Were I back in the army again, I could have picked scores of men of our brigade to ha

[Xinfu]

Were I back in the army again, I could have picked scores of men of our brigade to have signed with me.

1. The presence of WERE with I shows subjunctiveness, but does the protasis refer to a present or past thing? I'm not sure, because WERE is more often used for the present than the past.

2. The apodosis uses COULD HAVE PICKED; to revert it to a non-hypothetical sentence, would it be 'I was able to pick' or 'I have been able to pick'? The modal verb seems unable to distinguish.

[Rusty]

The use of 'were I' refers to the present, since it's obvious from the words that follow that the speaker used to be in the army. Most American English speakers would not use the subjunctive 'Were I', by the way. They would say 'If I was back in the army again'.

In the main clause, the word 'could' is being used to show probability.

If we were to convert the main clause to a non-hypothetical structure, the dependent clause would no longer have a reason to exist. Then you would be able to say either 'I was able to pick' or 'I have been able to pick', but they don't mean the same thing. The first refers to a past event. The second refers to something in the past that has present consequences.

Apodosis is rarely used.