The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-07-18

A~'A VA PoIACuC duO utTOlC euueaVOr.
But after all the reward is not wholly
satisfactory.
The first Of the Southern States to
attempt anything like history of her
soldiery was North Carolina. But
the work was done so hastily, and
without the fullest cooperation of the
different county authorities and the
interested surviving Confederates,
that it is grieyously full of great
errors. The official records at Wash
ington show that the State had in the
Confederate service 69 infantry regi-
ments, 6 cavalry regiments and 10 or
II miscellaneous commands of artil-
lery and other troops. The State
authorities claim that the total esti-
mate Of the different commands was
123, 900 men-this the number of SOL
diers given by that one State to the
Confederacy.
The evidences show that this esti-
mate is erroneous. There were in the
State Of North Carolina in 1860 only
115, 1863 persons liable to military duty
persons between the ages of 18 and
45. Il would have required all these
and. about 5000 more, minors and
seniors, to have brought the estimate
up to the figures claimed And it
must be borne in mind that there were
several thousand men Of military age
in the State who wele not in the Con-
federate service. These were the
State and county civil officers, rail
road officials and employees, and other
manufacturing and mill men, and
other exempts, in an average of more
than 100 to each Of the 90.odd coun-
ties Of the State. Then. there were
more than 5000 Of the North Carolina
mcn OF military age, who were in the
Federal armies from that State. When
the c9nscription acts came the "jun-
ior' and senior reserves from the
State numbered only about 5000.
Another source of error in the esti-
mates of the North Carolina authori-
ties is in counting the same troops
twice in the process Of consolidation
of battalions aud depleted regiments.
I personally know of entire commands
counted twice in the published official
rosters from which the estimate Of
$4,000 is drawn-the count made
once in battalion" and also in ''regi-
ment." In this one instance there is
an error of about 1,G00. There are
instances where one name has been
counted three times. Now am sure
that in these revelations I have no
desire to detract from the glory of
North Carolina for having contributed
more troops to the Confederacy than
any other State. I am satisfied she
had but few, if any m IRE than 100, 900
troops, all told, in the service Of the
Confederacy. If all the North Caro-
lima regiments entering the Confeder-
ate armies had contained originally
1000 men, it would have required
about 500 additional recruits to have
brought up the commands to the esti-
mate claimed. But there were only a
very few regiments that started out
with full thousand. Some entered
the service with about 700, and very
few received more than 300 recruits,
all told, fro11 beginning to end. Regi-
ments that were organized as late as
1853 took at once the bulk Of the re-
naming war material Of the State
these never afterward having any &C.
cessions Of consequence to their ranks.
The acts Of consolidation began in
1853. At the close Of the war in
1856 the great majority Of the North
Carolina troops remaining in the field
were surrendered by Gen. Lee at Ap-
pomattox, and there were only 45
fegimental organizations embraced,
their total strength being 4,875-a
little over 100 men to the regiment.
There is not man living in North
Carolina or elsewhere who believes
those 4b regiments had lost, each,
more than 1000 men in the whole
period Of the war. This feature Of
che subject will be reverted to in an
other illustration bearing on the point
at ISSUE.
The same general observations re-
ferripg to the estimates from North
Carolina apply with equal force tn the
estimate Of The South Carolina troops.
There is one oonspicuous-exceptiofS. !.
To the everlasting glory Of her sons,
be it said, South Carolina is the only
Southern State that had no organized
command Of native white troops in
the Federal armies OF invasion and
con0 nest. The Palmetto State pave