Services Performed by the Invalid Corps – A Regiment by Regiment Breakdown

Introduction

One of the smaller things I wanted to do with this project was to increase the visibility of at least some of the activities of the Invalid Corps (Veteran Reserve Corps). One of the most common questions or comments from people is that they mention an ancestor in one regiment or another and ask about what may have been their duties. That, coupled with a desire to understand more fully the contributions of the Invalid Corps to the Civil War (beyond the Battle of Fort Stevens) resulted in this series.

Thankfully, The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies, includes a “final report” to Brigadier General James Fry, Provost Marshal General from J.W. De Forest, Captain, Veteran Reserve Corps and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General on November 30, 1865. In it, he breaks down some of the services performed by the various Invalid Corps (Veteran Reserve Corps) regiments. Specifically, the 1st Battalion. By this point in time, the 1st Battalion soldiers were under the authority of the Provost Marshal’s Office and the 2nd Battalion soldiers (those with more significant injuries and illnesses) were under the authority of the Surgeon General of the Army. While it doesn’t encompass everything, I thought the records provided some great details. I’ll be following up with individual posts about each of the 24 regiments. 

Captain De Forest begins with a general discussion about the Invalid Corps/Veteran Reserve Corps:

The services performed by the Veteran Reserve Corps have been so varied in nature that it is impossible to state them in a compendious exhibit. Where one regiment has escorted thousands of prisoners, convalescents, recruits, and conscripts, whose numbers can be given with accuracy, another has simply guarded important posts and vast stores of public property, thus performing duty which cannot be expressed statistically.

After examining the voluminous reports of the regiments for the year, I find it impossible to present their information intelligibly otherwise than by detached summaries. These epitomes will be brief; they will indeed be little more than the barest memoranda, necessarily unjust to certain organizations, but this error cannot be avoided without a fullness of detail which would render the report too voluminous. It should be observed that the services of the Second Battalion are not stated here for the reason that its records are not under the control of the Bureau.

He also highlights several of the corps’ general activities:

No statistics of the ordinary duty performed by the corps during this official year have been collected, except the fact that 21,345 recruits, deserters, &c., were guarded by the Tenth Regiment, with a loss of only thirty-five. At this distance of time it would be difficult to obtain data for an accurate or even approximative report on the subject.

It is known, however, that the services rendered by the Veteran Reserves were very arduous, and it is believed that more duty would not have been demanded of a similar number of able-bodied soldiers.

They furnished guards for the rebel prison camps at Rock Island and Chicago, Ill. ; Indianapolis, Ind. ; Johnson’s Island, Ohio; Elmira, N.Y.; Point Lookout, Md.; for the recruiting depots and camps of distribution at Portland, Concord, Boston, New Haven, New York City, Trenton, Pittsburg, Fort Snelling, and Alexandria; they supplied provost-marshals of districts with details to enforce the draft; they conducted the conscripts to rendezvous; they escorted large numbers of substitutes, recruits, and rebel prisoners to and from the front; guarded the railroad between Baltimore and Washington, and performed the patrol and guard duty of the capital; manned a portion of the defenses of Washington during the raid of Early, and for four months before and after guarded many general hospitals, and supplied them with ward-masters, nurses, and clerks; furnished clerks, also, to various military departments and superintendents of recruiting.

The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies – https://archive.org/details/warrebellionaco17offigoog/page/n574