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Union Army

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During the American Civil War, the Union

Army referred to the United States Army,
the land force that fought to preserve the
Union of the collective states. Also
known as the Federal Army, it proved
essential to the preservation of the
United States as a working, viable
republic.
 Union Army

Flag of the United States from 1863 until

1865 (35 states/stars)

Active February 28, 1861 –

May 26, 1865
(4 years, 2 months
and 4 weeks)

Country United States

Type Army

Size 2,128,948 total who

served

Part of U.S. Department of

War
Colors Dark Blue     
March "Battle Hymn of the
Republic"

Engagements American Indian

Wars
American Civil War
Fort Sumter
First Bull Run
Wilson's Creek
Forts Henry
and Donelson
Shenandoah
South Mills
Richmond
Harpers Ferry
Munfordville
Shepherdstown
Chambersburg
Raid
Mississippi
River
Peninsula
Shiloh
Jackson's
Valley
Campaign
Second Bull
Run
South
Mountain
Antietam
Hartsville
Fredericksburg
Stones River
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Champion Hill
Vicksburg
siege
Corydon
Chickamauga
Chattanooga
Wilderness
Atlanta
Spotsylvania
Sabine Pass
 New Hope
Church
Pickett's Mill
Cold Harbor
Plymouth
Fort Pillow
Petersburg
siege
Kennesaw
Mountain
Jonesborough
Franklin
Nashville
Appomattox Court
House
 Commanders
Commander-in- President Abraham
Chief Lincoln (1861–
1865)
President Andrew
Johnson (1865)

Commanding MG Winfield Scott

General (1841–1861)
MG George B.
McClellan (1861–
1862)
MG Henry W.
Halleck (1862–
1864)
GA Ulysses S. Grant
(1864–1869)
Washington, District of Columbia. Officers of 3d
Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery (1865)

General George B. McClellan with staff and

dignitaries (from left to right): Gen. George W.
Morell, Lt. Col. A.V. Colburn, Gen. McClellan, Lt. Col.
N.B. Sweitzer, Prince de Joinville (son of King Louis
Philippe of France), and on the very right – the
prince's nephew, Count de Paris
The 21st Michigan Infantry, a regiment serving in
the Western Theater.

Union private infantry uniform, from plate 172 of the

"Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies", containing
illustrations of uniforms worn by Union and
Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War
The Union Army was made up of the
permanent regular army of the United
States, but further fortified, augmented,
and strengthened by the many temporary
units of dedicated volunteers as well as
including those who were drafted in to
service as conscripts. To this end, the
Union Army fought and ultimately
triumphed over the efforts of the
Confederate States Army in the American
Civil War.

Over the course of the war, 2,128,948

men enlisted in the Union Army,[1]
including 178,895 colored troops; 25% of
the white men who served were foreign-
born.[2] Of these soldiers, 596,670 were
killed, wounded or went missing.[3] The
initial call-up was for just three months,
after which many of these men chose to
reenlist for an additional three years.

Formation

Recruiting poster for the 1st Battalion New York

Mounted Rifles
When the American Civil War began in
April 1861, there were only 16,367 men in
the U.S. Army, including 1,108
commissioned officers. Approximately
20% of these officers, most of them
Southerners, resigned choosing to tie
their lives and fortunes to the Army of
the Confederacy.[4]

In addition, almost 200 West Point

graduates who had previously left the
Army, including Ulysses S. Grant, William
Tecumseh Sherman, and Braxton Bragg,
would return to service at the outbreak of
the war. This group's loyalties were far
more sharply divided, with 92 donning
Confederate gray and 102 putting on the
blue of the Union Army. The U.S. Army
consisted of ten regiments of infantry,
four of artillery, two of cavalry, two of
dragoons, and three of mounted infantry.
The regiments were scattered widely. Of
the 197 companies in the army, 179
occupied 79 isolated posts in the West,
and the remaining 18 manned garrisons
east of the Mississippi River, mostly
along the Canada–United States border
and on the Atlantic coast.

