Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/27

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
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ized under two separate laws: First, those that organized under the old law of the State, through Adjt.-Gen. John F. Hoke s office, were called "Volunteers;" second, those that organized for the war under the act of the May convention were called "State Troops."

The "Volunteers" were the first to begin mobilization; for on the 17th of April, a month before the secession convention, Governor Ellis, seeing that some sort of struggle was inevitable, had called for volunteers. The companies responding to this call were, in accordance with the usual routine, placed in camps of instruction to be armed, equipped and drilled. The first camp was pitched in Raleigh, and Governor Ellis invited Maj. D. H. Hill, of Charlotte, to take command of it. Major Hill was a West Pointer and a veteran of the Mexican war. To the raw volunteers, unused to any restrictions, as well as to the men accustomed to the laxity of militia methods, he seemed, as Judge McRae expressed it, "a tremendous disciplinarian." But, adds the Judge, in speaking of the effect of his discipline on the first body organized there, "As a proof of the value of the training, the old First (on its disbandment at the expiration of its term of enlistment) sent scores, I might almost say hundreds, of officers into other commands. " From the mate rial assembled at Raleigh, the First regiment was soon formed and hurried away to Virginia under Major Hill, whom it elected colonel. Then, says Major Gordon, whose excellent article on the "Organization of the Troops" furnishes many of these facts, "the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh soon followed. The first six were sent to Virginia, the Seventh to Hatteras. " These regiments were under the following colonels: Solomon Williams, W. D. Fender, Junius Daniel, R. M. McKinney, Stephen Lee and W. F. Martin. However, many of them were soon reorganized. Be tween the 15th of June and the i8th of July, the Eighth, Colonel Radcliffe; the Tenth, Colonel Iverson; the