of nearly all the Confederate regiments expired. This duplication, in the opinion of the military Secretary of the United States, reduces the total by twenty per cent.

As a sample of how errors creep into reports of numbers, it is stated (W. R., ser. iv., vol. iii, p. 96) as to a certain number of conscripts, "We find some men were reported three times." And again (_Id._ p. 99) that the "Adjutant-General's report contains an error in which he has accounted for 14,000 men twice."

Let it be observed, finally, that when we have reached a reasonably probable conclusion of the men enlisted in the Confederate armies during the four years of war, we must then proceed to ascertain, if we can, the probable number of these enlisted men who were _detailed_ for various duties and occupations ancillary to the support of the government and the army. And only when this number has been deducted from the total enlistments will we have ascertained the probable number of men actually serving with the colors and making up the fighting force of the Confederacy.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE BORDER STATES TO THE ARMIES OF THE CONFEDERACY

It is a difficult problem to determine with any degree of probability how many men were contributed to the armies of the Confederacy by the Border States. The factors by which it might be solved do not seem to be within reach. At least, I have not been able to possess myself of them. There lies before me a printed "List of Regiments and Battalions in the Confederate States' Army, 1861-1865." According to this there were furnished by Missouri 21 battalions and 79 regiments; by Kentucky 16 battalions and 26 regiments; by Maryland 2 infantry regiments and 4 battalions, 4 batteries; also the Maryland Line, of various arms. But, upon inspection, it appears that this "Maryland Line" was formed of those regiments and battalions and batteries previously enumerated.

General Charles Francis Adams, following Colonel Livermore, tells us there were 238 full regiments from the Border States in the Confederate army, besides 132 lesser organizations. On the other hand, Colonel Fox, in his well-known work, "Regimental Losses in the Civil War," credits the Border States with having sent into the Confederate army only 21 regiments and 4 battalions of infantry; 9 regiments and 5 battalions of cavalry, and 11 batteries of light artillery. As to numbers, he estimates them at "over 19,000" (p. 552).

These estimates and numbers of Colonel Fox look strange beside the estimate of 117,000 and 125,000, as given by some Southern writers. We have already stated that in "The South in the Building of the Nation," Maryland is credited with having furnished 20,000 men to the Confederate army. How wide of the mark this statement is, may be seen by inspecting the following total of organizations of Maryland men in the Confederacy:

INFANTRY
First Maryland Infantry, number of men 782
Second Maryland Infantry 627
Company B, Twenty-first Virginia, Colonel
L. Clarke 109
One company, Thirteenth Virginia Lanier
Guards, estimated 75
One company, Sixty-first and Sixty-second
Virginia, estimated 65
-----
Total Infantry 1,658

CAVALRY
First Maryland, Colonel Ridgeley Brown 74
Company K, First Virginia; transferred in
August, 1864, to First Maryland 197
Lieutenant Harry Gilmour Battalion,
estimated 250
Colonel Sturgis Davis Battalion, estimated 100
One Maryland Company in Seventh Virginia,
estimated 75
One Maryland Company in Thirty-fifth Virginia,
Colonel Elijah White 103
One Maryland Company in Forty-third Virginia,
Colonel Mosby, estimated 75
-----
Total cavalry 674

ARTILLERY
Colonel Snowden Andrews 204
Second Maryland, Captain Griffin 197
Third Maryland, Colonel Rowan, Captain
Ritter 350
In Western Army, Fourth Maryland,
Chesapeake, Captain Brown, Captain
Chew 137
Captain Brethed, Horse Artillery (a Maryland
battalion, though mustered into service
as Virginian) 75
Baltimore Heavy Artillery, estimated 100
Marylanders at Charleston, South Carolina,
estimated 225
-----
Total artillery 1,288
-----
Grand total 4,580

These figures are compiled from the muster rolls, with the exception of those "estimated." It is to be observed that a very large proportion of the men in the Second Maryland Infantry were those who had previously served in the First Maryland Infantry; so that there is a good deal of duplication there by reënlistment. On the other hand, there were many individual Marylanders in various regiments accredited to other States. We have also the names of 137 Marylanders who were officers in various other commands.

The estimate above alluded to, of 20,000 Marylanders in the Confederate service, rests apparently upon no better basis than an oral statement of General Cooper to General Trimble, in which he said he believed that the muster rolls would show that about 20,000 men in the Confederate army had given the State of Maryland as the place of their _nativity_. How many were _citizens of Maryland_ when they enlisted does not appear. Obviously many _natives_ of Maryland were doubtless in 1861 _citizens of other States_, and could not therefore be reckoned among the soldiers furnished by Maryland to the Confederate armies.

