  Nothing in the story of a regiment is of greater importance than its Roster, for therein appears the record of the individual whether the same be good or bad. One man alone makes a small appearance, yet a thousand men make a regiment and every volunteer, whether commissioned or enlisted, is entitled to the best that can be said of him. If, in addition to his military service, his career in civil life may be given in outline so much the better, for in America every able bodied man is potentially a soldier. The foundation for the following Roster is found upon the muster rolls, carefully preserved in the State House, Boston, and additions have been made thereto through The careful reader will observe in scanning the data afforded by the Roster that the ages of the soldiers almost entirely range between those of eighteen and forty-five years, these being the respective limits of legal enlistment; at the same time everyone is well aware that a large part of the army was made up of boys in their early teens; also we know full well that many a man went in long after reaching the maximum age for military service. As a fact, then, very many men lied their ages up or down; so far as the grand average, however, is concerned the "over" age compensated for or offset those who were "under." Since the muster-in rolls or enlistment papers are sources of all data concerning the age of volunteer and, it being well known that very many of them were and are incorrect, the wonder rises as to the source of statements that have gone the rounds of the public press in late years, wherein the ages represented by the soldiers are carefully tabulated. However, from whatever source obtained, as worthy of presentation here the following alleged facts are given: Discussion has elicited an official statement that about 2,800,000 Union men enlisted; there were about 5,000,000 men called out on both sides. Of these nearly 4,500,000 were under twenty-one; there were about 332,000 who were under sixteen and there were 1,500 in the Union Army who were not fifteen years old. Less attention has been given to the men who were over age, but every regiment can give its cases of men fifty, sixty and even seventy years of age whose great excess would average up many a juvenile volunteer. When, however, the rolls afford no such statements, where is the statistician acquiring his alleged facts? For the sake of brevity and economy of space the following abbreviations are used: A. A. G. = Assistant Adjutant General; b. = born; bur. = buried; bvt. = brevet; batt. = battalion; Capt. = Captain; Co. = Company; Col. = Colonel; com. = commission or committee; Corp. = Corporal; cr. = credited; d. = died or dead; In reciting facts pertaining to each name, the same order obtains throughout the Roster; first comes the family name of the soldier, next his Christian appellation; in some instances time and place of birth are given; as a rule, age, whether married or single, occupation and place of residence follow in order; next, date of enlistment or muster-in; incidents of army life are next in place, and then the time and manner of leaving the army; finally are given incidents of civil life and latest address if the same be known. The application of abbreviations and the order are seen in the following supposed case: Jones, John, 20, S.; shoemaker, Natick; Aug. 22, '62; wd. May 5, '64, Wilderness; dis. disa., Aug. 20, '64; Selectman, Natick, 1880, '81; 1913, Natick. Printed in full the foregoing would be as follows: Jones, John, at the age of twenty years, single, a shoemaker living in Natick, enlisted August 22, 1862, or was mustered in on that date; he was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness and, on account of wounds or disability therefrom, was discharged August 20, 1864; he was a Selectman in Natick in 1880 and '81 and in 1913 is still residing there. |
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