Alan J. Pitts
Alabama militia, part 2
Sat Feb 24 23:26:11 2001


As I will explain, volunteer militia companies operated under a somewhat different set of rules than the regular state militia. For the same reason volunteer units were always maintained separately. When Alabama seceded, Governor Moore called volunteer militia regiments into service to occupy the bay forts, the navy yard and arsenals near Mobile and Pensacola. The Third Alabama Volunteer Militia Regiment at Pensacola formed the basis for Clayton's First Alabama Regiment, said to be the first state regiment to tender its services to the Confederacy. Tennant Lomax's First Alabama Volunteer Militia later became the 3rd Alabama Infantry, and the 2nd Volunteer Militia formed the basis for Maurys 2nd Alabama. Later militiamen who belonged to volunteer fire companies in Mobile helped to organize the 24th Alabama Regiment.

Although they performed patrol duties and held musters like other militiamen, volunteers enjoyed certain privileges. A man belonging to a volunteer company could produce a certificate of membership and claim exemption from regular militia duty, and volunteers serving for seven years or more were exempt from future state military obligations. They had to be appear at muster armed and uniformed in a manner agreed upon by a majority of company members. Their drills lasted no more than three hours instead of the five expected of regular militia, but volunteers had to attend six musters each year.

Wealthy planters and merchants patronized them and supplied expensive uniforms for members of limited means. Volunteers elected their own officers, selected the color and cut of their uniforms, determined the drill routines they wished to master "and generally behaved in a highly picturesque and individualistic manner." Thriving on popular attention, volunteers planned dress parades to pass down "well traveled streets in the hope that the brave might be viewed by the fair."

In addition to membership requirements, volunteer companies had to be organized according to laws of Alabama governing corporations. Whenever the membership of a company fell below the minimum number required by law, it had to be dissolved. Also, volunteer units could not admit so many members that the number of privates in a regular militia company fell to less than forty men.

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in November 1859 gave additional impetus to volunteer military organizations. "Seeing the disorganized state of our militia," Gov. A. B. Moore reasoned that formation of volunteer companies must be encouraged so that an adequate number of "well-trained officers and men" would be on hand "in case of a sudden emergency." Legislators responded on February 21, 1860, by authorizing several dozen volunteer companies. As provided in standard militia incorporations, the State of Alabama promised arms and equipment to company members, exempting them from road, jury and most forms of military duty.

Company commanders forwarded a roster of their members to Montgomery to verify that they had at least thirty men on roll and were organized according to state law. The rolls also served as authorization for the state to supply a musket to every enlisted man named on them. However, it seems that Governor Moore issued commissions more rapidly than firearms. Requesting sixty muskets on May 12, 1860, Capt. William H. Chambers of the Eufaula "Pioneer Guards" politely suggested that he would be pleased to know when they might be received. However, by the twenty-first of July Capt. J. W. L. Daniel of the "Midway Southern Guards" was begging for weapons. "The existence of our company depends on arms," he pleaded, noting that his men had drilled for the past year without any kind of equipment from the state.

As you can see, antebellum activities of volunteer militiamen were often ceremonial. Obviously the war changed all that, and rapidly depleted the ranks of the state militia. Remember that the militia included men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, never older or younger. Men outside t reply that they almost certainly did. However, there are hardly any rolls to be found, and even if there were, they would be almost meaningless as far as placing a man somewhere other than his home during his period of service.

One day I plan to make of list of all the state militia regiments, their brigades, divisions and which county they represented. But it’s just not real high on the priority list.







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