Confederate Passions Waning

After Lincoln’s call to arms in April 1861, men from both the Confederacy and the Union flocked to enlist in their militaries due to either passionate belief in “the cause” or a misplaced sense of adventure. The general public opinion on the Northern side was that this would be a brief affair where victory would surely soon be theirs. Meanwhile, the people of the Confederacy generally felt that they were a much stronger people, born of a culture that praised “appropriate” violence, strong men, and honor. The Confederates also felt that they were going to battle for maintaining their very lifestyles and a system that had seemingly been upholding their economy for years.

The main point is this: No one really could accurately predict the bloodshed and devastation that was about to be wrought across the country. It is no surprise that despite the excitement toward the beginning of the Civil War, people’s passions soon began waning. It also is not surprising that after seeing the death tolls battle after battle that the United States had to enact a draft, small though it may have been. What did strike me as a bit surprising, however, was the fact that Jefferson Davis had to ask the legislature of the Confederacy to consider a draft. I suppose that I was a bit taken aback by this since the potential soldiers in the white South had loyalties that ran much deeper than their loyalty to their sense of adventure. The Confederate soldiers were romanticized and fighting for a cause they felt affected their personal rights. (By this, of course, I mean by denying millions of others their personal rights).

In any case, I found the letter written by Jefferson Davis in 1864 to “the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Confederate States.”¹ Davis “recommends” that a law be passed by Congress requiring all able bodied men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five to be quickly and efficiently enrolled in the army of the Confederate States.

I suppose that despite dedication and passion, one can only withstand so much of the turning tides that began being obvious to the South in 1863. In the letter, Davis listed different reasons for “raising armies.” However, one of the main reasons that stands out in the letter and was referred to by Davis as being “another and more important consideration” is that the Union had been making “vast preparations” for attacks on the Confederate frontier and along the sea. He mentioned that the Union armies were causing resistance within the Confederate borders. Naturally, this would have been a major concern for the Confederates. Considering the time frame, the plight of the white South, and Davis’s description of the conditions for rationalizing the draft, it is now reasonably obvious that the Confederate soldiers would have been losing their passions.

A New York Times article from 1864 regarding this Rebel Conscription Bill discussed the growing frustration among Southerners and the Confederacy.² The Times article declared that people have been increasingly distrusting of the Confederacy, but nothing quite ruffled their feathers more than this bill. The article said, “Nothing seems to have excited this spirit of resistance more than the determination to force into the ranks the men who had furnished substitutes, and thus became exempt from military service under the former conscription.”

All this stood out as interesting to me because throughout my previous “schooling,” I have heard that the passions of the Unionists were entirely outmatched by the unwavering commitment of the Confederacy. However, this letter and further research proves that that certainly was not the case, at least not in 1864.      

(1)Davis, Jefferson. (1864). Rebel Conscription Bill. In F. Moore, Rebellion Record Vol. IV (pp.442-443). New York: Arno Press.

(2)New York Times (1864, February 19). The Rebel Conscription and its Effects. Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/1864/02/19/news/the-rebel-conscription-and-its-effects.html