With the Southern slave states declaring

secession from the Union, and with this
drastic shortage of men in the army,
President Abraham Lincoln called on the
states to raise a force of 75,000 men for
three months to put down this subversive
insurrection. Lincoln's call forced the
border states to choose sides, and four
seceded, making the Confederacy eleven
states strong. It turned out that the war
itself proved to be much longer and far
more extensive in scope and scale than
anyone on either side, Union North or
Confederate South, expected or even
imagined at the outset on the date of
July 22, 1861. That was the day that
Congress initially approved and
authorized subsidy to allow and support
a volunteer army of up to 500,000 men to
the cause.

The call for volunteers initially was easily

met by patriotic Northerners,
abolitionists, and even immigrants who
enlisted for a steady income and meals.
Over 10,000 Germans in New York and
Pennsylvania immediately responded to
Lincoln's call, and the French were also
quick to volunteer. As more men were
needed, however, the number of
volunteers fell and both money bounties
and forced conscription had to be turned
to. Nevertheless, between April 1861 and
April 1865, at least 2,128,948 men served
in the Union Army, of whom the majority
were volunteers.

It is a misconception that the South held

an advantage because of the large
percentage of professional officers who
resigned to join the Confederate army. At
the start of the war, there were 824
graduates of the U.S. Military Academy
on the active list; of these, 296 resigned
or were dismissed, and 184 of those
became Confederate officers. Of the
approximately 900 West Point graduates
who were then civilians, 400 returned to
the Union Army and 99 to the
Confederate. Therefore, the ratio of
Union to Confederate professional
officers was 642 to 283.[5] (One of the
resigning officers was Robert E. Lee, who
had initially been offered the assignment
as commander of a field army to
suppress the rebellion. Lee disapproved
of secession, but refused to bear arms
against his native state, Virginia, and
resigned to accept the position as
commander of Virginian C.S. forces. He
eventually became the commander of
the Confederate army.) The South did
have the advantage of other military
colleges, such as The Citadel and
Virginia Military Institute, but they
produced fewer officers. Though officers
were able to resign, enlisted soldiers did
not have this right; which meant that they
usually had to either desert or wait until
their enlistment term was over in order to
join the Confederate States Army. While
the total number of those is unknown,
only 26 enlisted men and non-
commissioned officers of the regular
army are known to have legally left the
army to join the Confederate army when
the war began.[6]

Major organizations
The Union Army was composed of
numerous organizations, which were
generally organized geographically.

Military division
A collection of Departments reporting
to one commander (e.g., Military
Division of the Mississippi, Middle
Military Division, Military Division of
the James). Military Divisions were
similar to the more modern term
Theater; and were modeled close to,
though not synonymous with, the
existing theaters of war.
Department
An organization that covered a defined
region, including responsibilities for
the Federal installations therein and for
the field armies within their borders.
Those named for states usually
referred to Southern states that had
been occupied. It was more common
to name departments for rivers (such
as Department of the Tennessee,
Department of the Cumberland) or
regions (Department of the Pacific,
Department of New England,
Department of the East, Department of
the West, Middle Department).
District
A subdivision of a Department (e.g.,
District of Cairo, District of East
Tennessee). There were also
Subdistricts for smaller regions.
Army
The fighting force that was usually, but
not always, assigned to a District or
Department but could operate over
wider areas. Some of the most
prominent armies were:
Army of the Cumberland, the army
operating primarily in Tennessee,
and later Georgia, commanded by
William S. Rosecrans and George
Henry Thomas.
Army of Georgia, operated in the
March to the Sea and the Carolinas
commanded by Henry W. Slocum.
Army of the Gulf, the army operating
in the region bordering the Gulf of
Mexico, commanded by Benjamin
Butler, Nathaniel P. Banks, and
Edward Canby.
Army of the James, the army
operating on the Virginia Peninsula,
1864–65, commanded by Benjamin
Butler and Edward Ord.
Army of the Mississippi, a briefly
existing army operating on the
Mississippi River, in two incarnations
—under John Pope and William S.
Rosecrans in 1862; under John A.
McClernand in 1863.
Army of the Ohio, the army operating
primarily in Kentucky and later
Tennessee and Georgia,
commanded by Don Carlos Buell,
Ambrose E. Burnside, John G.
Foster, and John M. Schofield.
Army of the Potomac, the principal
army in the Eastern Theater,
commanded by George B. McClellan,
Ambrose E. Burnside, Joseph
Hooker, and George G. Meade.
Army of the Shenandoah, the army
operating in the Shenandoah Valley,
under David Hunter, Philip Sheridan,
and Horatio G. Wright.
 Army of the Tennessee, the most
famous army in the Western
Theater, operating through Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and
the Carolinas; commanded by
Ulysses S. Grant, William T.
Sherman, James B. McPherson, and
Oliver O. Howard.
Army of Virginia, the army
assembled under John Pope for the
Northern Virginia Campaign.

