ABSTRACT
The instrument which created the Civil War was not, ultimately, the Commission of Array. It was a different sort of commission, issued to a single man to raise a number of regular soldiers for service under him in one of the partisan armies. Leading activists were commissioned as colonels, and then obtained commissions in turn for the senior officers of their regiments, who in turn commissioned their juniors, though it is by no means clear how much freedom each had in their choice. The normal paper strength of a foot regiment was 1 000 or 1 200 men, though rarely were units recruited to full strength.
