Reply #10: One of the reasons that there are so many

[Yupster]

Confederate soldiers monuments throughout the south is the way the Confederacy formed its army.

They organized their regiments by county usually.

The Confederacy did an amazing job of mobilizing its fighting men putting an estimated 75 % of all able-bodied adult white males into gray uniforms. We've never come anywhere close to such mobilizations in any of our other wars.

Anyway, when the county mobilized, basically every white man formed up and marched out to war together. They were able to elect their leaders which was often the mayor or preacher.

This system had real advantages in battle as fathers, sons and brothers fought together with real cohesion. Also soldiers tended to act more bravely and also behaved themselves better in camp since everyone was their friends and neighbors and everyone knew their wives and mothers.

There was a real downside too though. In the Civil War when an attack was ordered, the regiment was often asked to charge straight at the enemy and the results could be disastrous for the units in the front.

Just to take an example, the 26th Regiment from North Carolina came from the Crabtree Valley outside of Raleigh. Today I think it's a pretty suburban area. Back then it was a farming valley.

At Gettysburg, the 26th North Carolina was part of General Heth's Division which was the first Confederate division on the field and it took a beating pushing back the federal cavalry off the ridges and through the town. Then on Day Three it was part of Pickett's charge which ended the battle in complete Confederate defeat. In the three day battle the regiment lost over 70 % of its men.

Imagine the news of the battle reaching the Crabtree Valley. Think what it must have been like to realize that over 2/3 of the adult white men in your county had been killed or wounded in one battle.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if I went to the Crabtree Valley today and saw a monument to the Confederate soldiers which was put up after the war. It would be a way for the families and survivors to remember their dead.