Veteran Furlough: Practices, Pay, Incentives (sources)

Two Quotes about the Practice of Furloughs as Incentive, from The Union Must Stand: The Civil War Diary of John Quincy Adams Campbell

The Practice of Veteran Furloughs
(from pg 142, Google Preview of: The Union Must Stand…)

Part of the incentive to reenlist was a badge of honor for the unit.

"...if three-quarters of the men in a given regiment reenlisted, the unit could both retain its identity and add 'Veteran' to its official title (as in the 'Fifth Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry')." 

"...soldiers who reenlisted could immediately go home on 'veteran furlough,' rather than await the expiration of their terms of service. Returning veterans would also receive a federal bounty of four hundred dollars as well as varying amounts from state and local governments, but the 'veteran regiment' and 'veteran furlough' gambits were by far the most effective. Ultimately 136,000 Union veterans--slightly over half--decided to reenlist."

Note: April 1, 1864: date that Campbell returned home.

CITATION:
John Quincy Adams Campbell, Mark Grimsley, and Todd D. Miller, (Google Preview of) The Union Must Stand: The Civil War Diary of John Quincy Adams Campbell, (Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2000), (search result: "furlough," pg. 142). http://bit.ly/Union-Must-Stand-preview142-furloughs.

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"Soldier's Pay," A CCWRT Presentation by Moffat, 1965
http://www.cincinnaticwrt.org/data/ccwrt_history/talks_text/moffat_soldiers_pay.html

William C. Moffat, Jr., "Soldiers Pay" (Jan. 1965), (CCWRT History: "Talks"), Cincinnati Civil War Round Table (The Cincinnati Civil War Round Table, 2000). http://www.cincinnaticwrt.org/data/ccwrt_history/talks_text/moffat_soldiers_pay.html.
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More about pay and bonuses (link to article).

RELATED, THIS BLOG: FURLOUGHS AND INCENTIVES, VET RECALL

Veteran Furloughs: Understanding the Practice

Veteran Furloughs: Understanding the Practice

Trying to understand the effect of this recall. Logic says that if a soldier's term is up and he doesn't reenlist, he goes home. Therefore, if the furlough is cancelled or revoked, why not just say, "Then I won't reenlist"?

Well, the practice or tradition was that, if a soldier went ahead and reenlisted at the time of muster, then he could go home on leave before his term of service was up. It was still an incentive, because if he stayed to end of term, he might be badly wounded or killed before his term was up (or something else might come up), and he might never see home again.

Other incentives were used to tempt soldiers to reenlist. The army appealed to his regimental and personal pride and sense of honor (if 3/4 of the regiment reenlisted, the regiment could have "Veteran" added to its title, the regiment would be called the (xx) "Veteran Vols"; and the soldier could wear a specially made badge, a chevron, that designated him as a Veteran Volunteer.

There was also a $400 bonus, which was something like a year's pay.

It was a source of regimental pride and honor to keep one's regiment intact, to preserve the identity of the regiment; especially so to the commissioned officer who had formed and recruited the regiment. There was also a feeling of brotherhood and camaraderie among members of the regiment. When these officers went home on furlough, they actively recruited men for the depleted ranks of the regiment to maintain the regimental organization. (If they could not get enough men, the regiment's soldiers might be merged into another unit). At the time of the Spring 1864 furlough, James McPherson wrote to the governors of several states urging them to help fill the ranks of the states' regiments. I suppose the implication here is that he was asking for anything from state-given bonuses, calls for volunteers, encouragements to recruits, and even state drafts.

Related, in my own project: 

Second Michigan to be ReMounted, Refitted. 
When J.H. Wilson took over command of the cavalry in 1864, he noted that newly forming regiments were green and inexperienced. Some (such as the new Tennessee units) were disorganized and perhaps incompetent, made up of men who had avoided being conscripted into the enemy army, but had also avoided joining up with the Federals. He preferred, instead, to mount and refit his experienced veterans. He called for over twenty units to be refitted, including the Second Michigan Cavalry and the First Tennessee Vols (my particular subjects of interest).

Veteran Furloughs of the Second Michigan Cavalry
Marshall P. Thatcher, in A Hundred Battles in the West,  mentions veteran furloughs, new recruits, and "non-veterans," experienced soldiers who had not yet come to the end of their enlistments (182-183).

