Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army, also known as the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Its mission was to fight against the forces of the United States of America in order to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold the institution of slavery. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and handed control over military operations as well as the authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly elected president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. This took place in order to prepare the Confederacy for war. During the Mexican–American War, Davis served as the colonel of a volunteer regiment. In addition, he had served in the United States Senate representing the state of Mississippi and as Secretary of War in the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Davis gained charge of the military situation in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government. At the time, South Carolina state militia were besieging Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour, which was controlled by a tiny United States Army garrison. By March of 1861, the Temporary Confederate Congress had increased the size of the provisional army and formed a Confederate States Army that was more permanent.

Due to the fact that Confederate records were either intentionally destroyed or left in insufficient condition, it is impossible to provide an accurate count of the total number of individuals who served in the Confederate Army. However, it is estimated that there were between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Confederate soldiers. This does not take into account the unknown number of slaves who were forced to carry out a variety of activities for the army, such as the building of fortifications and defences or the driving of carts. These numbers may not accurately depict the strength of the army on any one day since they contain estimates of the total number of individual troops who served at any point throughout the conflict. These estimates do not take into account the sailors that served in the Confederate States Navy.

Conscription was used on both sides of the American Civil War by the year 1862. The primary reason for this was to compel individuals to sign up for the military and offer their services, despite the fact that the majority of the troops who participated in the conflict were volunteers. The number of Union troops who were conscripted was just 6%, while estimates suggest that the percentage of Confederate soldiers who were conscripted was almost to twice as high as that figure.