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The following came across my desk and I thought this excerpt about the duties of an Army of the Potomac provost detail in 1864 was interesting:
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Republican Advocate newpaper - Batavia NY
September 27, 1864
Extract from a letter from a member of Co. G., 8th N.Y. Artillery, dated
Camp Near Petersburg, Aug. 29.
Just after writing my last letter home I, together with eight others from our company, were detailed on the Division Provost Guard. The duty of this guard is, to guard the head-quarters of the division; to keep men from straggling, and falling out on the march, and in a fight we are deployed in the rear of the division, to keep men from leaving their ranks and running to the rear, with various other duties.
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Among the "various other duties" would have been accepting and guarding prisoners of war, until they were sent to the rear for transportation to Northern prison camps.
At the time--just prior to the battle of Reams Station (the topic of most of the letter)--the regiment numbered about 500 men and its brigade (Murphy's, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Second Corps) numbered about 800 men altogether. The entire 2nd Divisoin at this time numbered about 2,500 to 3,000 men. I have nothing to back this up, but I would suspect that the small size of the brigade (other brigades in the division were similar or smaller in size) did not require a brigade-level provost guard detail, and I'll surmise that the lowest-level provost guard detail for this particular unit was the divisional provost guard.
Anyway, I thought this primary source documentation might help someone put together a functional portrayal for some event this year. :)
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Republican Advocate newpaper - Batavia NY
September 27, 1864
From the 8th N.Y. [Heavy] Artillery - Fight at Ream's Station.
Extract from a letter from a member of Co. G., 8th N.Y. Artillery, dated
Camp Near Petersburg, Aug. 29.
Just after writing my last letter home I, together with eight others from our company, were detailed on the Division Provost Guard. The duty of this guard is, to guard the head-quarters of the division; to keep men from straggling, and falling out on the march, and in a fight we are deployed in the rear of the division, to keep men from leaving their ranks and running to the rear, with various other duties.
****************
Among the "various other duties" would have been accepting and guarding prisoners of war, until they were sent to the rear for transportation to Northern prison camps.
At the time--just prior to the battle of Reams Station (the topic of most of the letter)--the regiment numbered about 500 men and its brigade (Murphy's, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Second Corps) numbered about 800 men altogether. The entire 2nd Divisoin at this time numbered about 2,500 to 3,000 men. I have nothing to back this up, but I would suspect that the small size of the brigade (other brigades in the division were similar or smaller in size) did not require a brigade-level provost guard detail, and I'll surmise that the lowest-level provost guard detail for this particular unit was the divisional provost guard.
Anyway, I thought this primary source documentation might help someone put together a functional portrayal for some event this year. :)