Two of the infantry regiments participated in the 1863 siege of Vicksburg, and several State Troop cavalry units were later reorganized and brought into Confederate service.

[1] In 1864, another set of State Troop units was created, with all white men aged 16–55 required to report for 30 days military service.

Reserve State Troop units were also organized in 1864, consisting of men and boys who were otherwise too young or too old for regular military service.

All of the remaining State Troops were officially disbanded when Confederate Lieutenant-General Richard Taylor surrendered all Confederate forces in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana to United States authorities on May 4, 1865, at Citronelle, Alabama.

All free males between age 16 and 50 except government officials, doctors, and clergymen were subject to militia service.

[2] The Mississippi territorial militia arrested Aaron Burr in 1807, and fought against the Creek Indians and the British in the War of 1812.

The militia could be called out for military service in the event of war or domestic disturbance, but was not a standing army with government-issued weapons or professional officers.

Officers were elected by the public with the governor as Commander-in-chief, and men enrolled in the militia were required to bring their own weapons.

The county-level militia companies had to muster four times a year for training,[3] a local historian described the amateurish character of these musters: "After a brief parade, which consisted in a blundering execution of unwarlike tactics, these men would start drinking and usually several fights occurred.

[7] These generals and the governor comprised the military board and were tasked with organizing and managing the armed forces of the state.

However, shortly afterwards Jefferson Davis was elected as President of the Confederacy and he left his position in the Mississippi state military.

Van Dorn, Clark, and Mott all joined the Confederate army, they were replaced by John W. O'Ferrall, Charles G. Dahlgren, and Absolom M. West as brigadier generals of Mississippi forces.

The Mississippi generals refused to take orders from Confederate officers,[8] and the Army's usefulness was limited because the troops had volunteered for only 60 days.

[9] After suffering from extreme winter weather and outbreaks of disease, the Army returned to Mississippi in February 1862 and was disbanded.

[10] After the fiasco in Kentucky, it was clear that the state militia needed to be reorganized in order to become an effective military force.

[13] General Tupper believed the State Troops should be sent back to their communities to act as a traditional home guard militia after an initial period of military training, but Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus advocated a centralized system that kept the State Troops in camps.

[14] Many of the men called into State Troops service were older and had families, an analysis of the 3rd Battalion State Troops Infantry found that the average age in that unit was 37, compared to an average age of 25 for men in the regular Confederate army.

[13] The initial mobilization of the State Troops in 1862 interfered with the harvest season, which generated numerous complaints from the men called to serve, as well as their families.

[13] With many of the younger men serving in the Confederate Army, and the older men called to serve in the State Troops, many white Mississippians feared a lack of manpower to police the enslaved population would result in a slave uprising.

[13] Organization was extremely poor, such that Mississippi officials could never provide their Confederate military counterparts with an accurate count of the number of State Troops under their command.

[12] On April 16, 1863, Pettus wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis defending the need for State Troops: “Their presence in the field has been necessary to save north Miss from being over run and desolated while all the Confederate Troops were engaged with superior forces of the enemy”.

Tupper resigned his commission in the spring of 1863 and General Samuel J. Gholson was appointed commander of the State Troops on April 18, 1863.

Most State Troops remained in camp and were not engaged in combat,[13] but two regiments were present at the siege of Vicksburg under the command of brigadier general Jeptha V. Harris.

[12] Other State Troop cavalry companies:[12] In February 1864, the Confederacy passed a new conscription act broader than those previously in force since 1862, now encompassing all white men from age 17–50 with fewer exemptions.

Governor Charles Clark wrote to the Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon asking how the state troops fit into this new conscription framework.

Seddon replied that he considered the state troops to be merely militia forces and thus subject to conscription into the regular Confederate Army.

[25] Confederate control of Mississippi was in disarray by 1864, with Vicksburg captured, the state capital of Jackson burned, and much of the railroad infrastructure destroyed.

Anyone who did not report for State Troops service would be imprisoned, court-martialed, and forced to serve in the army for 1 year.

[29] What little organization remained of the Mississippi State Troops dissolved entirely when Confederate forces in the Western Theater surrendered on May 4, 1865.

[12] Unattached cavalry companies led by:[12] Reserve State Troop units were also organized in 1864 consisting of elderly men and teenage boys who would normally be underage or overage for military service:[12] Although the State Troops were criticized as ineffective during the war by newspapers[18] and military authorities,[27] and despite serving as a haven for men seeking to avoid conscription into the Confederate Army, in the post-war years the memory of the Mississippi State Troops was transformed to remember them as Confederate patriots by proponents of Lost Cause mythology.