With the bombardment of Fort Sumter in
April 1861, the Civil War began in earnest.
The first recruits, on both sides, were com-
pletely uninitiated in the ways of military
life. They had to learn in camp how to be
soldiers—living in the open, sharing tents,
constructing fortifications, drilling, march-
ing in step and following commands.
Included in their train-ing was instruction in
proper military conduct, enforced by a sys-
tem of punishments for infractions that
would prove as vexing to the soldiers of the
Civil War as it had to every army since the
time of Alexander
the Great.
The Confederate
provost system
was one approach
to maintaining
proper militarydiscipline in the southern armies. The
provost system was based largely on British
precedents that had existed since the Revo-
lution and was mainly restricted to purely
military police functions. Many provost
duties initially were performed by civilians,
although the Confederate articles of war
provided for military provost marshals and
military courts to try personnel charged with
violating military law.
In 1862, a subsequent act of the Confed-
erate Congress authorized a military court
for each army corps and a provost marshal
to execute its orders. The jurisdiction of
these courts included offenses against the
Articles of War and against Confederate
and state laws. An 1863 report of the Army
of Tennessee mandated: “A provost mar-
shal general will be assigned to duty at army
headquarters with one assistant. Corpscommanders will detail a field officer, with
one assistant, for duty at corps headquar-
ters, a captain for division headquarters,
and a lieutenant for brigade headquarters.
These officers will report regularly to the
provost marshal of the army.”
As the war dragged on, Southern gover-
nors tried and mostly failed to gain direct
control over the provost guard as it increas-
ingly affected the public. They wanted at
least to rein in its authority, especially its
existence outside the operational sphere of
the armies, to prevent abuses against the
civilian population. But legislative efforts
were generally unsuccessful in limiting the
authority of provost marshals over the cit-
izenry. The governors’ fears of such an
extension of power would later prove jus-
tified as the provost guard’s original pur-
pose—to preserve order in the armies—was
greatly expanded by the pressures of war.
One example of the provost guard’s
increased authority was the monitoring of
transportation services such as trains. The
intention was to decrease the growing rate
of desertion within the Confederate Army
and to restrict the movement of Union
spies. A system of passes was devised to
regulate travel, annoying citizens and sol-
diers alike. Vigorous debate continued
among members of the Confederate Con-
gress who believed that provost marshal
powers should not extend beyond the
army. But as the Confederacy’s military for-
tunes declined, the army often ignored rel-
evant provisions. Military necessities had
more weight than the political niceties of
catering to strict constitutionalist governors
and other state officials.
The widespread unpopularity of civilian
passports grew as battlefronts expanded,
and Confederate citizens increasingly were
subject to the provost guard’s control of
every individual’s right of movement. EvenThe Confederate provost guard functioned as a combination rear guard and
prison keeper during the Civil War.
Intelligence By Joan Wenner
LEFT: Brig. Gen. John H. Winder. BELOW: A provost marshal’s office at
Aquia Creek, Virginia, in February 1863 draws a desultory crowd. Some
soldiers used provost duty to avoid combat.All photos: National ArchivesCWQ-EW16 Intelligence *missing Mercer, Pad_Layout 1 10/23/15 11:17 AM Page 8