By the act of February 28, 1861, the President was authorized to receive
companies, battalions, and regiments to form a part of the provisional
army of the Confederate States, and, with the advice and consent of
Congress, to appoint general officers for them; and by the act of March
6th the President was to apportion the staff and general officers among
the respective States from which the volunteers were received. It will
thus be seen that the States generously surrendered their right to
preserve for those volunteers the character of State troops and to
appoint general officers when furnishing a sufficient number of
regiments to require such grade for their command; but, in giving their
volunteers to form the provisional army of the Confederacy, it was
distinctly suggested that the general officers should be so appointed as
to make a just apportionment among the States furnishing the troops.
During the repose which followed the battle of Manassas, it was deemed
proper that the regiments of the different States should be assembled in
brigades together, and, as far as consistent with the public service,
that the spirit of the law should be complied with by the assignment of
brigadier-generals of the same State from which the troops were drawn.
Instructions to that end were therefore given, and again and again
repeated, but were for a long time only partially complied with, until
the delay formed the basis of the argument that those who had by
association become thoroughly acquainted would more advantageously be
left united.
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