Each of these armies was usually

commanded by a major general.
Typically, the Department or District
commander also had field command of
the army of the same name, but some
conflicts within the ranks occurred when
this was not true, particularly when an
army crossed a geographic boundary.

The regular army, the permanent United

States Army, was intermixed into various
formations of the Union Army, forming a
cadre of experienced and skilled troops.
They were regarded by many as elite
troops and often held in reserve during
battles in case of emergencies. This
force was quite small compared to the
massive state-raised volunteer forces
that comprised the bulk of the Union
Army.
Personnel organization
Rough unit sizes for Union combat units
during the war:[7]

Corps – 12,000 to 14,000

Division – 3,000 to 7,000
Brigade – 800 to 1,700
Regiment – 350 to 400
Company – 34 to 40

Soldiers were organized by military

specialty. The combat arms included
infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other such
smaller organizations such as the United
States Marine Corps, which, at some
times, was detached from its navy
counterpart for land based operations.
The Signal Corps was created and
deployed for the first time, through the
leadership of Albert J. Myer.

Below major units like armies, soldiers

were organized mainly into regiments,
the main fighting unit with which a
soldier would march and be deployed,
commanded by a colonel, lieutenant
colonel, or possibly a major. According to
William J. Hardee's "Rifle and Light
Infantry Tactics" (1855), the primary
tactics for riflemen and light infantry in
use immediately prior and during the war,
there would typically be, in each
regiment, ten companies, each
commanded by a captain, and deployed
according to the ranks of captains. Some
units only had between four and eight
companies and were generally known as
battalions.[8] Regiments were almost
always raised within a single state, and
were generally referred by number and
state, e.g. 54th Massachusetts, 20th
Maine, etc.

Regiments were usually grouped into

brigades under the command of a
brigadier general. However, brigades
were changed easily as the situation
demanded; under the regimental system
the regiment was the main permanent
grouping. Brigades were usually formed
once regiments reached the battlefield,
according to where the regiment might
be deployed, and alongside which other
regiments.

Leaders

Noncommissioned officers of the 93rd New York

Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Several men served as generals-in-chief
of the Union Army throughout its
existence:

Winfield Scott: July 5, 1841 –

November 1, 1861
George B. McClellan: November 1,
1861 – March 11, 1862
Henry W. Halleck: July 23, 1862 –
March 9, 1864
Ulysses S. Grant: March 9, 1864 –
March 4, 1869

The gap from March 11 to July 23, 1862,

was filled with direct control of the army
by President Lincoln and United States
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with
the help of an unofficial "War Board" that
was established on March 17, 1862. The
board consisted of Ethan A. Hitchcock,
the chairman, with Department of War
bureau chiefs Lorenzo Thomas,
Montgomery C. Meigs, Joseph G. Totten,
James W. Ripley, and Joseph P. Taylor.[9]

Scott was an elderly veteran of the War

of 1812 and the Mexican–American War
and could not perform his duties
effectively. His successor, Maj. Gen.
McClellan, built and trained the massive
Union Army of the Potomac, the primary
fighting force in the Eastern Theater.
Although he was popular among the
soldiers, McClellan was relieved from his
position as general-in-chief because of
his overcautious strategy and his
contentious relationship with his
commander-in-chief, President Lincoln.
(He remained commander of the Army of
the Potomac through the Peninsula
Campaign and the Battle of Antietam.)
His replacement, Major General Henry W.
Halleck, had a successful record in the
Western Theater, but was more of an
administrator than a strategic planner
and commander.
The champions of the Union – 1861 lithograph by
Currier & Ives

