Pat --

I'm almost certain that Frank Holman in the 1st Local Troops (Augusta) is the same person as Frank Holman in Co. "I", 1st Georgia Reserves. The 'Local Troops' organization at Augusta was an emergency defense unit created to meet a threat to the city. Soldiers from other units who happened to be available were put together for short-term purposes only.

This man appears to have been a senior reserve. A law passed by Congress on Feb. 17, 1864, created two new classes of state reserves -- Junior Reserves, boys that were seventeen years of age, and Senior Reserves, men between the ages of forty-five and fifty. These were now obliged to enter Confederate military service. Both classes of reserves could be employed only within their home state, and would act under the orders of a Confederate general officer to be appointed for each state.

Senior Reserves were expected to replace younger, able-bodied soldiers had been guarding rear-area depots, camps and communications. The law said they could serve as “clerks, guards, agents, employees or laborers” with hospitals, ordnance depots, navy yards, recruiting offices and the provost guard, or assist with commissary and quartermaster operations. Except in emergencies, they were not expected to be used in combat. Men enrolled in the Senior Reserves could be discharged after reaching their fiftieth birthday.

Either one of Holman's service files should state the date and place of his enlistment. His name may also appear on the January 1864 roster of men eligible for service in the Georgia militia. You can order copies of service files and pension applications by going through the message board service offered at the top of this webpage.