Wednesday, 1865 April 19, [Greensboro, North Carolina]: “Total Present—not Effective.”

Wednesday, 1865 April 19, [Greensboro, North Carolina]: “Total Present—not Effective.”

[Ten days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Virginia, a Confederate staff officer prepared a list of 20,640 “not-effective” men from eleven former Confederate states.]

Head-Quarters
Greensboro No. Ca. [North Carolina] C. S. A. [Confederate States Army]
April 19th 1865

Virginia             Richmond                 289 men
North Carolina  Raleigh                  2,645
Tennessee        Nashville               1,312
South Carolina Spartansburg        4,335
Georgia            Macon                   5,626
Florida             Tallahassee              351
Alabama          Montgomery          2,578
Mississippi       Macon                   2,137
Louisiana        Baton Rouge            104
Arkansas        Little Rock                 741
Texas             Austin                        527
Total [Present]                            20,640
J. M. W. [John Marshall Warwick] Otey [signed]
AAG [Assistant Adjutant General]

[Editor: Lynchburg, Virginia native John Marshall Otey (1839-1883) was a staff officer under  Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893) with the rank of captain and assistant adjutant general, April-November 1862 and October 1864; he held the same under General Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) in 1862. By June 1864 Otey held the rank of lieutenant colonel; according to the National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database his final rank was that of lieutenant colonel and assistant adjutant general. He was paroled on April 26, 1865 (with the Army of Tennessee) and worked as a broker and insurance agent during the postwar era. Otey is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. “Not Effective” [Noneffectives] were soldiers unable to take up their military duties due to a variety of reasons (medical leave, desertion, missing in action, etc.) The cities and towns are written in pencil. Their significance—and the purpose of this list–is unknown—perhaps these were soldiers awaiting official paroles? Possibly Otey prepared it for General Joseph E. Johnston (1807-1891) as part of his April 17-18 and 26, 1865 negotiations with Union General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) resulting in the surrender of Johnston’s Army of Tennessee and Confederate forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida—nearly 90,000 soldiers.]

MSS 3272-D