Ulysses S. Grant was the final

commander of the Union Army. He was
famous for his victories in the West when
he was appointed lieutenant general and
general-in-chief of the Union Army in
March 1864. Grant supervised the Army
of the Potomac (which was formally led
by his subordinate, Maj. Gen. George G.
Meade) in delivering the final blows to
the Confederacy by engaging
Confederate forces in many fierce battles
in Virginia, the Overland Campaign,
conducting a war of attrition that the
larger Union Army was able to survive
better than its opponent. Grant laid siege
to Lee's army at Petersburg, Virginia, and
eventually captured Richmond, the
capital of the Confederacy. He developed
the strategy of coordinated simultaneous
thrusts against wide portions of the
Confederacy, most importantly the
Georgia and Carolinas Campaigns of
William Tecumseh Sherman and the
Shenandoah Valley campaign of Philip
Sheridan. These campaigns were
characterized by another strategic notion
of Grant's-better known as total war—
denying the enemy access to resources
needed to continue the war by
widespread destruction of its factories
and farms along the paths of the
invading Union armies.

Grant had critics who complained about

the high numbers of casualties that the
Union Army suffered while he was in
charge, but Lincoln would not replace
Grant, because, in Lincoln's words: "I
cannot spare this man. He fights."
Among memorable field leaders of the
army were Nathaniel Lyon (first Union
general to be killed in battle during the
war), William Rosecrans, George Henry
Thomas and William Tecumseh
Sherman. Others, of lesser competence,
included Benjamin F. Butler.

Union victory
The decisive victories by Grant and
Sherman resulted in the surrender of the
major Confederate armies. The first and
most significant was on April 9, 1865,
when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army
of Northern Virginia to Grant at
Appomattox Court House. Although there
were other Confederate armies that
surrendered in the following weeks, such
as Joseph E. Johnston's in North
Carolina, this date was nevertheless
symbolic of the end of the bloodiest war
in American history, the end of the
Confederate States of America, and the
beginning of the slow process of
Reconstruction.

Motivations

Anti-slavery sentiment …
In his 1997 book examining the
motivations of the American Civil War's
soldiers, For Cause and Comrades,
historian James M. McPherson states
that Union soldiers fought to preserve the
United States, as well as to end slavery,
stating that:

While restoration of the Union

was the main goal for which
they fought, they became
convinced that this goal was
unattainable without striking
against slavery.
 — James M. McPherson,
For Cause and Comrades:
Why Men Fought in the
Civil War, (1997), p. 118,
emphasis added.[10]

McPherson states that witnessing the

slave system of the Confederacy first-
hand also strengthened the anti-slavery
views of Union soldiers,[10] who were
appalled by its brutality.[10] He stated that
"Experience in the South reinforced the
antislavery sentiments of many
soldiers."[10] One Pennsylvanian Union
soldier spoke to a slave woman whose
husband was whipped, and was appalled
by what she had to tell him of slavery. He
stated that "I thought I had hated slavery
as much as possible before I came here,
but here, where I can see some of its
workings, I am more than ever convinced
of the cruelty and inhumanity of the
system."[10]

Ethnic composition

The 26th U.S. Colored Volunteer Infantry on parade,

Camp William Penn, Pennsylvania, 1865
The Union Army was composed of many
different ethnic groups, including large
numbers of immigrants. About 25% of
the white men who served in the Union
Army were foreign-born.[2] This means
that about 1,600,000 enlistments were
made by men who were born in the
United States, including about 200,000
African Americans. About 200,000
enlistments were by men born in one of
the German states (although this is
somewhat speculative since anyone
serving from a German family tended to
be identified as German regardless of
where they were actually born) .[11] About
200,000 soldiers and sailors were born in
Ireland. Although some soldiers came
from as far away as Malta, Italy, India,
and Russia, most of the remaining
foreign-born soldiers came from Great
Britain and Canada.

Twenty-year-old German immigrant John Haag of

Company B, 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
Regiment (August 1862)[12]
Breakdown of the approximately 2.2 million Union Enlistments signed:
Number Percent Origin

1,000,000 45.4 Native-born white Americans.

216,000 9.7 German-born

African-American. Half were freedmen who lived in the North, and half
were ex-slaves from the South. They served under mainly white officers
210,000 9.5
in more than 160 "colored" regiments and in Federal U.S. regiments
organized as the United States Colored Troops (USCT).[13][14][15][16]

200,000 9.1 Irish-born

90,000 4.1 Dutch.

