Just when you thought it was safe to make a blanket statement about the end of the militia, ie: "The Conscript Act of Apr 16, 1862, sounded the death knell for existing state militias across the South. The law took effect on May 15, 1862, about three weeks after the fall of New Orleans." I wanted to make the waters more murky by memtioning some units that are listed in Art's "Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units, 1861-1865". The examples Art used were the 1st and 2nd State Guards Battalion. As it states, the 1st was a part of the LA State Army until transferred to the newly organized Louisiana State Guard. The men that made up these units wre not the over or under conscript age guys that formed units like the 1st Trans-Mississippi Cavalry Battalion or the Reserve Corps. If the militia had been abolished, how did these troops exist? Granted, they re-worded the terms used to describe them but they were still state militia.