Item description: Opening paragraphs of a report submitted to the Secession Convention by the Military Board of North Carolina. The document contains information on military appointees and other schedules related to the state’s attempt to raise troops.
Item transcription:
STATE CONVENTION.] [JUNE 1861.
Ordered to be printed. Syme & Hall, Printers to the Convention.
STATE TROOPS.
To the Hon. Weldon N. Edwards
President of the Convention:
SIR: In reply to the resolution of the Convention, asking the Military Board to report on this day, at 10 o’clock, A.M., the number of State troops that have been raised by enlistment or otherwise; their places of rendezvous; the names of the commissioned officers; the number of privates, and non-commissioned officers; and the counties from whence they are furnished,–the Military Board have instructed me to say that as neither the enlistment papers nor the muster rolls are filed in this office, there are no data by which the information can be furnished.–Such information can only be had from the Adjutant General’s office, from the actual muster rolls. The Board have, however, procured from that officer an abstract of the number of men reported up to this time by the mustering officers, which can be found in Schedule marked C, appended to this report. Nor is it known officially where the respective Regiments are rendezvoused, from any official papers in this Department. From correspondence, however, with the various Commandants of Regiments, it is ascertained that the second, Col. Tew’s Regiment, the third, Col. Meares’ Regiment, the fourth, Col. Anderson’s Regiment, are rendezvoused at, Garysburg; the 5th, Col. McRae’s Regiment, at Halifax; the sixth, Col. Fisher’s Regiment, at Company’s Shops; the first, Col. Stokes’ Regiment, at Warrenton and the seventh, Col. Campbell’s Regiment, is under orders to rendezvous at the Company’s Shops when the sixth Regiment shall have left. The organization, of the eighth Regiment commenced but a few days since.
This State force, unlike the Volunteers, has not been drawn from Counties, but has been recruited from all parts of the State. Until all the troops are mustered into the service, the number of privates and non-commissioned officers, the latter of whom are appointed by the Colonels respectively, cannot be ascertained.
The resolution asks for the names of the commissioned officers. Not a single commission has been issued to any officer of a Regiment. The necessities of the service have not yet called for the issue of commissions; and the immense pressure of business on every department of the military, with the very inadequate clerical force at their disposal, has precluded the execution of any business which could be postponed without injury to the service.
It is thought, however, that instead of commissioned officers, the real wish of the Convention was to obtain the names of the appointees. On the 27th of May, His Excellency, the Governor, in answer to a call of the Convention, reported the names of the appointees up to that date, and they will be found in Schedule C of that Document, to which the Board refer–pages 20 to 24, inclusive. Some of those persons have resigned or declined, and their names will be found in Schedule marked B, herewith. The names of the appointees since that period are to be found in schedule marked A.
It is proper to add that of these appointees, it is known that some have not yet accepted, that others will decline, and, from the difficulty in forming the companies, that others will ultimately be dropped, and not be included in the organization of a Regiment.
In schedule D, will be found a list of appointees made since the report of May, 27th, who have already declined the appointments conferred upon them.
The Board will be happy to communicate at any tine to the Convention any information it may be in their power relative to the military force of the State.
I have the honor to be, Sir, &c., &c.,
WARREN WINSLOW, President, &c.
June 26th, 1861.
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Item citation: From “State Troops.” [Raleigh, N.C.] : Syme & Hall, [1861], VC342.2 1861d v. 1, from the North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.