50,000 2.3 Canadian.[17]

50,000 2.3 Born in England.

French or French Canadian. About half were born in the United States of
40,000 1.8
America, the other half in Quebec.[17]

20,000 0.9 Nordic (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Danish).

7,000 0.3 Italian

7,000 0.3 Jewish

6,000 0.2 Mexican

Polish (many of whom served in the Polish Legion of Brig. Gen.

5,000 0.2
Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski)

Native Americans, mostly Lenape, Pamunkey, Lumbee, Seneca and

4,000 0.1
Muscogee

295,000 6.4 Several hundred of other various nationalities

Many immigrant soldiers formed their

own regiments, such as the Irish Brigade
(69th New York, 63rd New York, 88th
New York, 28th Massachusetts, 116th
Pennsylvania); the Swiss Rifles (15th
Missouri); the Gardes de Lafayette (55th
New York); the Garibaldi Guard (39th
New York); the Martinez Militia (1st New
Mexico); the Polish Legion (58th New
York); the German Rangers; Sigel Rifles
(52nd New York, inheriting the 7th); the
Cameron Highlanders (79th New York
Volunteer Infantry); and the Scandinavian
Regiment (15th Wisconsin). But for the
most part, the foreign-born soldiers were
scattered as individuals throughout
units.[18]
For comparison, the Confederate Army
was not very diverse: 91% of Confederate
soldiers were native born white men and
only 9% were foreign-born white men,
Irish being the largest group with others
including Germans, French, Mexicans
(though most of them simply happened
to have been born when the Southwest
was still part of Mexico), and British.
Some Confederate propaganda
condemned foreign-born soldiers in the
Union Army, likening them to the hated
Hessians of the American Revolution.
Also, a relatively small number of Native
Americans (Cherokee, Chickasaw,
Choctaw, and Creek) fought for the
Confederacy.

Army administration and

issues
Various organizational and
administrative issues arose during the
war, which had a major effect on
subsequent military procedures.
Portrait of an African American Union soldier at
Benton Barracks

Blacks in the army …

The inclusion of blacks as combat

soldiers became a major issue.
Eventually, it was realized, especially
after the valiant effort of the 54th
Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the
Battle of Fort Wagner, that blacks were
fully able to serve as competent and
reliable soldiers. This was partly due to
the efforts of Robert Smalls, who, while
still a slave, won fame by defecting from
the Confederacy, and bringing a
Confederate transport ship which he was
piloting. He later met with Edwin Stanton,
Secretary of War, to argue for including
blacks in combat units. This led to the
formation of the first combat unit for
black soldiers, the 1st South Carolina
Volunteers. Regiments for black soldiers
were eventually referred to as United
States Colored Troops. Black Soldiers
were paid less than white Soldiers until
late in the war and were, in general,
treated harshly.

Unit supplies …
Battlefield supplies were a major
problem. They were greatly improved by
new techniques in preserving food and
other perishables, and in transport by
railroad. General Montgomery C. Meigs
was one of the most important Union
Army leaders in this field.

Military tactics …

The Civil War drove many innovations in

military tactics.[19] W. J. Hardee
published the first revised infantry tactics
for use with modern rifles in 1855.
However, even these tactics proved
ineffective in combat, as it involved
massed volley fire, in which entire units
(primarily regiments) would fire
simultaneously. These tactics had not
been tested before in actual combat, and
the commanders of these units would
post their soldiers at incredibly close
range, compared to the range of the rifled
musket, which led to very high mortality
rates. In a sense, the weapons had
evolved beyond the tactics, which would
soon change as the war drew to a
close.[20] Railroads provided the first
mass movement of troops. The electric
telegraph was used by both sides, which
enabled political and senior military
leaders to pass orders to and receive
reports from commanders in the field.[21]

