A Question

I'll have Part IV of 1861 for the officers of the 1st Cavalry completed by the weekend. I'll need to do something similar with the other regiments to gain an idea of relative strength and experience of the Regulars by the end of the year. Since I haven't seen any comments on the series as yet from readers, I have a question --- do the lists of who is where at the end of each segment help at all, or should I drop them?

They help me keep things straight, particularly in the heavy resignation months, but if they don't help the entry there's no point in listing them here. I keep them on a spreadsheet or two in order to keep them straight enough in my head to write about.

One thing about tracking by 'eachs' is that it has led to several interesting match-ups of officers formerly of the same unit on opposing sides early in the war. McIntosh as a Confederate regimental commander against Sturgis with part of the 1st US Cavalry at Wilson's Creek, for example.

I haven't looked at enough material yet for any conclusions, but it's beginning to appear that the experience level of the Regulars by the beginning of the Peninsula Campaign wasn't much better than that of the volunteer regiments around them. Time will tell.

Comments, incidentally are certainly welcome in case I failed to mention that before.