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AN ANALYSIS OF UNIT COHESION IN THE 42nd ALABAMA INFANTRY
By
Samuel L. Askew III
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER
ABSTRACT
On 16 May 1862, 904 soldiers formed ranks for the first time and unfurled the virgin colors of the 42nd Alabama Infantry Regiment. These 904 soldiers were a mixture of veterans, volunteers, conscripts, and substitutes. The regiment participated in nine western theater battles and their associated campaigns. These campaigns included Corinth, Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Atlanta, and Bentonville. Not one battle was a victory but the heat of battle forged a band of brothers tempered with time. The regiment cased its colors for the last time on 9 April 1865 in a desolate North Carolina field; only ninety-eight soldiers remained at the end of this bloody national struggle. This thesis will identify the timeless factors of cohesion within the 42nd Alabama. This thesis will further determine the most prominent of these factors, specifically within the remaining ninety eight soldiers. Finally, this thesis will explore the value of cohesion to the current military force. This thesis incorporated sources from the The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Confederate Veteran, The Southern Historical Papers, personal diaries and letters, census records, compiled service records, sources from the Alabama State Archives and the National Park Service. After the examination of numerous factors, to include discipline, leadership, and morale, the common factor that held the core members of the unit together until the end was the original volunteer soldiers of 1861. These soldiers formed the cohesive bond of the unit by instilling a common conviction and devotion to duty within the 42nd Alabama. The final analysis reinforces the value of the volunteer soldier and the worth of an all-volunteer force.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to acknowledge the advice and guidance of my committee chair, Dr. Glenn Robertson, for guiding me through this process. Committee Member, Major Kevin Wilson, for providing his editorial skills and technical guidance. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the staff of the Combined Arms Research Library for their helpful assistance in the acquisition of resource material and the National Military Park historians: James Ogdon, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Terry Winchel, Vicksburg, and Stacey Allen, Shiloh for their advice and sources. My wife Sarah for tolerating my long hours of research, my daughter Katherine for allowing Dad to use her computer time, and my father Samuel L. Askew Jr. for providing research assistance.
This thesis is dedicated to the soldiers of the American Civil War. These soldiers include my ancestors; Joseph H. Askew who at the age of eighteen was a member of Forrests Escort, and Sergeant Samuel N. Snow of the 8th Mississippi, who at the age of twenty-five gave the Last Full Measure at Resaca. Lastly, I must mention my primary inspiration for this study, George Washington Askew, my great, great grandfather, who served as a 1st Lieutenant in F Company, 42nd Alabama Infantry. During Georges last years in this world, in a 1912 letter to a friend George wrote of looking forward to the reunion at Mobile. George certainly never forgot the sacrifices of this terrible ordeal and remembered his comrades in the 42nd Alabama. The service and sacrifice of the soldiers the 42nd Alabama should always be remembered and the lessons learned from this bloody struggle should never be forgotten.
CHAPTER 1 A REGIMENT IS FORGED
We were then sent to Columbus, Miss., to be formed into a regiment, and thence into a brigade. The letter of our company was A, as it happened to be the first to arrive, and our regiment was the 42nd Alabama, with John W. Portis of Suggsville, Clark County, Ala., in command. {1} R. A. Lambert, Confederate Veteran
Introduction
On 16 May 1862, 904 soldiers formed ranks for the first time and unfurled the virgin colors of the 42nd Alabama Infantry Regiment. These 904 soldiers were a mixture of veterans, volunteers, conscripts, and substitutes. The one commonality of these soldiers at their first formation at Camp Hardee, Mississippi was their obligation to serve the Confederate States of America (CSA). Throughout the war, the regiment participated in nine western theater battles and their associated campaigns. {2} Not one battle was a victory but the heat of battle forged a band of brothers tempered and galvanized by a common bond which survived the war. The regiment cased its colors for the last time on 9 April 1865 in a desolate North Carolina field; only ninety-eight soldiers remained.
The 19th Century military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, wrote in his analytical study of war On War :
Whatever may be done to nationalize Wars, and however much we may imagine times have changed...never will it be possible to do away with the individuality of the business; and if that cannot be done, then those who belong to it, as long as they belong to it, will always look upon themselves as a kind of guild.... This corporate spirit forms the bond of union between the natural forces which are active in that which we have called military virtue. The crystals of military virtue have a greater affinity for the spirit of a corporate body than for anything else. {3}
This thesis will identify these timeless factors of cohesion that Clausewitz referred to as the crystals of military virtue within the 42nd Alabama. William Darryl Hendersons work Cohesion, The Human Element in Combat defines cohesion as the bonding together of members of an organization/unit in such a way as to sustain their will and commitment to each other, their unit, and the mission. {4} Who were these ninety- eight soldiers and what factors bound them together until the end of this bloody national war? What lessons can be applied to todays U.S. Army (figure 1).
The Road to Muster
On 11 January 1861, Alabama became the fourth state to secede from the Union. With the division of the Union, war was inevitable. The Governor of Alabama requested volunteers to answer the call to arms. These volunteers formed the Army of Alabama, which consisted of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Alabama Infantry Regiment, and the 1st Alabama Artillery Battalion. Anticipating a short war, these volunteers enlisted for a period of one year and all enlisted during the national fervor of defending their new country.