There were many other innovations

brought by necessity. Generals were
forced to reexamine the offensive
minded tactics developed during the
Mexican–American War where attackers
could mass to within 100 yards of the
defensive lines, the maximum effective
range of smoothbore muskets. Attackers
would have to endure one volley of
inaccurate smoothbore musket fire
before they could close with the
defenders. But by the Civil War, the
smoothbores had been replaced with
rifled muskets, using the quick loadable
minié ball, with accurate ranges up to
900 yards. Defense now dominated the
battlefield. Now attackers, whether
advancing in ordered lines or by rushes,
were subjected to three or four aimed
volleys before they could get among the
defenders. This made offensive tactics
that were successful only 20 years
before nearly obsolete.[22]

Desertions and draft riots

Rioters attacking a building during the New York
anti-draft riots of 1863

Desertion was a major problem for both

sides. The daily hardships of war, forced
marches, thirst, suffocating heat,
disease, delay in pay, solicitude for
family, impatience at the monotony and
futility of inactive service, panic on the
eve of battle, the sense of war-weariness,
the lack of confidence in commanders,
and the discouragement of defeat
(especially early on for the Union Army),
all tended to lower the morale of the
Union Army and to increase
desertion.[23][24]

In 1861 and 1862, the war was going

badly for the Union Army and there were,
by some counts, 180,000 desertions. In
1863 and 1864, the bitterest two years of
the war, the Union Army suffered over
200 desertions every day, for a total of
150,000 desertions during those two
years. This puts the total number of
desertions from the Union Army during
the four years of the war at nearly
350,000. Using these numbers, 15% of
Union soldiers deserted during the war.
Official numbers put the number of
deserters from the Union Army at
200,000 for the entire war, or about 8% of
Union Army soldiers. Since desertion is
defined as being AWOL for 30 or more
days and some soldiers returned within
that time period, as well as some
deserters being labeled missing-in-action
or vice versa, accurate counts are
difficult to determine. Many historians
estimate the "real" desertion rate in the
Union Army as between 9–12%.[25] About
1 out of 3 deserters returned to their
regiments, either voluntarily or after
being arrested and being sent back.
Many of the desertions were by
"professional" bounty men, men who
would enlist to collect the often large
cash bonuses and then desert at the
earliest opportunity to do the same
elsewhere. If not caught and executed, it
could prove a very lucrative criminal
enterprise.[26][27]

The Irish were the main participants in

the famous "New York Draft riots" of
1863.[28] Stirred up by the instigating
rhetoric of Democratic politicians,[29] the
Irish had shown the strongest support for
Southern aims prior to the start of the
war and had long opposed abolitionism
and the free black population, regarding
them as competition for jobs and
blaming them for driving down wages.
Alleging that the war was merely an
upper class abolitionist war to free
slaves who might move north and
compete for jobs and housing, the poorer
classes did not welcome a draft,
especially one from which a richer man
could buy an exemption. The poor
formed clubs that would buy exemptions
for their unlucky members. As a result of
the Enrollment Act, rioting began in
several Northern cities, the most heavily
hit being New York City. A mob reported
as consisting principally of Irish
immigrants rioted in the summer of
1863, with the worst violence occurring
in July during the Battle of Gettysburg.
The mob set fire to everything from
African American churches and an
orphanage for "colored children" as well
as the homes of certain prominent
Protestant abolitionists. A mob was
reportedly repulsed from the offices of
the staunchly pro-Union New York Tribune
by workers wielding and firing two
Gatling guns. The principal victims of the
rioting were African Americans and
activists in the anti-slavery movement.
Not until victory was achieved at
Gettysburg could the Union Army be sent
in; some units had to open fire to quell
the violence and stop the rioters. By the
time the rioting was over, perhaps up to
1,000 people had been killed or
wounded.[30] There were a few small
scale draft riots in rural areas of the
Midwest and in the coal regions of
Pennsylvania.[31][32]

See also
American Civil War Corps Badges
Commemoration of the American Civil
War
Grand Army of the Republic
Irish Americans in the American Civil
War
German Americans in the American
Civil War
Hispanics in the American Civil War
Italian Americans in the Civil War
Native Americans in the American Civil
War
Military history of African Americans
Uniform of the Union Army
United States National Cemeteries
Army of the Frontier
Army of the Southwest
I Corps
II Corps
III Corps
IV Corps
V Corps
VI Corps
VII Corps
VIII Corps
IX Corps
X Corps
XI Corps
XII Corps
XIII Corps
XIV Corps
 XV Corps
XVI Corps
XVII Corps
XVIII Corps
XIX Corps
XX Corps
XXI Corps
XXII Corps
XXIII Corps
XXIV Corps
XXV Corps
Cavalry Corps