As to the estimates furnished by writers in "_The South_" concerning the number of men furnished the Confederacy from the Border States, viz., Kentucky, 30,000; Missouri, 60,000; West Virginia, 7,000; the same unintentional exaggeration doubtless exists here as I have shown in regard to the numbers alleged to have been furnished by the seceded States. Unfortunately it is not possible to be definite in stating the numbers furnished by the Border States. When we observe the discrepancy between Colonel Fox's 19,000, President Tyler's 117,000, and Colonel Livermore's 143,000, it becomes clear that the whole subject is involved in uncertainty. I incline to the opinion that 50,000 is nearer the actual numbers in the Southern army from these Border States than 100,000; but for the sake of argument I leave the number 75,000, as stated above.[14]

Before concluding this branch of the subject I would call attention to the following remark made by Mr. Charles Francis Adams in his "Military Studies," p. 282. He says "that the States named [meaning Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia] sympathizing, as at the time the Southern authorities claimed, most deeply with the Confederacy should have furnished over 316,000 recruits to the Federal army, and only 117,000 to that of the Confederacy is, to say the least, deserving of remark,--it calls for explanation." Again he says: "It would be not unnatural to assume that these States furnished an equal number of recruits to the Confederacy." (_Id._ p. 238.)

This statement is sufficiently amazing. On the contrary, would it not be most _unnatural_ to assume that these four States, occupied and controlled from end to end by the Federal armies, should have furnished as many men to the Confederate army as to the Federal army, notwithstanding the enormous difficulties of passing through the lines? Although there was much sentiment favorable to the Confederacy in these four States, I fear there cannot be any doubt that the preponderance of sentiment was in favor of the Union; and he must be blind who does not recognize the fact that the difficulties in the way of a young man desiring to enlist in the Southern army, while his State was occupied by the Federal forces, were enormously great.

CONCLUSION

There are two remarks of General Adams to which, before closing, I should like to call attention. He states that the foreigners in the Union army were more than counterbalanced by our drastic conscription ("Military Studies," p. 246). Now it appears from official reports that there were 494,000 foreigners in the Union army, so that he must have supposed that the conscription law produced about 500,000 soldiers. It actually produced, east of the Mississippi, 81,992 men from February, 1862, when the first law was passed, to February, 1865. We cannot suppose that the additions from the States west of the Mississippi--Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas--could have been even one-fourth as numerous. The military population was about one-third as large, but by 1863 that territory was overrun by the Federal armies. But if we put these at 20,000, we have only 101,992, instead of the half million which Mr. Adams supposes. And if we should add the 76,000 men which the conscription officers, magnifying their diligence, _guessed_ had been driven into the army by enlistment to avoid conscription we would then have only 177,993.

Again, General Adams says:

"As respects mere numbers, it is capable of demonstration that at the close of the struggle the preponderance was on the side of the Confederacy, and distinctly so. The Union at that time had, it is said, a million men on its muster rolls.... It might possibly have been able to put 500,000 men into the fighting line. On the other side ... the fighting strength of the Confederacy cannot have been less than two-thirds its normal strength. The South should have been able to muster, on paper, 900,000 men." (_Idem_, pp. 241-2.)

Compare this statement of what the South _should have been able_ to muster with the consolidated abstract of the latest returns of the Confederate army showing what she _was able_ to muster. This is the record:

Officers and men in _all_ the Confederate armies, February, 1865, aggregate for duty, 160,000; aggregate present and absent, 358,000 (W. R., iv. iii. p. 1182).

General Marcus Wright, an expert authority, estimates the strength of the Confederate army _at the close of the war_ thus:

Present 157,613
Absent 117,387
-------
Total 275,000

And of the Union army thus:

Present 797,807
Absent 202,700
---------
Total 1,000,507

If General Adams is right, one cannot but ask, where were the other 542,000 men, over and above the 358,000 shown by the official report alluded to have been on the rolls? The 90,000 men in Northern prisons will not help the situation, for they were not exactly available as part of the "fighting strength of the Confederacy." Compare also the fact that there were mustered out of the Union army at the end of the war 1,034,000 men; and there were, in all the Confederacy, surrendered Confederate soldiers to the number of 174,000 only, and this included all who were paroled, whether in hospital, or at their homes, as well as those in arms.

* * * * *

In conclusion I am reminded of the words of General Lee in a letter to General Jubal A. Early, shortly after the war, "IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO GET THE WORLD TO UNDERSTAND THE ODDS AGAINST WHICH WE FOUGHT."

Still I cannot help thinking that the statements of the adjutant-general of the Confederate armies in his official reports, and the testimony of General Lee himself in regard to the numbers in his army, will ultimately be considered by the world more reliable than the _a priori_ estimates of even so careful and honest an investigator as Colonel Livermore.

When immediately after the surrender at Appomattox General Meade asked General Lee how many men he had in his army, the latter replied that he had on his entire front, from Richmond to Petersburg, not more than 29,000 muskets. "Then," said General Meade, "we had five to your one." On the whole I think we may still claim for the armies of the Southern Confederacy the encomium penned by Virgil nearly two thousand years ago:

"Exigui numero, sed bello vivida virtus."

