organisation of the race asserted themselves. The North was far superior to the South in population, wealth, machinery, and appliances of every kind. In the course of time a large, well-organised, and well-equipped army arose.

At the beginning of 1862 the Southern States were threatened with invasion by large armies. A great forward movement of the Northern forces was ordered to begin on February 22, and rapid progress was being made. Forts Henry and Donelson were rapidly captured from the rebels, Bowling Green and Columbus had to be evacuated, and

Nashville surrendered. The entire line of defence formed by the Southern States towards the west was swept away, and a march by the Northern troops into the heart of the South-western States seemed imminent. Consternation seized upon the Southern people. The Southern Army of 1861 was composed chiefly of volunteers who had enlisted for twelve months. The voluntary system had yielded all it could yield. It became clear that the Southern States could not successfully be defended by volunteers against the North, that national and compulsory service was needed. The Southern Government was aroused to action, and without hesitation President Jefferson Davis sent a message to the Confederate Congress, in which he laid down that it was the duty of all citizens to defend the State, and in which he demanded the introduction of conscription for all men

between eighteen and thirty-five years. This most important document was worded as follows:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the
Confederate States

The operation of the various laws now in force for raising armies has exhibited the necessity for reform. The frequent changes and amendments which have been made have rendered the system so complicated as to make it often quite difficult to determine what the law really is, and to what extent prior amendments are modified by more recent legislation.

There is also embarrassment from conflict between State and Confederate legislation. I am happy to assure you of the entire harmony of purpose and cordiality of feeling which has continued to exist between myself and the executives of the several States; and it is to this cause that our success in keeping adequate forces in the field is to be attributed.

These reasons would suffice for inviting your earnest attention to the necessity of some simple and general system for exercising the power of raising armies which is vested in Congress by the Constitution.

But there is another and more important consideration. The vast preparations made by the enemy for a combined assault at numerous points on our frontier and seaboard have produced results that might have been expected. They have animated the people with a spirit of resistance so general, so resolute, and so self-sacrificing that it requires rather to be regulated than to be stimulated. The right of the State to demand and the duty of each citizen to render military service need only to be stated to be admitted. It is not, however, a wise or judicious policy to place in active service that portion of the force of a people which experience has shown to be necessary as a reserve. Youths under the age of eighteen years require further instruction; men of matured experience are needed for maintaining order and good government at home, and in supervising preparations for rendering efficient the armies in the field. These two

classes constitute the proper reserve for home defence, ready to be called out in case of any emergency, and to be kept in the field only while the emergency exists.

But in order to maintain this reserve intact it is necessary that in a great war like that in which we are now engaged all persons of intermediate ages not legally exempt for good cause should pay their debt of military service to the country, that the burdens should not fall exclusively on the ardent and patriotic. I therefore recommend the passage of a law declaring that all persons residing within the Confederate States between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years, and rightfully subject to military duty, shall be held to be in the military service of the Confederate States, and that some plain and simple method be adopted for their prompt enrolment and organisation, repealing all of the legislation heretofore enacted which would conflict with the system proposed.

It will be noticed that President Jefferson Davis demanded not only conscription, but practically the total surrender of State rights. He wished the confederation of Southern States to fight like a single State, recognising that concentration increases strength. A Conscription Act was rapidly passed on April 16, 1862.

As conscription for all men from eighteen to thirty-five years did not suffice to fill the depleted ranks of the Southern Army, it was made more rigorous. An order by BrigadierGeneral John H. Winder dated August 1, 1862, stated:

The obtaining of substitutes through the medium of agents is strictly forbidden. When such agents are employed, the principal, the substitute, and the agent will be impressed into the military service, and the money paid for the substitute, and as a reward to the agent, will be confiscated to the Government. The offender will also be subjected to such other imprisonment as may be imposed by a court martial.

As desertion from the ranks had weakened the Southern Army, the Press appealed to the citizens of the South to

assist in the apprehension of deserters and stragglers. All men and women in the country were exhorted to pursue, shame and drive back to the ranks those who have deserted their colours and their comrades and turned their backs upon their country's service.' Still further exertions were required to prevent the Northern troops invading the Southern States in force. Hence, in September 1862, the Confederate Congress passed another Act of Conscription which called out for military service all men between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five. The most important part of this Act was worded as follows:

An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act to provide further for the Public Defence,' approved April 16, 1862.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact That the President be and he is hereby authorised to call out and place in the military service of the Confederate States for three years, unless the war shall have been sooner ended, all white men who are residents of the Confederate States between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five years at the time the call or calls may be made, and who are not at such time or times legally exempted from military service; or such part or parts thereof as, in his judgment, may be necessary to the public defence, such call or calls to be made under the provisions and according to the terms of the Act to which this is an amendment; and such authority shall exist in the President during the present war as to all persons who now are or may hereafter become eighteen years of age; and when once enrolled all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years shall serve their full time.

Years of fighting reduced the ranks of the Southern armies. They could hold their own against the overwhelming numbers of the North only by extending the age limit of compulsory military service still further, by making conscription still more rigorous. In February 1864 a general military Act was passed which enrolled all

white men from seventeen to fifty years in the Army. It stated:

1. That all white men, residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of seventeen and fifty shall be in the military service of the Confederate States during the war.

2. That all between the ages of eighteen and forty-five now in service shall be retained during the present war in the same organisations in which they were serving at the passage of this Act, unless they are regularly discharged or transferred. . . .

4. That no person shall be relieved from the operation of this Act by reason of having been discharged where no disability now exists, nor by reason of having furnished a substitute; but no person who has heretofore been exempted on account of religious opinions and paid the required tax, shall be required to render military service.

5. That all between seventeen and eighteen years and forty-five and fifty years of age shall form a reserve corps, not to serve out of the State in which they reside. . . .

7. That any person of the last-named failing to attend at the place of rendezvous within thirty days, as required by the President, without a sufficient reason, shall be made to serve in the field during the war.

The American Civil War had begun in April 1861. At its commencement the people in the North had believed that, owing to their overwhelming superiority in numbers, in wealth, and in resources of every kind, they would be able to subdue the insurgent States by armies raised on the voluntary principle within a reasonable time. However, the war dragged on interminably. Enthusiasm for volunteering diminished, men became cool and indifferent. Owing to the reduced number of workers wages rose very greatly throughout the Union, and men turned rather to the factory than to the Army. Week by week the expenditure in blood and treasure increased. At last the people in the North began to see the necessity of abandoning the voluntary