Research OnLine - Military Units Formed in Mississippi

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Under an act of the legislature of Mississippi, August 11, 1864, creating the office of superintendent of army records and making it the duty of that officer to collect and record the names and military status of all Mississippians in the Confederate service, Governor Clark appointed Col. J. L. Power. In his report made to the governor of Mississippi in October, 1865, Colonel Power, among other things, says:

"To enter upon the completion of these records after more than three years of active military service, involving loss of company books and muster-rolls, seemed indeed a hopeless, endless task.

The great portion of the troops from Mississippi were in the Tennessee army, and that army, at the time of my appointment and until its final surrender, was either in line of battle or on the march, rendering it impracticable to accomplish anything in the premises." Colonel Power proceeded to Virginia in December, 1864, to complete the records of the Mississippi brigades in that army, but had not been able to do so when the order was given for the evacuation of Richmond. "The records of Humphreys' brigade and of thirty companies in Davis' brigade, present the following as the strength and losses of the seventy companies: Whole number on rolls 9,407 Total loss from all causes 6,661 "Of the 2,746 men on the rolls as present and absent accounted for, about one- third were under arms when General Lee surrendered--the remainder being absent on furlough, in prison, on detail, and for other causes "From this and other data in my possession, I have thought it might be interesting to deduce something like an approximate estimate of the total strength and losses of the troops furnished by the State of Mississippi. Whole number in service 78,000 Total loss from all causes 59,250 Balance accounted for 18,750 "And of this number about thirty per cent were absent for various causes at the general surrender of the armies."

From Fox's Regimental Losses, the military population of Mississippi in 1860 was 70,925. He also lists the following casualties:

Mississippi
Officers killed in battle	122
Enlisted Men killed in battle	5,685
Aggregate		5,807
Officers died of wounds	75
Enlisted men died of wounds	2,576
Aggregate		2,651
Officers died of disease	103
Enlisted men died of disease	6,704
Aggregate		6,807

It is interesting that while both men put the aggregate number who served from Mississippi in the seventy thousands, they differ in the casualty numbers by over 40,000 from each other. Perhaps Col. Power was also including wounded in his count, but overall, I believe that his count should be considered more accurate since he wrote shortly after the war and was specifically charged with making a count of the number of men who served from Mississippi.

The following chart, also extracted from Fox's Regimental Losses shows several Mississippi units which suffered severely at particular battles.

Losses in a single battle
		present	killed	wounded	missing	percent
6th MS	Shiloh	425	61	239	--	70.5
16th MS	Antietam	228	27	117	--	63.1
29th MS	Chickamauga	368	38	156	--	52.7
8th MS	Stone's River	282	20	113	--	47.1
18th MS	Antietam	186	10	73	--	44.6

As to the morale of the army and the causes from which it suffered, Colonel Power says: "Our reverses for the last two years of the war, the despondency, speculation and extortion of many of our people at home, the inability of the government to pay the troops promptly or to furnish them with anything like adequate supplies of food or clothing, the absolute destitution of many families of soldiers and, toward the last, the seeming hopelessness of the struggle, all conspired to depress the soldier's heart."

This web site and The Civil War In Mississippi CD-ROM are dedicated to telling the stories of these men and their families.

The records show that there were in the Confederate armies from Mississippi the following commands:

49 Infantry Regiments.
24 Cavalry Regiments.
16 Cavalry Battalions.
1 Regiment Cavalry Reserves.
7 Regiments State Troops.
3 Battalions State Troops.
8 Battalions State Cavalry.
1 Mixed Regiment, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee.
Mixed Battalion, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Mixed Mississippi and Alabama Cavalry Battalion.
1 Regiment Partisan Rangers.
1 Battalion Partisan Rangers.
5 Battalions Sharpshooters. Artillery Regiment. Artillery Battalion. Artillery Battery.
Jeff Davis Legion, mixed Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia cavalry.

FEDERAL UNITS:

Of all the southern states, Mississippi supplied less men for the Union Army than any other - 545. Of these, 78 were killed in the war - 3 were killed in battle, 66 died from disease, 1 was murdered, and 8 died from other causes.

These Federal Units were formed in Mississippi. All with the A.D. designation were black.

1st Regt. Cav. A.D.
1st Regt. Mounted Rifles.
1st Regt. Heavy Arty. A.D.
2nd Regt. Heavy Arty. A.D.
1st Regt. Infy. A.D.
2nd Regt. Infy. A.D.
3rd Regt. Infy. A.D.
4th Regt. Infy. A.D.
5th Regt. Infy. A.D.
6th Regt. Infy. A.D.

There are three National Cemeteries in Mississippi. The following chart extracted from Foxe's Regimental Losses shows (assumed Federal) the numbers interred there.

National Cemeteries in Mississippi
	Known	Unknown	Total
Corinth	1,782	3,937	5,719
Natchez	308	2,780	3,088
Vicksburg	3,899	12,716	16,615

REF: Confederate Military History - Vol. 6
Dyer's Compendium of the War of the Rebellion
Foxe's Regimental Losses

Military Units Formed in Mississippi

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