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Re: Percentage of servants in the army

TM,
That's very helpful, thanks. To be more specific with Fremantle's figures, he estimated 20-30 African-Americans (a few may have been free-born) in rear of each infantry regiment in the brigades of Semmes, Barksdale and Kershaw. If we say 25 on average in each of the 14 regiments comprising these three brigades, which together totaled 5,453 (from Busey and Martin's Regimental Strengths at Gettysburg), we come up with 350/5803, or very close to 6.0 percent. Admittedly Fremantle does not provide specific numbers, but his ballpark estimate compares favorably with the other examples. Incidentally, while a majority of servants belonged to officers as might be expected, thus far I have found that roughly one in five was owned by an enlisted man in the ranks. A few higher ranking officers had more than one servant with them.

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