Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864

The Confederate Conscription Acts, 1862 to 1864, were a series of measures taken by the Confederate government to procure the manpower needed to fight the American Civil War.
The First Conscription Act, passed April 16, 1862, made any white male between 18 and 35 years old liable to three years of military service. On September 27, 1862, the Second extended the age limit to 45 years. The Third, passed February 17, 1864, changed this to 17 to 50 years old, for service of an unlimited period.
Originally, anyone drafted could hire a substitute, a provision that was heavily criticized, and abolished on December 28, 1863. In addition, an act of April 21, 1862, created reserved occupations excluded from the draft. On October 11, 1862. A new exemption act, soon dubbed the Twenty Negro Law, was approved. The Third Conscription limited the number of reserved occupations, but, although much criticized, kept the "Twenty Negro Law" in modified form. In order to encourage volunteering the First Act allowed existing regiments to elect new officers. The Third Act also allowed officer election in regiments formed by the new age groups coming into military service.
The debate over conscription reflected the political struggle in the Confederacy between those who saw it as another example of the threat to freedom posed by the centralization of power, the suspension of Habeas Corpus being another. Their opponents viewed a strong central executive and these measures as essential to preserve Southern independence.
Several states passed legislation against it; in addition to simply hiding, draftees violently resisted conscription officers of the Confederate government, mirroring similar disputes in the North, most famously the New York city draft riots. Some counties seceded from the Confederacy, declaring for the United States government; by 1864, the Southern draft had become virtually unenforceable.
Background.
In April 1861, roughly half of those who enlisted in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States did so for a period of three years, the rest for twelve months only. In December, with the end of the war nowhere in sight, the Confederate authrities faced the loss of 148 regiments, or nearly half the army, when their enlistments expired in March 1862.
In December, the Confederate Congress tried to induce reenlistment by offering bounties, a sixty-day furlough, and the option of joining new regiments with new elections of the officers. Lee pronounced this disastrous, and argued compulsory conscription was essential to win the war. In April 1862, Congress enacted the first conscription act in American history.
Eligibility for military service.
The Act of April 16, 1862 made all white men, 18 to 35 years old, available for military service during three years. The one-year volunteers sa their enlistment period extended with two years. The draft would be administered by the Confederate Secretary of War who would establish draft quotas for the several states of the Confederacy. On September 27, 1862, the Congress extended the age limit to 45 years of age and on February 17, 1864 all white men, 17 to 50 years old, became available for military service for an unlimited period, i.e. "for the war", although those 17 to 18 years and 45 to 50 years old, would constitute a state defense reserve, not serving outside their resident state.
Substitution for military service.
Anyone drafted for military service had the right to hire a man to serve in his stead. The substitute could not be a person available for military service under the Conscription Act, and had to be fit for duty. This provision was heavily criticized, and eventually the Congress abolished it on December 28, 1863. On January 5, 1864, those who had hired substitutes became eligible for the draft.
Exemptions from military service.
In order to sustain a civil society as well as maintain production of munitions of war, an act of April 21, 1862 exempted persons in a number of reserved occupations from the draft. Among those exempted were confederate and state officials, Christian Ministers, professors and teachers, druggists, hospital attendants, mine, foundry, cotton and wool factory workers. On October 11, 1862, a new exemption act was approved, among other changes it also exempted overseers on plantations with more than 20 slaves. When, on February 17, 1864, the Congress extended the draft to men 50 years of age, it also limited the number of reserved occupations.
Election of officers.
One aim of the Act of 1862 was to encourage volunteering; hence each existing regiments were allowed to elect new officers, 40 days after the Conscription Act went into effect. Men eligible for the draft could volunteer to a regiment of their choice and participate in the officer election, provided they did it within the 40 days. Those drafted would be assigned regiments without say of the draftees.
Similar directives were issued pertaining to the new classes of men eligible for military service under the Act of February 17, 1864 (see above). They could within 30 days, east of the Mississippi, and within 60 days west of the river, form volunteer companies and elect their own officers, and serve as minutemen. Those not volunteering would still be formed into companies and regiments, electing their own company and regimental officers.
Debate over conscription.
The original proposition for a Confederate draft came from Robert E. Lee. With approval of President Jefferson Davis, Lee detailed Captain Charles Marshall of his staff to draw up the text for a proposed conscription act. President Davis thought a draft was the only available solution to the Confederate military manpower crisis. Compulsory military recruitment would also ensure that the burden of defending the South fell on all citizens, not just the most patriotic members of society. But not all Confederate congressmen agreed with the president. Texas senator William Simpson Oldham, claimed that draft would call in question the courage and individualism of the Southern people, while threatening the Southern society with military centralization and despotism of European proportions. Yet, military necessity made the act easily pass both houses, and it became law on April 16, 1862.
The First Conscription Act was also severely criticized by many adherents of traditional Jeffersonian democracy outside of Congress. Among them was one of the most obstreperous critics of the Confederate government's centralization of power during the Civil War, Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia. He regarded the Act unconstitutional, since the Confederate Constitution did not explicitly grant the government the power to introduce universal military service. According to James M. McPherson, President Davis answered his Jeffersonian critics with traditional Federalist arguments; conscription was "necessary and proper" in order to effectuate the constitutional mandate for the government to provide for the common defense. Other critics, like Alabama governor John Gill Shorter, faulted the draft on moral grounds; the Southern cause could only be saved by the sacrifices of liberty loving men. For the other Texas senator, Louis Wigfall, such talk was useless; "We must have the heavy battalions".
