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.