The United States Army in the Civil War was organized at its highest level into departments and military districts. Troops within these geographic regions would sometimes be referred to as an army, often taking their name from the department, such as the Army of the Potomac, which operated in the Department of the Potomac.
Throughout the war these districts and departments were created, merged, dissolved and sometimes recreated to try to meet the command needs of shifting military situations and changing objectives. Some units served under four different departments in less than a year without while staying in the same relative area.
This site shows the month-to-month composition of these armies and departments in the Eastern Theater, listing their commanders and component units from army corps down to individual regiments and batteries and showing when units were formed, transferred and dissolved.
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