Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army (CSA) was formed in February, 1861, to defend the Confederate States of America, which had itself been formed that same year when seven southern states seceded from the United States (with four more to follow). The army was formed around a core of 313 officers who left the United States Army, and had an initial enlistment of 82,000 volunteers. In August of 1861, the Congress of the Confederacy authorized the recruitment of 400,000 men. In April of 1862, The Confederate Congress passed the Conscription Act, which drafted all white men aged 18 to 35. In total, 1,406,180 men enlisted or were drafted into the Confederate States Army.

Organization

Command

The army did not have an overall military commander until late in the War. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, himself a former U.S. Army officer and U.S. Secretary of War, provided the strategic direction for Confederate land and naval forces. General Robert E. Lee, who served as Davis' military advisor and then as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, was promoted on January 31, 1865, to be general in chief of all the armies. By this time the armies of the Confederacy were near exhaustion and Lee was bottled up by Ulysses S. Grant in the Siege of Petersburg, so he was unable to use this new power to any great effect. The lack of centralized control was a strategic weakness for the Confederacy and there are few instances of multiple armies acting in concert across multiple theaters to achieve a common objective. (An exception to this was in late 1862 when Lee's invasion of Maryland was coincident with two other actions: Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and Earl Van Dorn's advance against Corinth, Mississippi. All three initiatives were unsuccessful, however.)

Related Topics:
Jefferson Davis - U.S. Army - Secretary of War - Robert E. Lee - Army of Northern Virginia - January 31 - 1865 - Ulysses S. Grant - Siege of Petersburg - 1862 - Maryland - Braxton Bragg - Kentucky - Earl Van Dorn - Corinth, Mississippi

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• All Generals wore the same insignia reguardless of grade
• Branch colors were used for color of chevrons

Armies and Prominent Leaders

The CSA was composed of independent armies and military departments that were constituted, renamed, and disbanded as needs arose, particularly in reaction to offensives launched by the Union. These major units were generally named after states or geographic regions (in comparison to the Union's custom of naming armies after rivers). Armies were usually commanded by full generals (there were eight in the CSA) or lieutenant generals. Some of the more important armies and their commanders were:

Related Topics:
Union - General - Lieutenant general

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• Army of Northern Virginia — Joseph E. Johnston, Gustavus W. Smith, Robert E. Lee commanding
• Army of Mississippi — P.G.T. Beauregard, Albert Sidney Johnston, Braxton Bragg, William J. Hardee, Leonidas Polk, (aka Army of Vicksburg from December, 1862) John C. Pemberton, Earl Van Dorn, (1863) William W. Loring
• Forrest's Cavalry Corps — Nathan Bedford Forrest
• Army of the Kanawha — Henry A. Wise, John B. Floyd, Robert E. Lee
• Army of Kentucky — Edmund K. Smith
• Army of Middle Tennessee — John C. Breckenridge
• Army of New Mexico — Henry H. Sibley
• Army of the Northwest — Robert S. Garnett, Henry R. Jackson, William W. Loring, Edward Johnson
• Army of the Peninsula — John B. Magruder, Daniel H. Hill
• Army of the Potomac (Confederate) — P.G.T. Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston
• Army of Tennessee — Braxton Bragg, William J. Hardee, Joseph E. Johnston, John Bell Hood, Richard Taylor, Daniel H. Hill
• Trans-Mississippi Army — Thomas C. Hindman, Edmund K. Smith,
• Army of the Valley (aka Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia) — Jubal Early
• Army of the West — Earl Van Dorn, John P. McCown, Dabney H. Maury, Sterling Price

Some other prominent Confederate generals who led significant units operating sometimes independently in the CSA included Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, J.E.B. Stuart, Gideon Pillow, and A.P. Hill.

Related Topics:
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson - James Longstreet - J.E.B. Stuart - Gideon Pillow - A.P. Hill

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