POSTWORD

The arguments adduced in the preceding pages are believed by the writer to be valid and sufficient to refute the conclusion reached by Colonel Livermore, the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, and others, that there was in the Confederacy a "minimum of 1,160,000 effectives, to which we must add 117,000 men from the Border States, giving a total Confederate strength of 1,277,000." I have not attempted to give definite figures as to the actual enrollment in the Southern armies. My argument is of necessity largely based on the probabilities of the situation,--it does not profess to be demonstrative, or final. But "probability is the guide of life"; and I believe I have blazed a path by which future students of the subject, having before them the muster rolls of the Confederate army will be able to reach more definite conclusions in this important subject--conclusions, however, not seriously at variance with those stated in these pages.[15]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Gen. Adams says: "Computations based on the census returns tend to show that at the very lowest estimate the increase of time of military service would represent an increase of at least 30 per cent. in effectives." Id. p. 284.

[2] Our critic has made an error here: 12 per cent, of 1,000,000, i.e., 120,000, so that his aggregate should be 1,420,000.

[3] See Merivale's History of the Romans, III, 416, and IV, 298 and 343, and V. 386.

[4] In the first edition of Col. Henderson's work, cited above, he actually stated that the element of foreigners in the Southern armies was almost as large as in the Northern armies!

[5] Gen. Marcus J. Wright puts this number at only 65,387. But cf. Mansfield's Life of Grant, p. 338.

[6] See a valuable discussion of our subject in a pamphlet entitled "Acts of the Republican Party," by Cazenove G. Lee, who wrote under the _nom de plume_ of "C. Gardner," Winchester, Va., 1906, pp. 59-69.

[7] I acted as adjutant of the Third Brigade A. N. Va., in the Gettysburg campaign. Even then, in the third year of the war, and in that best equipped army, the returns showed only 1480 muskets to 1941 men in the brigade. One-fourth of the command was without arms.

[8] "The Government, at the opening of 1864, estimated that the Conscription would place four hundred thousand men in the field." Lee did not share this belief. By the end of the year it was, in his opinion, "diminishing, rather than increasing, the strength of his army."--Letter of Dec. 31, 1864. See "R. E. Lee, Man and Soldier," p. 591, by Thos. Nelson Page.

[9] Thus, to quote that able and expert authority Gen. Marcus J. Wright: Battles around Richmond (1862), Lee, 80,835; McClellan, 115,249. At Antietam, Confederates, 35,255; Federals, 87,164. At Fredericksburg, Confederates, 78,110; Federals, 110,000. At Chancellorsville, Confederates, 57,212; Federals, 131,661. At Gettysburg, Confederates, 64,000; Federals, 95,000. At the Wilderness, Confederates, 63,981; Federals, 141,160.

[10] A consideration of the portentous difference between the number of men borne on the regimental rolls and the number actually available on the battlefield, suggests that it may be in large degree accounted for by the number of men detailed for service in the industrial army.

Thus in the army of Northern Virginia just before Fredericksburg, Nov. 20, 1862:

Aggregate present and absent 153,773
Aggregate present for duty 86,569
Soon after Gettysburg:
1863: Present and absent 109,915
Present for duty 50,184
Before Wilderness campaign:
1864: Present and absent 98,246
Present for duty 62,925
On reaching Petersburg, July 10, 1864:
Present and absent 135,805
Present for duty 68,844

As to exemptions it was customary to exempt farmers who engaged to raise a certain amount of corn.

Again the practice was extensively pursued of granting furloughs for recruiting service. Such men continued to be borne on the rolls of their commands in the field.

[11] Aggregate available military population 792,000, of which 350,000 in the army January, 1862. Above figure is 2-1/2 per cent. of remainder, viz. 442,000.

[12] Col. Livermore's method of computation, if applied to the true available number 760,000, with additions and deductions noted above, yields a very similar result, about 790,000. See his book, p. 23, but note on p. 21 an error of calculation, where instead of 265,000 he should give 246,872.

[13] The ten per cent. addition for extension of military age is too high an estimate in this and the following tables, when we remember that the conscript law lowering the age to seventeen and raising it to fifty did not go into operation until February 17, 1864, by which time the territory of the Confederacy was greatly contracted.

[14] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1912. DEAR DR. MCKIM, I think your estimate of 50,000 as representing the total number of troops furnished by the Border States is about correct. It can never be definitely ascertained. Very truly yours, MARCUS J. WRIGHT.

[15] I have not in this Monograph taken account of an argument sometimes put forward, drawn from the alleged fact that the census of 1890 showed that there were then living 432,020 Confederate and 980,724 United States soldiers (or including sailors and marines 1,034,073). But the Report on Population, 1890, Part II, p. clxxii, states that the figures first quoted are approximate only, and "have not been subjected to careful revision and comparison." No positive conclusion, therefore, can be drawn from them. Their unreliability is shown by the fact that at that very time the War Department estimated that there were then living 1,341,332 Federal soldiers.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Corrections

Following is a list of significant typographical errors that have been corrected.

- Page 70, repeated "to" eliminated (alluded to have been).

- Footnote 10, "Fredricksburg" changed to "Fredericksburg" (just before Fredericksburg).

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