ARMIES were the largest of the "operational organizations." In the case of the Federal forces, these generally took their name from their department. "The Federals followed a general policy of naming their armies for the rivers near which they operated; the Confederates named theirs from the states or regions in which they were active. Thus the Federals had an Army of the Tennessee, not to be confused with the Confederate Army of Tennessee." Actually, it would appear that the armies took their names from the departments in which they operated (or were originally formed), and these departments took their names from rivers in the case of the Federals and from states or regions in the case of the Confederates. There were no firm rules on this matter of names, however: there was a Confederate Army of the Potomac; and the Confederate Army of (the) Mississippi is referred to in the Official Records about as often with "the" as without. These armies were at least 16 on the Union side and 23 on the Confederate side.

CORPS were composed of two or more divisions. Standard organization on the Union side was 45 infantry regiments and nine batteries of light artillery. There were about five regiments to a brigade, about three brigades to a division, and about three divisions in a corps. The South did not adopt the corps organization until 6 Nov.'62.

DIVISIONS were formed of two or more brigades. At Chancellorsville the Federal divisions averaged 6,200 and the Confederate divisions 8,700 officers and men.

BRIGADES were made up of two or more regiments and two or more brigades comprised a division. At Chancellorsville, according to Bigelow, Federal brigades averaged 4.7 regiments and about 2,000 men, while on the Confederate side they averaged 4.5 regiments and about 1,850 men. Northern brigades were officially designated by number within their division. In the western armies, however, this convention was not adopted until 1863. Nelson's 4th Div., Army of the Ohio, at Shiloh was composed of the 10th, 19th, and 22d brigades. Sheridan's 1lth Div. at Perryville was composed of the 35th, 36th, and 37th brigades. In this book brigades are designated by a series of three numbers to show the division and corps to which they belong: (3, 1, IV), signifies "3d Brig. of the lst Div. of the IV Corps."
Confederate brigades were known by the names of their commanders or former commanders, a much less prosaic system than that of the Federals, but a very confusing one. For example. the unit of "Pickett's Charge" at Gettysburg shown in Steele's American Campaigns as "McGowan's Brigade" was commanded by Pettigrew until I July '62 and then by Marshall. In this attack Pettigrew is commanding "Heth's Division," Trimble is commanding "Pender's Division," Mayo is commanding "Brockenbrough's Brigade," Marshall is commanding "McGowan's" or "Pettigrew's Brigade," Fry is commanding "Archer's Brigade," and Lowrance is commanding "Scales's Brigade."

INFANTRY REGIMENTS were composed of 10 companies, except in the case of the 12-company heavy artillery regiments that had been retrained as infantry. Cavalry regiments also had 12 companies. These companies were lettered in alphabetical order, with the letter "J" omitted. (There has been much erroneous theorizing as to why the US Army has never had a J Company. See Boatner, 88-89.) Battalions did not exist in the infantry regiments, but the "heavies" were composed of three four company battalions, each commanded by a major.
Confederate regiments were organized in generally the same manner as the Federal, although some had battalions (e.g., the 55th Ala.) and the 7th Ala. had two cavalry companies initially.
Regimental headquarters consisted of a colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, adjutant, quartermaster, surgeon (major), two assistant surgeons, and a chaplain. Regimental headquarters noncommissioned officers were the sergeant major, quartermaster sergeant, commissary sergeant, hospital steward, and two principal musicians. Authorized strength of an infantry regiment was a maximum of 1,025 and a minimum of 845. Since it was the Civil War practice to organize recruits into new regiments rather than to send them to replace losses in veteran units, regimental strengths steadily declined. According to Fiebeger the average company strength at Gettysburg was 32 officers and men per company. Livermore gives these average regimental strengths in the Union army at various periods: Shiloh, 560; Fair Oaks, 650; Chancellorsville, 530; Gettysburg, 375; Chickamauga and the Wilderness, 440; and in Sherman's battles of May '64, 305. According to Bigelow the average strength of Federal regiments at Chancellorsville was 433 and of Confederate regiments 409.

COMPANIES In the Union Army an infantry company had a maximum authorized strength of 101 officers and men, and a minimum strength of 83. The company was allowed to recruit a minimum of 64 or a maximum of 82 privates. Other company positions were fixed as follows: one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one first sergeant, four sergeants, eight corporals, two musicians, and one wagoner. Company officers were elected in most volunteer units. As Schiebert, the Prussian observer, points out, this was the only possible way of getting rapidly the large number of troop leaders needed. By the second year of the war a system of examinations was instituted by both armies, and incompetent officers could be eliminated (Schiebert, 39-40).

The North raised the equivalent of 2,047 regiments during the war of which 1,696 were infantry, 272 were cavalry, and 78 were artillery. Allowing for the fact that nine infantry regiments of the Regular Army had 24 instead of the normal 10 companies, the total number of regiments would come to about 2,050, not including the Veteran Reserve Corps. (Above figures from Phisterer, 23.) According to the computations of Fox, made before the Official Records had all been published, the South raised the equivalent of 764 regiments that served all or most of the war. Using later data, and including militia and other irregular organizations, Col. Henry Stone estimated an equivalent of 1,009 ½ Confederate regiments. (For exhaustive study of Confederate strengths see Livermore.)

Source:
Civil War Dictionary By Mark M. Boatner III

Last Updated 15 July 1999

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