We are “Company B, 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment”.

So, just what does that actually mean? What’s a company? What’s a regiment? What does “volunteer” mean? If we are the 30th, what about the other twenty-nine? And were there more?

A company was the lowest level of organization within the army at the time of the Civil War. Its official strength was to be as follows:

The captain and lieutenants were “commissioned” officers, meaning their appointments came from the President (for the Regular Army) or a state governor. Sergeants and Corporals were “non-commissioned” officers, whose “warrants” came from a regiment’s Colonel.

Occasionally, there could be a 3rd Lieutenant added to a company, who was considered, for all practical purposes, an additional 2nd Lieutenant, with similar duties.

1 Captain
1 First Lieutenant
1 Second Lieutenant
1 First Sergeant
4 Sergeants
8 Corporals
2 Musicians (traditionally, a drummer and fifer
1 Teamster (wagon driver)
64 (minimum) to 82 (maximum) Privates

Companies in the Civil War were usually made up of men from the same town, county, or part of a city. Quite often, they knew each other well, and would sometimes include men from the same family or family groups. They would form together and head off to a muster camp, such as Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, or Camp Dennison in Cincinnati, where they would offer their services to the government, along with many other groups of men. If accepted, they would be “mustered in” to service for a specified period of time. Early in the war, this could be for as little as 90 days, although later, when it was seen that the war would last longer than expected, enlistments of three years seemed to be the norm, with “for the duration of the war” also being noted. Enlistments of one and two years were also seen.

So how were the officers determined? That tended to vary somewhat.

Often times, the man who recruited the company would be designated the captain, and others who helped him would become the lieutenants. Early in the war, it was also common for men to select their officers and NCO’s by voting. Many of these men had to be replaced when it became apparent that popularity was no substitute for common sense and skill. Once casualties began to occur, promotion from within the ranks and reassignment from other companies within the regiment would fill the open positions.

Once mustered into service, the company would be assigned to a regiment, which usually consisted of ten (10) companies. Within the regiment, each company was given a letter designation from A to K (skipping the letter “J”, which was too easily confused with the written “I”).

In addition to the companies, the regiment would also have:

1 Colonel
1 Lieutenant Colonel
1 Major
1 Adjutant (usually a Lieutenant)
1 Quartermaster (usually a Lieutenant)
1 Surgeon
2 Assistant Surgeons
1 Hospital Steward
1 Chaplain
1 Sgt. Major
1 Quartermaster Sgt.
1 Commissary Sgt.

Since volunteer regiments were formed within the individual states, they were designated by a number and by the state in which they were formed; for example, our own 30th Ohio. The regiment’s number did not always indicate the order in which the regiments had become activated.

Most of the regiments formed in the war were made up of volunteers, as the regular army was quite small before the war. As a volunteer unit, our regiment was known as the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, rather than Regular Infantry.

The State of Ohio formed 198 volunteer infantry regiments. In addition, Ohio men also served in some regiments “supposedly” from West Virginia and Kentucky. The 18th U.S. Infantry, established in May of 1861 in Ohio, consisted of an astounding 24 companies!

As companies combined to form regiments, regiments combined to form brigades, then divisions, corps, and armies. Usually, two to four subgroups would combine to form the

next higher organization level, up through the level of the Corps. An “army” could be as small as a brigade, or contain several corps, depending upon need.