The opening line of my acknowledgments reads, "This has been a long, difficult project for my thesis adviser, Dr. Harriet Amos Doss." I'm pleasantly surprised that she still remembers me.

Nearly all enlistments fall into three broad categories

• first-year volunteers
• recruits under the law of April 16, 1862
• recruits under the law of Feb. 17, 1864

Subgroups for the volunteer period include

• volunteers prior to Lincoln's call to suppress the rebellion
• volunteers after Lincoln's call to suppress the rebellion
• volunteers under the Furlough and Bounty Act
• Gov. Shorter's call for troops after Forts Henry and Donelson

I can review the other two broad categories, but you may be viewing the enlistment process from an entirely different perspective.

Sometimes political considerations influenced a man's attitude towards enlistment, and sometimes not. For instance, in his account of service, William C. Jordan of Midway, Ala., provides specific personal reasons for not volunteering during the first year despite his desire to do so.

A somewhat different account by R. O. B. Morrow can be found in the Auburn University archives, a youthful 1864 volunteer from Morgan County, Ala. Morrow describes the reversal in political sentiment in his community after Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion. His family had not been in favor of secession until then, but became firm rebels afterwards.