Alan J. Pitts
The end of Lockett's "City Guards"....
Wed Mar 14 13:39:56 2001


Some of us have discussed this unit at length in the past. It appears that the Conscript Act of Feb. 17, 1864, effectively ended the employment of Confederate troops on provost guard duty. Of course the purpose of the law was to move able-bodied soldiers into front-line units. The same applied to companies assigned to duty with the Conscript Bureau and explains why units such as the 4th Ala. Cav. Battn. were sent to Virginia in early 1864.

Here's the relevant section of the law, as posted at http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/confdocs.html:

SEC. 8. That hereafter the duties of provost and hospital guards and clerks, of clerks, guards, agents, employees or laborers in the commissary's and quartermaster's departments, in the ordnance department and clerks and employees of navy agents, as also in the execution of the enrolment acts, and all similar duties, shall be performed by persons who are within the ages of eighteen and forty-five…by the report of a board of army surgeons…unable to perform active service in the field, but capable of performing some of the above named duties…; and when those persons shall have been assigned to those duties as far as practicable, the president shall detail or assign…such bodies of troops or individuals, required to be enrolled under the fifth section of this act as may be needed for the discharge of such duties: provided, that persons between the ages of seventeen and eighteen shall not be assigned to these duties….

Section five refers to the new classes of state reserves created by this law. Note that junior reserves were not expected to replace regular Confederate troops on provost guard or recruiting duty, which means that only senior reserves or exempts could be employed for these tasks. A good example of the latter would be the Mobile City Battalion, also caled the 1st Mobile Regiment.






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