The First Mississippi Partisan Rangers, C.S.A.

Andrew Brown is a mining engineer living in Arlington , Virginia, and is the author of a number of geologic and related reports and monographs. His early life was spent in northeast Mississippi and he has made a very thorough study of the geography, geology and history of that area. The First Mississippi Partisan Rangers, C.S.A. ANDREW BROWN on APBiL 21, 1862, five days after it had enacted the first conscription law to be passed on the American continent, the Congress of the Confederate states authorized the enlistment of partisan rangers. The law did not define "partisan rangers", because such organizations were a part of most armies at the time and their function was well understood. Their purpose was to operate more or less independently against small bodies of the enemy, to disrupt his communications, and to damage him in every way possible without being drawn into a fixed battle. Usually they were mounted; while subject to the same regulations and drawing the same pay as regular troops, partisan rangers were distinguished from them by a provision that for any munitions of war captured from the enemy they were to be paid in cash in such manner as the Secretary of War might prescribe. This feature, which to modern eyes placed the rangers in much the same dubious category on land as privateers on the high seas, disturbed the Congress not at all; in 1861 ranger warfare and privateering were recognized as integral parts of military and naval strategy. The law gave to the President authority to commission "such officers as he might see fit" to recruit ranger units in company, battalion, or regimental strength. General Orders No. 30 of the Inspector and Adjutant General's office, issued April 28, 1862, stipulated that application to the President for authority to recruit must be made through the commanding general of the Department in which the rangers were to operate.1 In practice, the recommendation of the commanding general appears to have been considered sufficient authority for the "suitable officers" to proceed 1 War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: 1880-1901), Series 4, Volume 1, pp. 10941100 . Hereafter cited as O.R., followed by the Series number, the volume in Roman numerals, the part (if any), and the page, as: O.R., 4, I, pp. 1094-1100. 371 372ANDREW BROWN with recruiting. It is clear that the generals were far more liberal in granting recommendations than the Congress or the War Department had anticipated, and before the law was six months old ranger organizations mushroomed to such an extent that they were detrimental to recruiting for the regular army and to the operation of the Conscription Law. This situation particularly was prevalent in such border regions as north Mississippi and west Tennessee, which after the summer of 1862 were overrun by both the Union and Confederate armies but controlled by neither. To add to the confused situation, the Secretary of War did not issue regulations under which rangers were to be paid for captured munitions until the spring of 1863.2 In Mississippi, the ironic result was that the rangers, many of whom had enlisted because of the prospect of what might be called legitimate plunder, gained little or no profit from their activities. By far the best-known ranger organization in Mississippi was the First Mississippi Partisan Rangers, usually referred to as Falkner's Regiment. In at least two respects it was unique among ranger units. First, it was the only such organization in the state recruited as a regiment; other such regiments were formed by combining independent companies. Second, despite its name, it was not designed primarily for guerrilla warfare, but to operate within and as a part of the regular Confederate cavalry forces. The overriding ambition of its commander was a general's commission— and he was clever enough to know that the general's wreath did not come easily to leaders of guerrila bands. He enlisted his men as rangers only because he knew that he could recruit a regiment for ranger service more easily than he could raise a battalion of regular cavalry or a...