"ACW Order of Battle, determining the # Figures" Topic

Most rules have some way of determining the number of figures/stands to represent regiments in an ACW scenario. When determining the number of figures/stands do you count officers as well as enlisted men? Just curious why or why not.

I think it is pretty typical to count the strength on the field -- both officer and enlisted. Unless you are playing a skirmish game, I don't know why you would do otherwise.

However, a case can be made that if you only use the figure for the number of men on the firing line, you will get a more accurate regimental frontage for your miniature unit.

Two problems. First, finding that number. Anybody who has researched unit strengths knows how much of a mystery this can be and how much detective work can go into finding an accurate number for a historical unit. For a pick-up game its not an issue.

Second, it might not be that important. Its a simulation/game. Don't sweat the small stuff.

For myself, I try to use the number representing officers and men present at the battle, not just on the firing line. Its usually an easier number to find.

Well, two issues:

1. As the officers and most NCOs were not in the rank and file of the enlisted men, they would not add to the frontage. We have constantly run into this issue in recreating battles. For instance, with a Fire & Fury scenario for the Second and third day of Gettysburg, the brigades in line did not 'fit' into the spaces they did historically… too big. When we subtracted out the 10-15% officers and NCOs, they did fit in and through the terrain they did originally.

2. Depending on the year and which army, CSA or USA, rosters and other counts may detail officers apart from men, or they might, without mentioning it, simply give the enlisted numbers OR both officers and men together. You have to be careful.

Bill

McLaddie, You wrote:

1. As the officers and most NCOs were not in the rank and file of the enlisted men, they would not add to the frontage. We have constantly run into this issue in recreating battles. For instance, with a Fire & Fury scenario for the Second and third day of Gettysburg, the brigades in line did not 'fit' into the spaces they did historically… too big. When we subtracted out the 10-15% officers and NCOs, they did fit in and through the terrain they did originally.

Another possibility is that the strength included all the officers and men, but didn't subtract for detailed men. For example, the 3rd Maine in the June 30th 1863 consolidated report shows a strength of 210 men and officers. Yet there are also another 23 men who atre detailed for duty elsewhere. These include provost at Brigade HQ, men detailed to Brigade and Division hospitals as clerks, cooks, etc, a couple detached as clerks to Division HQ, and so forth. Going through the muster rolls, you find that between 12 & 15% of every unit's strength is detailed off for "other" duty. An extreme example is the 16th Maine, who had 66 men detached for service as artillerists to support one of the batteries in it's division. It was from these men that the 16th was rebuilt after being overrun on the 1st day.

The consolidated monthly reports, which are available at most state archives and also at the LoC sheds a lot of interesting light on the numbers present FOR THAT DAY. In almost every case, federal returns list totals as "men and officers" present for duty. There are then other columns on each report listing detached service, in hospital, sick in quarters, light duty, and on and on.

Having said all of that, one of the best resources for federal troops are the various volumes of "……. At Gettysburg". For example, "Maine at Gettysburg", New York at Gettysburg", etc. Each volume has a short synopsis of every unit that participated and almost always lists of those present, casualties, etc, plus a total of those present for duty when engaged. Lots of interesting tidbits in all of them.

V/R

For instance, with a Fire & Fury scenario for the Second and third day of Gettysburg, the brigades in line did not 'fit' into the spaces they did historically… too big

Which ground scale/ figure ratio were you using?

Biggest problem with ACW units is representing all the units in a Brigade – if you have a mind too do it accurately.

The size that some regiments shrank too was pretty crazy on occasions and regardless of the pat answer "amalgamation" it wasn't always done!

Saber6;

We were using the smaller scale of F&F.

Just to add to the OOB issues, the CSA handled rosters differently than the Union. What TKindred described above is how the Union army did it. The CSA only counted those actually present for duty at the time of the count.

Standing at the Union line that faced Pickett's charge, I was amazed at the small frontages of each unit. It is really clear there, where units have markers for each flank.

In my experience, the Confederates mostly used two classifications. Effective and Present for Duty. Effective is almost always just the men on the firing line actually shooting. Present For Duty is everyone in the regiment, including officers and senior NCOs not on the line. However, it may not include such members as musicians, the teamsters for the regiment's wagons I(if present) etc.