Notes
1. "Civil War Facts" . American
Battlefield Trust.
2. McPherson, pp.36–37.
3. Civil War Casualties
4. Newell, Clayton R. The Regular Army
before the Civil War, 1845–1860
(PDF). US Army Campaigns of the
Civil War. US Army, Center of Military
History. pp. 50, 52.
5. Hattaway & Jones, pp. 9–10.
6. Hattaway & Jones, p. 10.
7. The Civil War Book of Lists, p. 56
8. "Civil War Army Organization and
Rank" . North Carolina Museum of
 History. Archived from the original
on June 27, 2012. Retrieved
February 14, 2012.
9. Eicher, pp. 37–38.
10. McPherson, James M. (1997). For
Cause and Comrades: Why Men
Fought in the Civil War . New York
City: Oxford University Press, Inc.
p. 118. ISBN 0-19-509-023-3.
OCLC 34912692 . Retrieved
March 10, 2016. "While restoration of
the Union was the main goal for
which they fought, they became
convinced that this goal was
 unattainable without striking against
slavery."
11. Sanitary Commission Report, 1869
12. Chippewa County, Wisconsin Past
and Present, Volume II. Chicago: S.J.
Clarke Publishing Company, 1913. p.
258.
13. Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle:
The Civil War Alliance of Black
Soldiers and White Officers (2000)
14. McPherson, James M.; Lamb, Brian
(May 22, 1994). "James McPherson:
What They Fought For, 1861–1865" .
Booknotes. National Cable Satellite
Corporation. Archived from the
 original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved
March 9, 2016. "About 180,000 black
soldiers and an estimated 10,000
black sailors fought in the Union
Army and Navy, all of them in late
1862 or later, except for some blacks
who enrolled in the Navy earlier."
15. "General Orders No. 14" . Civil War on
the Western Border: The Missouri-
Kansas Conflict, 1855–1865. Kansas
City: The Kansas City Public Library.
Archived from the original on
November 5, 2014. Retrieved
November 5, 2014. "[V]ery few blacks
serve in the Confederate armed
 forces, as compared to hundreds of
thousands who serve for the Union."
16. Foner, Eric (October 27, 2010). "Book
Discussion on The Fiery Trial" . C-
SPAN. Washington, D.C. Retrieved
March 17, 2016.
17. Loewen, James W. (2007). Lies My
Teacher Told Me: Everything Your
American History Textbook Got
Wrong . New York: The New Press.
Retrieved March 8, 2016. "Forty
thousand Canadians alone, some of
them black, came south to volunteer
for the Union cause."
18. The 52nd New York State
Volunteers
19. Perry D. Jamieson, Crossing the
Deadly Ground: United States Army
Tactics, 1865–1899 (2004)
20. John K. Mahon, "Civil War Infantry
Assault Tactics." Military Affairs
(1961): 57–68.
21. Paddy Griffith, Battle tactics of the
civil war (Yale University Press, 1989)
22. Earl J. Hess (2015). Civil War Infantry
Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-
Unit Effectiveness . LSU Press. p. 1.
23. Ella Lonn, Desertion During the Civil
War (U of Nebraska Press, 1928)
24. Chris Walsh, "'Cowardice Weakness
or Infirmity, Whichever It May Be
Termed': A Shadow History of the
Civil War." Civil War History (2013)
59#4 pp: 492–526.Online
25. "Desertion (Confederate) during the
Civil War" . encyclopediavirginia.org.
Retrieved October 13, 2017.
26. Shannon Smith Bennett, "Draft
Resistance and Rioting." in Maggi M.
Morehouse and Zoe Trodd, eds., Civil
War America: A Social and Cultural
History with Primary Sources (2013)
ch 1
27. Peter Levine, "Draft evasion in the
North during the Civil War, 1863–
1865." Journal of American History
(1981): 816–834. online Archived
March 4, 2016, at the Wayback
Machine
28. Adrian Cook, The armies of the
streets: the New York City draft riots
of 1863 (1974).
29. McPherson, James M. (1996). Drawn
with the Sword: Reflections on the
American Civil War . New York:
Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 91–
92. "Rioters were mostly Irish
Catholic immigrants and their
children. They mainly attacked the
members of New York's small black
population. For a year, Democratic
leaders had been telling their Irish-
American constituents that the
wicked 'Black Republicans' were
waging the war to free the slaves
who would come north and take
away the jobs of Irish workers. The
use of black stevedores as scabs in
a recent strike by Irish dockworkers
made this charge seem plausible.
The prospect of being drafted to fight
to free the slaves made the Irish even
more receptive to demogogic
rhetoric."
30. Iver Bernstein, The New York City
Draft Riots: Their Significance for
American Society and Politics in the
Age of the Civil War (1990)
31. Shannon M. Smith, "Teaching Civil
War Union Politics: Draft Riots in the
Midwest." OAH Magazine of History
(2013) 27#2 pp: 33–36. online
32. Kenneth H. Wheeler, "Local
Autonomy and Civil War Draft
Resistance: Holmes County, Ohio."
Civil War History. v.45#2 1999. pp
147+ online edition

