The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-05-04
CONsCRIPTION IN CONFEDERACY
(From the Greenville News.)


on conscription in the Confederate
States of America may throw some
light on the question which is now be-
fore the country for consideration and
disposition.
Most of the Southern troops enlisted
in 1861 for a period of one year only.
Possibly this short period was desig-
mated because of the prevalent belief
in the South then that defeat of the
Union forces would be an easy matter.
When that period expired it became
apparent to the secretary of war that
the army "was passing through sue
cessive stages or disorganizatlon to
dissolution" The result was that
President Jefferson Davis persuaded
the Confederate congress to vote, on
April 16, 1862, for conscription of all
white males between Is and 35 years,
the act requiring that men of this age
already in the army would have to re-
main therein for three years from the
date of their original enlistment.
After the indecisive battle of An
tietam or Sharpsburg, on December II,
1862, the age limit was raised to 45
years, although President Davis did
not call out those over 40 until after
the fall of VickSburg and the defeat
at Gettysburg. On February II, ,.1S64,
the Confederate congress extended tn.
age limits to II and so, providing that
those who volunteered between these
ages might do so as reserve for State
defense; failing to volunteer, they
would be sent to the front. On the
same day was passed another law pro-
viding that all free negroes be con-
scripted for labor in hospitals, muni-
tions plants and Notifications. At last.
on March 13, 1865, when the Confed-
eracy was dying, congress authorized
| the conscription of slaves as soldiers
for first-line service, upon the recon-
mendation of President Davis and
Gen. Lee, despite no small opposition
The war ended, however, before this
could be done. The whites exempted
were the physically and mentally unfit,
railroad employees, teachers of at least
20 pupils, college professors, ministers,
workers in employments indispensable
to the manufacture of munitions and
the higher State and Confederate of
ficials. The exemption was gradually
extended to editors, Quakers, ply
| sicians, government contractors, etc.
and one overseer or owner for each
plantation of 20 negroes on which
there was no white adult not liable for
military service.
In the original act the offering of
substitutes was provided for. Many
substitutes were sent into the army,
large part of whom were poorly
adapted for service. Substitutions
were ended in January, 1864. and all
principals were ordered into the army.
"The total number who evaded service
by taking advantage of legal avenues
of escape was small in comparison
with the number of deserters and those
who escaped by flying on the approach
of enrolling officers and hiding out in
swamps and mountains" says Prof. |
Brooks. In the fall of 1862 there was
difficulty in enforcing conscripton. An |
enrolling officer was killed in Alabama |
in an attempt to conscript. From the
beginning, it is stated, it was almost |
impossible to enforce conscription in |
he mountains of North and South Car |
olina, Tennessee and Georgia, "where |
life was so difficult that the conscript- |
ing of men threatened nothing short |
of starvation for the women and chill
dren." 1t should be added that Union |
sentiment was. very strong in the |
mountainous regions of the South. |
There was great deal of desertion |
In July, 1868, there were from eight to |
ten thousand deserters in the Alabama |
mountains. "All our armies seemed to |
be melting away by desertion faster
than they were enlarged by conscrip-
tion, and conditions grew steadily |
worse in 1864 and 1865" wrote the au-
thor of "a Rebel War ?Clcrk's Diary"
mo more difficult problem confronted |
the Confederate government than the
matter of desertion and evasion" says
Prof. Brooks. The arrest of deserters
was function of the Conscription Bu-
reau.
Prof. Brooks gives it as his opinion
that whether the results of conscrip-
tion may be regarded as having been
worth the eXertion, internal dissen- |
sions and opposition aroused is doubt
full His study leads him to the con-
clusion that not more than 25 per cent
of the total enrolment of the Confed-
crate armies was due to conscription,
adding sit is unfair to credit conscrip-
tion with having augmented the
armies even to that extent, because
the conscripted classes were confessed
ly almost worthless as fighting ma
teriaI, and no doubt the 100000 de-
serters admitted by Gen. Preston to
be at large were principally con-
scripts" Compulsory service also
weakened the Confederacy, he thinks,
because it made service in the army |