St. Louis Confederate Units
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The following is a list of units that were composed
primarily of residents of the St. Louis Metro area. These were not the
only Confederate units where area residents served, only those which had a
predominance of St. Louisans. Many other St. Louisans joined units of
other States (primarily Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas). Maj. William Clark
Kennerly of St. Louis (nephew of Gen. William Clark, "Lewis and Clark" fame)
recorded that five thousand went South during the war from St. Louis
alone, but only one thousand returned (either killed, died of disease or
settled elsewhere). It is also important to note that it was not until
1903 that "Congress directed the Secretary of War to compile the records...of
the officers and enlisted men of the Union and Confederate armies." While
Union records are very complete, still by 1908 only 25% of Missouri's
Confederate soldiers were known. By this time "many, if not most of the
actual muster rolls by this time had disappeared." "It should not
surprise anyone that his Missouri Confederate ancestor doesn't appear in the
Compiled Service Records for Confederate Soldiers." Estimates of the number
Confederates soldiers from the State vary from 30,000 (certainly not high
enough) to 100,000. Many more St. Louisans sympathized with the south and
would have joined had they not been "cut-off" from recruiters. William Bull
(3rd Field Battery Missouri Artillery) recorded that, "The Southern people in
St. Louis...were abused and oppressed and frequently severly punished by
imprisonment or banishment by Federal authorities", but "continued their love
for the South to the close of the war and aided the cause in every way in
their power."Co. A, 13th Arkansas Infantry (composed of St. Louis men who went South)
Some of these units were later combined or renamed after the battery Commander was KIA or incapacitated, so many men may be found on more than one list.
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---President Jefferson Davis |
