Monday, July 23, 2012

System of recruiting

After issuing General Order 18, as noted in my previous entry, Kentucky's Adjutant General of Volunteers John W. Finnell published a system of recruiting troops to help fill this call.

This also comes from the Covington Journal of July 19, 1862. It is nothing earth-shattering, but I liked the breakdown of the officers. Most of it is familiar, but I have never been full certain of the numbers or types of sergeants.

(Warning: This is a long entry)

Head-quarters Kentucky Volunteers
Adjutant General's Office, 
Frankfort, July 8, 1862.

CIRCULAR
The system of recruiting for the regiments to be raised under the late call will be as follows:

Second Lieutenants will be appointed at once and mastered into the service of the United States by a mustering officer. They will draw pay from the date of muster\, and will be assigned to recruiting stations. They will be entitled to transportation for their recruits and to a limited extent for themselves. They will be authorized at once to muster their men into service, provide subsistence at a rate not to exceed thirty cents pr day, and will be furnished clothing on their requisition. 

Any persons reporting here within fifteen days from the date hereof, and furnishing this department with certificates of good moral character, sober habits, and of their qualification for command from well known loyal citizens, and their own certificates on honor that they have thirty men enlisted who will consent to be immediately mustered into service under them, will be appointed Second Lieutenant, and so mustered. Should they fail within one week thereafter, to report at least that number of men in such camp as they may be ordered into, then they (illegible line) of sixty men or over, thus presented will be entitled to two Lieutenants, and full companies to a full set of officers.  Squads thus received will be combined into companies, and organized without delay. The appointment to the Lieutenancy, though it will secure the appointee the pay of his rank during the time he is engaged in recruiting, will of course be conditioned upon his being able to recruit a Lieutenant's command within the time specified in his letter of appointment -- and he will be expected, in the event of his failure to recruit the required number, within the specified time, to report such as he may have recruited to such camp as may be designated by his department. All proper blanks and instructions in detail will be furnished. 

The plan of organization is as follows:
Company Organization
Infantry
1 Captain
1 First Lieutenant
1 Second Lieutenant
1 First Sergeant
4 Sergeants
8 Corporals
2 Musicians
1 Wagoner
64 Privates, to 82 
--
83 Aggregate, to 101

Regimental Organization
Infantry
1 Colonel
1 Lieutenant Colonel
1 Major
1 Adjutant (A Lieutenant)
1 Regimental Q.M., (A Lieutenant)
1 Surgeon
1 Assistant Surgeon
1 Sergeant Major
1 Regimental Q. M. Sergeant
1 Regimental Com. Sergeant
1 Hospital Steward
2 Principal Musicians

Pay, Advance Pay, and Bounty
The officers, non-commissioned officers and privates, will, in all respects, be placed on the footing, as to pay  and allowances, of similar corps in the Regular army. Their allowances for clothing shall be $3.50 per month.


Every volunteer, non-commissioned officer, private, musician, and artificer who enters the service of the United States under this plan, shall be pain at the rate of fifty cents in lieu of subsistence for every twenty miles of travel from his place of enrollment to the place of muster, the distance to be measured by the shortest usually traveled routes, and when honorably discharged an allowance at the same rate from the place of his discharge to his place of enrollment and, in addition, thereto, the sum of one hundred dollars.

Any volunteer who may be received into the service of the United States under this plan, and who may be wounded or otherwise disabled in the service, shall be entitled to the benefits which have been or may be conferred on persons disabled in the regular service, and the legal heirs of such as die or may be killed in the service, in addition to all arrears of pay and allowance, shall receive the sum of one hundred dollars.

 A premium of two dollars shall be paid for each accepted recruit. Every volunteer who enlists for three years or during the war shall receive his first month's pay in advance upon the mustering of his company into the service of the United States; and shall in addition thereto, receive in advance twenty five dollars of the one hundred dollars bounty above specified, which shall be pain when the company has been raised to the minimum number. 

By order
John W. Finnell
Adj. Gen. Ky. Vols.

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