Question How Many Troops

[Darko]

How many troops do you guys think each commanding officer had?

[Blobmania]

You might want to be a bit more specific. What rank of officer, what time period are you talking about, what nation, and what troop type - for instance, Cavalry, Infantry, Artillery, Naval commands and suchlike.

[Odysseus]

That question is unanswerable unless you give more specifics.

[Tali]

As stated, there is alot of variables. It could range from a battalion (or maybe even a company) with 100-500 soldiers to a army up to 600.000, here in the case of Napoleons Fieldtrip into russia.

[Lance]

Lets just say that you are refering to a commander of an infantry regiment at the rank of Colonel in the American Civil War.

A regiment would consist of say 1-2 battalions.
A battalion is split into 2-3 companies each.
A company would be in between 80-140 men

So lets say that we go for 100 x 2 x 2 =2000 men in a regiment.
But that is just a VERY rough sketch. Because it can vary alot between what type of regiment it is and how many battles they have fought (if they are recently formed or battle tested meaning they would have lost men)

[Duuring]

I believe ACW volunteer regiments were ALWAYS made out of a single battalion?

[Lance]

I believe ACW volunteer regiments were ALWAYS made out of a single battalion?

I dont think so, I believe it was diffirent per regiment.

[Duuring]

Well, Osprey claims differently, but most importantly, I never heard of a '2nd battalion 20th maine' or anything of that sort.

Plus, volunteer regiments were differently organized (With a colonel, lieutenant-colonel and a single major) which makes the single battalion formation sound more logical.

[Lance]

Well, Osprey claims differently, but most importantly, I never heard of a '2nd battalion 20th maine' or anything of that sort.

Plus, volunteer regiments were differently organized (With a colonel, lieutenant-colonel and a single major) which makes the single battalion formation sound more logical.

Yeah your right volunteers were around 1000 soldiers because most volunteer regiments were a single batalion.

But it really depends on what he is asking. If he wants to know the size of volunteers or regular army.

[Friedrich]

In the following picture is the structure of a common french infantry regiment between 1808 and 1815.
Each company had around 140 men. But that is only theoretical.

Spoiler

[close]

[Duuring]

Well, Osprey claims differently, but most importantly, I never heard of a '2nd battalion 20th maine' or anything of that sort.

Plus, volunteer regiments were differently organized (With a colonel, lieutenant-colonel and a single major) which makes the single battalion formation sound more logical.

Yeah your right volunteers were around 1000 soldiers because most volunteer regiments were a single batalion.

But it really depends on what he is asking. If he wants to know the size of volunteers or regular army.

US Regular regiments were single-battalioned as well. At least, they were in the Mexican-American war, and as far as I know nothing changed between 1848 and 1860 in the organisation.

The regular US army, by the way, was laughably small. Not larger then 13.000 at the start of the war.

The actual size of a regiment is, by the way, hardly representable by its amount of battalions. I've read about Volunteer regiments numbering some 1600 men, while, for example, the 5e de ligne ha two battalions at waterloo, with only 900 men in total. Casualties and desertion made quick work of big formations.

I've personally always liked the 3 battalions, 6 company each-formation of the French. No wonder the Dutch army used the very same system in 1814