Civil War Infantry

Infantry regiments were the first line of defense on the Civil War battlefield for most of the war. Although modern military weapons and tactics – such as repeating rifles and trench warfare – that lessened the reliance on infantry regiments grew in importance toward the end of the war, infantry men, who fought on foot with small arms, were at the front lines of battle, and as a result, these soldiers bore the brunt of the fighting, as well as the brunt of the casualties.

While there were differences in organization in the Northern and Southern armies, most infantry regiments during the war consisted of 10 companies, made up of around 100 soldiers commanded by captains and lieutenants, who were in turn commanded by colonels and often a major.

Many of the infantry divisions who initially fought in the Civil War were manned by volunteers, who were commanded by officers who were appointed by officials in the individual states who financed these volunteer groups, or by selected by the infantry groups themselves. As the war progressed, the task of appointing officers for these infantry divisions was taken over by the military leaders of the United States and the Confederacy.

Despite the fact that these infantry men were at the front lines of battle, the fact that most of these regiments were made up of volunteers meant that few were trained specifically for military duty at the start of the war. Although most regiments were drilled by their leaders, these officers often relied on period books about infantry tactics rather than first-hand experience, as most of the men who had battlefield experience, usually from the Mexican-American War, were placed in higher command positions. As such, the amount of formal military training that infantry groups received before the war, or even as they organized during the war, was often scant; most of their training was of the on-the-job variety.

Infantry groups were marching soldiers, and thus were armed with small weapons. Typical weapons used by infantry regiments during the Civil War were smoothbore muskets, although as weaponry progressed throughout the war, some infantry men were outfitted with Springfield muskets or other rifles. In addition to his weapon, the Civil War-era infantry soldier would carry with him personal effects; while Union soldiers carried their items in a pack, most Confederate infantry men carriest theirs in their blanket. Soldiers would carry with them their gun, ammunition, a canteen, and often a knife or pistol.

The infantry regiments were crucial to both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War, comprising approximately 80% of the armies of both the North and the South. These infantry men were the first line of defense for the army during battle, despite being armed with only muskets or rifles in an age of cannons and repeating rifles. As foot soldiers who were the first to go into battle, often in hand to hand combat, infantry divisions often suffered the highest casualties during the war.