Note: Some of the furloughed vets must have already gone home. Maybe they got to finish their furloughs. However, non-veterans, and veterans whose furlough date or expectation of furlough was still upcoming at the time of the recall, probably did not get to go home early (364).

In April 1864, some of the Second Michigan vets were arrested in Chattanooga for disorderly conduct related to pillaging wood for quarters and assaulting an officer (not known to be an officer, says Thatcher). One of the threatened punishments was revocation of their furlough, but apparently, this was dropped. Instead, there was a brief stay in jail and a fine (390-391).

The veteran recall mentioned in O.R. came at about the same time that this incident happened. It could be that the pillaging incident mentioned by Thatcher, above, was used as an excuse; the Chief of Cavalry wanted the Second Michigan back, anyway (O.R., s.1, v.32, pt.3, 255-258). See my blog post.

Thatcher quotes camp records showing that the veterans left for home on April 14, 1864, and that they returned some time after the non-veterans moved on Resaca and Kennesaw, participating in actions in Georgia (184).

Also see: James H. Wilson, Chief of the Cavalry Bureau, Washington, to Edwin M. Stanton, 4 April 1864 (in O.R.).

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Citations:
Marshall P. Thatcher, A Hundred Battles in the West: St. Louis to Atlanta, 1861-1865: The Second Michigan Cavalry, (Detroit: Marshall P. Thatcher, 1884), 182-183, 364, 390-391.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 271.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 255-258.

RELATED, THIS BLOG: 

Sherman Gives Control to Thomas (rel. to Furloughed Veterans)

http://musescivilwar.blogspot.com/2016/08/sherman-gives-control-of-army-to-thomas.html

Correspondence (blog post, with O.R. reference): James H. Wilson, Chief of the Cavalry Bureau, Washington, to Edwin M. Stanton, 4 April 1864.
http://musescivilwar.blogspot.com/2016/07/correspondence-jh-wilson-chief-of.html

Posts about Furloughs and Incentives

Sherman Gives Control of Army to Thomas. Wants Furloughed Vets to Return, April 1864

Sherman Gives Control of Army to Thomas. Wants Furloughed Vets to Return

Sherman Gives Control of Army to Thomas
Hdqrs. Military Division of the Mississippi, Nashville, April 6, 1864.

Sherman to Thomas (Comdg. Department of the Cumberland, Chattanooga):

 (Army will) "retain control over our furloughed veterans."
"I have ordered, through the State authorities, all absentees to come forward at once, or at furthest at the expiration of their furloughs. I have also sent forward to General Schofield a division of 5,000 infantry (Hovey's), which once at or near Hiwassee will enable you to draw below that river all of the Fourth Corps heretofore detached. These changes simply give you the absolute control of the Army of the Cumberland proper, in a shape that will enable you to handle and control it perfectly."

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 271-272.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/280/

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Men Protest Suspension of Furlough; Offer to Reenlist if Furloughed.

Men protest the army's plan to retain control over furloughed veterans (not allowing reenlisting veterans to furlough). Men say they will reenlist if they can get the furlough.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, 60.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/69/?q=furlough________________________________________

RELATED: FURLOUGH, STATE OF CAVALRY; OTHER CORRESPONDENCE

Condition of Cavalry, Furloughs, and Horse Problems
Grierson to Thomas, April 18, 1864.
Eight regiments under Grierson's command have furloughed. Suggestion for setting price for northern horses and impressing horses if citizens won't accept the price. Mount all men in unit or else dismount and train them as infantry.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, 406-407.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/415/


The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 32, In Three Parts. Part 3, Correspondence, etc.

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Correspondence: J.H. Wilson, Chief of Cavalry Bureau, USA, to E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War, 1864

Correspondence: James H. Wilson, Chief of the Cavalry Bureau, Washington, to Edwin M. Stanton, 4 April 1864.
http://bit.ly/OR_1-32-3-JH-Wilson-to-EM-Stanton-1864

On April 4, 1864, J.H. Wilson, Chief of the Cavalry Bureau [since Feb. 1864] writes to E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War, discussing details and assignments of the mounted cavalry of the Department of the Cumberland (28 regiments cavalry; 7 regiments mounted infantry). He directs that certain regiments of several brigades "be mounted and equipped and returned to duty before any more new regiments are supplied" (255).