The Second Conscription Act speedily sailed through Congress; introduced on August 18, it was passed on September 27, 1862. Only Senators Oldham of Texas and Orr of South Carolina voted against it in the senate. Although Caleb Herbert of Texas severely denounced the act in the House, two of his Texas colleagues rejected his claim to speak for Texas, and maintained that the people of the state understood the need for a draft and that the time for constitutional doubts was long gone. The Third Conscription Act of February 17, 1864, was passed without serious opposition. Senator Wigfall of Texas and others demanded an even more extensive draft. Outside of Congress, however, the clamor against conscription rose to new heights. Vice President Alexander Stephens, supported by Robert Toombs, declared the draft useless and unconstitutional.
The debate over conscription was but one facet of the political struggle in the Confederacy between the critics of centralized power, who saw conscription, suspension of Habeas Corpus and other actions of the Confederate government as a threat to fundamental freedoms, and the defenders of these actions, who saw a strong central government, and especially a powerful executive, as essential for the maintenance of Southern independence in face of large Union armies bent on destroying it. Most of the critics had their political base in states like Georgia or South Carolina, quite removed from serious military operations. The most stringent defenders of strong military legislation, on the other hand, were Congressmen and Senators elected from Kentucky and Missouri, virtually exiled from their Union-occupied and severely divided home states.
Resistance to conscription.
Substitution and the Exemption Act of October 11, 1862, soon dubbed the Twenty Negro Law, created hostile reactions from the poorer members of the Southern society and spread from drafted recruits into the army, causing concern for the morale of the fighting men. While substitution eventually was abolished, the presence of white males on the plantations was seen as indispensable in a slave society. The concerns were not only about maintaining the productivity of the enslaved labor, but also for the perceived need to protect white women from black males.
The discontent became widespread and even found its way into the political elite. The North Carolina legislature wanted the "Twenty Negro Law" repealed as a privilege for the rich. The anti-war feelings were strong in the Appalachian region of the state and conscription was one of its major causes. While criticizing President Davis, Governor Zebulon Vance managed to keep his state in line, preventing any serious threat to the war effort. Neither was the political opposition in Georgia a serious threat to Confederate military policy, in spite of Governor Brown's loud pronouncements. He was successful in manipulating the system in order to exempt all the state's civil and military officials from conscription. Yet, when he tried to build an opposition block in the state, with the support of Vice President Alexander Stephens and Robert Toombs, he failed.
From 1863 several states enacted laws protecting civil and military officials of the state from the conscription. Both North Carolina and Mississippi exempted almost every state, county and militia officer. Such laws were generally upheld by the state courts. Attempts to have the courts issue writs of "Habeas Corpus" in order to free men drafted into the Confederate Army failed, however, in all states but North Carolina. In Georgia, the State supreme court upheld the constitutionally of the conscription, in a ruling that was attacked by Governor Brown, but defended by the legislature. The North Carolina Supreme Court, though, did not hesitate to issue writs of "Habeas Corpus" on behalf of draftees, and declared that State courts had concurrent jurisdiction with the Confederate courts in such cases. Yet, the Secretary of War refused to accept the courts decisions.
Farmers in the North Carolina Piedmont saw their lives severely disrupted by the draft. Three years in the army meant severe hardships for their families as well as a risk of losing the improvements they had made on their farms. At public meetings they expressed their opposition to the several conscription acts. Once forced into the army, many did not stay; desertion became rampant. Having returned to their homes, they created secret self-defense groups in order to stay out of the army. Local home guards were tasked with apprehending deserters, but community resistance made their missions difficult and at the end of the war 12,000 North Carolinians had run away from the Confederate army (about ten percent of the total serving force from the state). In the poor mountain area of the state, armed resistance group displayed their strength. While the draft resisting farmers of the Piedmont still identified with the Southern cause, although balking at the extreme actions of the Confederate government, the mountain people rejected the whole concept of being governed by what they perceived as a slave-owning oligarchy. Armed actions between draft resisters and government troops took place, with several hundred or even thousand resisters fighting the Confederate Home Guards and the Confederate Army.
Resistance to impressment of food, draft evasion, desertion, latent unionism, and armed opposition to the Confederate government created a situation akin to a civil war within the civil war in some areas of the South. In those areas, anti-government "regulators" controlled whole counties and fought a partisan war against Confederate authority. Some of them aligned with Unionist and peace organizations such as the Arkansas Peace Society and the Red Strings. According to historian David Williams, by 1864 the Southern draft had become virtually unenforceable. Other scholars claim that draft evasion in the South, where manpower was scarcer than in the North, contributed to the Confederate defeat.
Appendix 2: Exempted classes under the Act of October 11, 1862.
Through an act of April 14, 1863, the Congress furthermore exempted contractors for the carrying of mail, and the drivers of post coaches and hacks, from military service.