The South Carolina in the Civil War Message Board

Re: muster #'s
In Response To: Re: muster #'s ()

Jennifer:

Fred is correct that there is no source which breaks down enlistments by county (district at the time). After the companies were initially formed, subsequent enlistments might be done by recuriting parties sent back home, but the majority were from men who went to wherever the unit was then stationed, and enlisted there. Of course, many of the accessions after early 1862 were by conscription, and the place of conscription was normally in Columbia, where the Conscript camp for the State was located.

Over the course of the war many men, probably a majority, joined two or more units. A man might have enlisted in 1861, been discharged for minority or seniority, or discharged for illness or wouds, then reenlisted later in another unit. And frequently they would join an out-of district unit, for any number of reasons -- relatives or friends in it, desire to serve under a particular officer, desire for that type of service (cavalry instead of infantry, perhaps a unit which would not be exposed to very arduous service, etc.)

A couple of concrete examples of companies which drew men from your counties of interest. Company E of the Hampton Legion Infantry was raised primarily from the southern section of Greenville, but it included a handful of initial enlistees from Laurens and Anderson, plus some 10-12 men from Orangeburg District who came to Columbia where the comapny was being mustered into Confederate service, and joined. As the war progressed, it got voluntary enlistements of men who were residents from Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Newberry and Charleston (they come to mind). Company B, which was raised from Edgefield District, nonetheless had initial volunteers who were from Newberry, Fairfield, and Laurens; during the war it received volunteers from Abbeville (primarily from the portion just above the line), Newberry and Orangeburg. And because these two companies were able to successfully recruit during the war, they received very few conscripts.

A source you may want to check are the Township Books which were prepared in the 1890's in conjunction with the State Confederate pension program. Township books exist for Abbeville (kept in the Probate Court) and Laurens (Probate Court, may have been transferred to the Archives), but there are a tremenedous number of errors in those books. Somebody published the Abbeville Township Books. But names are omitted, and men are sometimes attributed to the wrong units. Also remember that the Abbeville (or Luarens) Books may include men who were residents there when the books were prepared, but who enlsited in another district, or even another State.

A tremendous number of the graves of veterans are totally unmarked -- no stone, no Maltese cross, perhaps just a rock or brick. And a lot of graves with a headstone do not list the service of the veteran. For an identification of graves, I would suggest that you contact the local UDC and SCV chapters and camps. Those groups probably have a better handle on where veterans are buried than anyone else.

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