Regiments to be equipped:

FIRST DIVISION

First Brigade:
(1) Second Michigan Cavalry
(2) Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry

Second Brigade:
(1) Second Indiana Cavalry
(2) Fourth Indiana Cavalry
(3) First Wisconsin Cavalry

Third Brigade:
(1) Seventh Kentucky Cavalry
(2) First Tennessee Cavalry

SECOND DIVISION

First Brigade:
(1) Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry
(2) Fourth Michigan Cavalry
(3) Fourth U.S. Cavalry
(4) Fifth Iowa Cavalry
(5) Third Indiana Cavalry

Second Brigade:
(1) First Ohio Cavalry
(2) Third Ohio Cavalry
(3) Fourth Ohio Cavalry
(4) Tenth Ohio Cavalry
(5) Second Kentucky Cavalry

Third Brigade:
(1) Seventeenth Indiana Mounted Infantry
(2) Seventy-Second Indiana Mounted Infantry
(3) Ninety-Second Illinois Mounted Infantry
(4) One Hundred and Twenty-Third Illinois Mounted Infantry
(5) Third Kentucky Cavalry
(6) Eighth Iowa Cavalry

"The Second Michigan, Ninth Pennsylvania, Second Indiana, and First Wisconsin have all signified their willingness to re-enlist if they can be furloughed, but at present they cannot be spared from duty" (256).

Knoxville and Strawberry Plains: "...the cavalry was almost entirely used up, the horses almost starved to death..." (256).
6,000 - 9,000 horses required.
Arms: Spencer or Sharps carbine.

Special note concerning poor organization of certain Tennessee regiments; new order will override plans of Governor [Andrew] Johnson [Military Gov. of Tenn., 1862-1865] who was in process of requesting that these inferior regiments be equipped. [Later in the doc., and explanation appears to be that new Tennessee units are forming, but will be untrained, inferior to veterans]. Regarding Tennessee cavalry:

"Regarding the efficiency of these Tennessee regiments there is but one opinion. With the exception of the First Tennessee, they are all worthless" (256).

(In March): Cavalry, Dept. of the Ohio, concentrated at Louisville, Kentucky.

Plans for direct communication between generals commanding the Cavalry Bureau is submitted (duties of officers, recuperation of horses, rations, surplus stores, arms, return of horses from citizens, discourage use of mounted infantry, etcetera). [See text].

Criticism of Colonel Wolford (under General Schofield).

Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 3, Chp. 44 (Correspondence, Etc.--Union) [Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891], 255-258 [Wilson to Stanton: Washington, 4 April 1864].

Short URL: http://bit.ly/OR_1-32-3-JH-Wilson-to-EM-Stanton-1864

Full Citation (general info, for series).

Subjects: Cavalry, Condition of Cavalry, Starvation, Army of the Cumberland, Organization of Army

Sherman to Thomas (Correspondence, April 1864) Organization of Army. Furloughed Veterans Recalled.

Correspondence of William T. Sherman to George H. Thomas, April 1864: Organization of the Army of the Cumberland, with Discussions of Cavalry (Furloughed Veterans Recalled) and Corps (Plans for Placement of Three Wings, Cleveland, Chattanooga, and Stevenson):

On April 6, 1864, Major-General William T. Sherman writes from Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi, to Maj. Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, Comdg. Department of the Cumberland, Chattanooga, advising him of changes in Thomas's command. Furloughed veterans are retained. Hovey's Division of 5,000 infantry will move to the Hiwassee River, relieving the previously detached Fourth Corps. Thomas will have complete control of the army. His left will be Cleveland [Tennessee], his Center will be Chattanooga, and his right will be Stevenson [Alabama]. He discusses communication routes (Nashville to Columbia [Tenn.]). Reserve mounted-cavalry positions for the best men.

Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 3 (Correspondence, Etc.--Union), Chp. 44, 271-272 (Sherman to Thomas, Nashville, 6 April 1864).

http://bit.ly/OR_1-32-3-Sherman-to-Thomas-1864-army-organization