References
Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher.
Civil War High Commands. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of
U.S. Grant . 2 vols. Charles L. Webster
& Company, 1885–86. ISBN 0-914427-
67-9.
Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle:
The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers
and White Officers. New York: Free
Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0-02-911815-3.
Hattaway, Herman, and Archer Jones.
How the North Won: A Military History
of the Civil War. Urbana: University of
 Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-00918-
5.
McPherson, James M. What They
Fought For, 1861–1865. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
ISBN 978-0-8071-1904-4.

Further reading
Bledsoe, Andrew S. Citizen-Officers:
The Union and Confederate Volunteer
Junior Officer Corps in the American
Civil War. Baton Rouge, Louisiana:
Louisiana State University Press, 2015.
ISBN 978-0-8071-6070-1.
Canfield, Daniel T. "Opportunity Lost:
Combined Operations and the
Development of Union Military
Strategy, April 1861 – April 1862."
Journal of Military History 79.3 (2015).
Kahn, Matthew E., and Dora L. Costa.
"Cowards and Heroes: Group Loyalty in
the American Civil War." Quarterly
journal of economics 2 (2003): 519–
548. online version
Nevins, Allan. The War for the Union.
Vol. 1, The Improvised War 1861–1862.
The War for the Union. Vol. 2, War
Becomes Revolution 1862–1863. Vol. 3,
The Organized War 1863–1864. Vol. 4,
The Organized War to Victory 1864–
1865. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960–
71. ISBN 1-56852-299-1.)
Prokopowicz, Gerald J. All for the
Regiment: the Army of the Ohio, 1861–
1862 (UNC Press, 2014). online
Shannon, Fred A. The Organization and
Administration of the Union Army
1861–1865 . 2 vols. Gloucester, MA: P.
Smith, 1965. OCLC 428886 . First
published 1928 by A.H. Clark Co.
Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army,
1861–1865 Organization and
Operations. Vol. 1, The Eastern Theater.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
 1989. ISBN 0-253-36453-1; . The Union
Army, 1861–1865 Organization and
Operations. Vol. 2, The Western
Theater. (1993). ISBN 0-253-36454-X.

External links

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related to Union Army.

Civil War Home: Ethnic groups in the

Union Army
"The Common Soldier", HistoryNet
A Manual of Military Surgery , by
Samuel D. Gross, MD (1861), the
manual used by doctors in the Union
Army.
Union Army Historical Pictures
U.S. Civil War Era Uniforms and
Accoutrements
Louis N. Rosenthal lithographs ,
depicting over 50 Union Army camps,
are available for research use at the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Official Army register of the Volunteer
Force 1861; 1862; 1863; 1864; 1865
Civil War National Cemeteries
Christian Commission of Union Dead
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols 1–8
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols 9–
12
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols 13–
15
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols. 16–
17
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vol. 18
Roll of Honor: names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vol. 19
 Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols. 20–
21
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols, 22–
23
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in Defense of the Union Vols. 24–
27
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who
died in defense of the Union Vol.
XXVII

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