After the Fighting Stopped - The Demobilization of the Civil War Armies

What happened to the armies of the Civil War after the fighting stopped and the defeated combatants surrendered? How did the soldiers get home? What were their experiences in traveling home? These are some of the questions that will be answered.

After the surrender of the Confederate Armies, the first being Gen Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, thousands of soldiers of both armies, the union troops of the Army of the Potomac and the defeated confederates had to be disbanded. The difference between the Union and Confederate soldier in getting home was vastly different.

The northern soldier was returning to a land virtually untouched by war. He was well fed, given new uniforms, was able to travel by train or boat to his home state. The North had a demobilization plan, the South did not.

For the confederate soldier there were no plans to get him home, he was left to find his way home as best as he could. More times than not, he had little or no money, he wasn't paid in months, the railroad system in the South was in poor shape due to the war. His home most likely was affected by the war, some lost everything, houses burned, trees and orchards leveled and families displaced.

The Union had a well thought out and organized plan for demobilization of the volunteer armies. Part of the plan was to move corps or divisions to a place called "field rendezvous points" to start the demobilization process. Paperwork had to be completed, muster-out rolls and payrolls were prepared there. This was an enormous task due to the vast amount of soldiers to be processed, there were slightly more than a million men in the union army after Lee's surrender and by the third week in November, 801,000 had been mustered out and discharged.[1]

The union soldiers could retain their weapons if they wanted to. A letter dated Jun 10, 1865 from the Adjutant General's office gave a price for each arms. Muskets $6, Spencer Carbines $10, All other carbines $8, Sabers and Swords $3.[2] They were allowed to keep their knapsacks, haversacks and canteens without charge.

While waiting to be discharged, the men were fed, given adequate rations. They were also paid all back wages. The process took time and different regiments were discharged at different times, but given the immense scope of the task, demobilization went at a good pace.

One big advantage the northern soldier had was the way they made it home. The railroad was used extensively, the trains were in good condition and tracks were sound. Soldiers were able to travel to their home state in comfort and in relatively short time. There were four major railroad lines that ran from the East Coast to the Midwest. They were the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the New York Central and the Baltimore and Ohio, which began and ended in the North. The B&O most of the railroad was located in the South, but proved to be important to the Union during the war.

For the Confederate Soldier getting home after the war was very different than his Union counterpart. For most it meant walking, many had no money and had to beg for food on their way home. The Confederate Government had no demobilization plans and made no provisions for their troops getting to their home states. At the fall of the government and the surrender of the rebel armies, it was left up to each individual soldier to make his way home.

Not only did they have no money or transportation, they had to look out for Union troops that patrolled the countryside of the South. In most cases the victorious Union soldiers treated the returning Southern soldier as brother Americans, but there were also cases of undo harassment. Railroads in the south after the war were very limited in what the rails could handle. Due to the war, many railroad lines were destroyed and trains could only go so far before being force to stop. What trains that were running were used by the Federal Government to transport the Union soldiers and equipment to the North.

As Francis Lowley, an Englishman observed at the surrender at Appomattox "By the evening of the 12^th the paroles were...distributed, and the disbanded men began to scatter through the country. Hardly one of them had a farthing of money. Some of them had from 1,500 to 2,000 miles to travel over a country of which the scanty railroads were utterly annihilated."[3]

The common Confederate Soldier after the surrender was tall, thin, with long hair and beard. They wore the uniform of Southern gray, most were ragged and dirty, some without shoes. As compared to the Union soldier who for the most part had a good uniform with sound shoes and were well fed. It took some of the rebel soldiers months to reach their homes, in many cases to fine what was once a beautiful farm, laid waste and barren as a result of the war.

Another area of the demobilization process was the prisoners of war (POW). For the Union POW's in the South, the move north was aided by government transportation, trains and wagons. For the Southern POW's in the North, many were released and told to find their own way home. Some were aided by friendly Northern people and given aid to obtain transportation at least part of the way South. Many had to beg for food or find work to earn enough money to buy a train ticket. The journey from a Northern prison camp for many was a long and discouraging one.

For soldiers of both sides, returning to civilian life after four years of daily trying to stay alive and getting ready for the next battle was sometimes tough to handle. For the Northern soldier, their homes and lifestyle was essentially the same as it was when he left for the war, for most he could go back to his civilian employment and earn a living, but the Southern soldier had a very different experience. Dramatic changes had occurred while he was away fighting. The lifestyle and social life that he once enjoyed was gone; in some cases no longer did he have someone to do the work for him. He now was faced with earning a living by his own hand, his own labor, which he was not use to. Gone were the days of soft living and carefree lifestyle.

The years after the war was years of healing a nation and relationships between two American faction that had very different views and beliefs. The war was fought by individual soldiers, he left family, homes and dreams and went off to defend their right live as they thought right. Many never returned home, many returned home with lives forever changed never more to know life as it was before April 1861.

[1] Homeward Bound, The Demobilization of the Union & Confederate Armies 1865-1866 by William B. Holberton

[2] [2] Homeward Bound, The Demobilization of the Union & Confederate Armies 1865-1866 by William B. Holberton

[3] [3] Homeward Bound, The Demobilization of the Union & Confederate Armies 1865-1866 by William B. Holberton