by Michael W. Coffey, PhD*
As the Civil War raged on, the
Confederate States of Amer¬
ica faced a shortage of men
to fill the ranks of its armies.
In 1862 the Confederate
Congress passed a conscription, or draft,
law that set the age range of men required
to serve in the military to 18-35. The army
discharged younger or older men who had
John Daniel Kerr Sr., of New Hanover County,
was elected captain of Company B, Seventh
Battalion N.C. Junior Reserves, in June 1864 at
age 18. He probably took part in the action at
Fort Fisher that December. His company
became Company D, Third Regiment N.C.
Junior Reserves, on January 3, 1865. Captain
Kerr survived the war. This photograph was
taken a few years later. Image courtesy of the
State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives
and History .
volunteered earlier. A second law
passed later in the year raised
the age limit to 45. Officials still
granted many men exemptions
from service, for a variety of rea¬
sons, or assigned them to work
in industries important to the
war effort. A third conscription
law passed in early 1864 brought
many men into the army who
had previously not been required
to serve.
One provision of the 1864 law
required 17-year-olds and men
ages 45 to 50 to join up. Volun¬
teers could organize into units
made up of individuals in their
age group. The boys were known
as the Junior Reserves, while the
older men became the Senior
Reserves. Those who did not
volunteer for these Reserve units
were drafted into regular combat
units instead. When a member of
the Junior Reserves reached his
18th birthday, he was supposed
to transfer into a combat unit.
Junior and Senior Reserve units guarded
key military points — such as bridges,
railway depots, and prison camps — in the
states in which they were organized. This
released soldiers who previously performed
those duties to be with the armies in battle.
Officials did not intend for the Reserves to
fight, with the possible exception of repel¬
ling raids against their posts. Reserves
also were not supposed to leave the states
where they had been recruited. Officials
suspended this rule near the end of 1864,
as things grew even more desperate for tire
Confederacy. The North Carolina Junior
Reserves, in fact, briefly went to Virginia on
two occasions.
The Junior Reserves of North Carolina origi¬
nally were organized into eight battalions
of three to four companies each. Over the
next several months, all but one battalion
were consolidated into three regiments,
consisting of the standard size of 10 com¬
panies each. The members of the remaining
battalion came from the Mountain region
and foothills, while Junior Reserves in the
regiments hailed from the eastern and Pied¬
mont portions of the state.
Unfortunately, gaps in the records prevent
us from knowing exactly how many boys
served in the state's Junior Reserves. There
are surviving wartime records for just over
4,000 youths. Additional postwar records
provide almost 400 more names, and many
more certainly served.
In order to provide mature leadership for
these young soldiers, older men acted as
the battalion and regimental commanders
of Junior Reserve units, as well as on their
staffs. The one exception was Walter Clark,
a young graduate of the University of North
Carolina who had been a drill instructor
and staff officer for various combat units.
Clark was still only 17 when he was elected
major of the Sixth Battalion N.C. Junior Re¬
serves in May 1864. When the Sixth Battal¬
ion was consolidated with another battalion
to form the First Regiment N.C. Junior
Reserves that June, Clark was elected major
of the new unit. Clark became a judge after
the war. In 1901 he edited the series Histories
of the Several Regiments and Battalions from
‘Michael W. Coffey works as an assistant editor in the Historical Publications Section of the Office of Ar¬
chives and History. He is coeditor of the series North Carolina Troops 1861-1865: A Roster and authored
the history of the lunior Reserves published in Volume 1 7 of the series. He received an MA in history from
the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi.
12
THjH, Spring 2011
