Do you know the difference between a company and a regiment?

Yesterday, I received the questionnaire for his brother, William Porter Dickson (1842-1926). I was disappointed that the biographical memoranda was almost empty. The military supplement, however, had a lot of information. But, as I read it, I was confused!

William Porter Dickson’s 1911 Confederate Military Service Memoranda Supplement Form

Above you’ll find the first page of this military supplement. So, he signed up in Kentucky and evidently fought with people from Tennessee. And he says at one point he’s part of “Company D” under Jno. Hill and in another that he’s a part of the 12th Tennessee Infantry. I was confused. Who did he fight with? And, where can I find more information about them?

Then I understood…. this document was saying that he was a part of company D and that he was part of the 12th regiment. So, what’s a company? And what’s a regiment? (Maybe I haven’t watched enough war movies!) For me, the next step was to Google the answers.

I found a page called “Army Organization” at Shotgun’s Home of the Civil War page. Basically, the company is the smallest unit with the head of the company being a captain. William P Dickson reported that there were 108 men in his company, which is within the normal size.

A regiment is usually comprised of ten companies, though some have twelve. The head of a regiment is a colonel. There are also lieutenant colonels and majors.

The regiments join together to form brigades, and the brigades join together to form divisions. According to the site: “Theoretically, company strength was 100; regiment, 1,000; brigade, 4,000; and division, 12,000.” Of course, these numbers were just ‘in theory’, but it gives you a framework for how they fit together and an idea of how many men were in each organization.

After figuring out that I needed to look for the 12th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, I was able to find a webpage which gave me more information. It lists the ten companies that form his regiment, including company D from Gibson County. It lists each company’s captain along with the colonel in charge of the regiment. The information lined up fairly well with the information William had given nearly fifty years later.