Alan J. Pitts
Third Alabama Reserve Regt.
Tue Feb 20 22:53:37 2001


This correspondence has been taken from Series IV vol. 3 pp. 880-82 of the Official Records. It provides a graphic description of the sorry state of senior reserves in Alabama and should resolve on-going questions about the composition (and morale) of the 3rd Reserve Regiment.

OFFICE COMMANDANT OF CONSCRIPTS,
Montgomery, Ala., November 30, 1864.
JOHN C. BURCH,
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Hdqrs. Reserve Forces, Montgomery, Ala.:

I have been furnished by Brig. Gen. D. W. Adams with a list of 351 absentees or deserters from eight companies of the Third Regiment of Alabama Reserves, whose furloughs expired on the 1st of November. These men are all over forty-five years of age and are residents of the counties of Marengo, Greene, Sumter, Pickens, Perry, Dallas, Shelby, Bibb, Tuscaloosa, Talladega, and Randolph. The lowest number of absentees given from any one company is thirty-seven; the highest sixty-nine.

No list has been furnished from one company of the regiment, as there are no officers present to furnish the list. Information from other companies of reserves shows a like number of absentees and deserters. These lists of absentees from the reserves exhibit proof of the fact that the orders of the major-general commanding and the Secretary of War are totally disregarded in some of the most wealthy and enlightened counties in the State.

The failure on the part of the reserves to reassemble in obedience to orders gives hope to the disloyal and great encouragement to deserters from the Regular Army to remain at home and resist authority. I have written this much with the hope that the major-general in charge of conscription in this State may be able to provide an adequate remedy or make such representations to the Secretary of War as will secure the same.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. C. LOCKHART,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Commandant, Alabama.

[First indorsement.]
HEADQUARTERS RESERVE FORCES OF ALABAMA,
Montgomery, December 1, 1864.
Respectfully forwarded, earnestly invoking the attention of the Department to the deplorable condition of the conscript service in this State, as correctly represented in this communication. For the correction of the evil and enforcement of the laws the present system is most inadequate. A supporting force composed of parties unfit for field service or over forty-five years of age is absolutely worthless under the now existing circumstances. Those unfit for field service are physically incapacitated for the active, energetic, and continuous service demanded to be efficient; and those over forty-five years of age have no heart for the work, are discontented, undisciplined, homesick, selfish, and have shown themselves unreliable.
J. M. WITHERS,
Major-General







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