Confederate First Draft Essay

Words: 748
Pages: 3

In the first year of the Civil War both the Confederates and Union relied heavily on an all-volunteer force, but by the beginning of the second year the volunteer pool began to dry up and new measures were required to meet the continuing demand of bodies to the war if either side was to win. The Confederacy noticed the drop-in volunteers and initiated the first draft in American military history and the Union so followed suit with their own version of the draft. Both sides possessed the same goal for the enacting the draft, but each sides approach to reaching said goal was different. The Confederates were the first to enact a Conscription Act of 1862 to fill its ranks and it only applied to the ages of 18 to 35 and had only two exemptions to the law.1 The first exception protected slave owners that possessed twenty or more slaves and allowed them to buy out of the draft to prevent his slaves from rebelling.2 The second exemption allowed for anyone who could afford to pay $300 could also purchase a replacement to take their place in the draft.3 Shortly after the …show more content…
In the case of the Civil War drafts it also split social classes and only the rich were able to buy out of the draft and the poor could not. Even with the distain for the draft buy the public, it did supplement the growing need of manpower for both the Union and Confederacy. The Confederacy was able to use conscription to maintain its fight force as where the Union did not see as significant increase of its force through the draft, but did in its volunteer force. The Unions success was based in the fear, men did not want to be drafted when they could volunteer and receive a bounty for signing up. The draft was successful in increasing both the Union and Confederacy’s forces, but also came at a price off public distrust and social class