transportation home and back, shall be granted to all those retained in the service by the provisions of this act beyond the period of their original enlistment, and who have not heretofore received furloughs under the provisions of an act entitled, "An act providing for the granting of bounty and furloughs to privates and noncommissioned officers in the Provisional Army, approved December 11, 1861, and furloughs to be granted at such times and in such numbers as the secretary of war may deem most compatible with the public interest: And provided further, That in lieu of a furlough, the commutation in money of the value of the transportation herein granted shall be paid to each private, musician, or noncommissioned officer who may elect to receive it, at such time as the furlough would otherwise be granted: Provided further, That all persons under the age of eighteen years, or over the age of thirty-five years, who are now enrolled in the military service of the Confederate States in the regiments, squadrons, battalions, and companies hereafter to be reorganized, shall be required to remain in their respective companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments for ninety days, unless their places can be sooner supplied by other recruits not now in the service, or who are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years; and all laws and parts of laws providing for the reenlistment of volunteers and the organization thereof into companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments, shall be, and the same are, hereby repealed. a The second section permitted such companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments as were in process of formation to complete their organization and be mustered into service if, without embracing any persons then in the service, the said companies, etc., within thirty days should enroll the number of men prescribed for each of the said organizations, the company, battalion, and regimental officers, as before, to be elected by the men. The third section recognized the States only so far as their officers could be made useful to the Confederacy. It prescribed: That for the enrollment of all persons comprehended within the provisions of this act who are not already in service in the armies of the Confederate States, it shall be lawful for the President, with the consent of the governors of the respective States, to employ State officers, and on failure to obtain such consent he shall employ Confederate officers charged with the duty of making such enrollment in accordance with such rules and regulations to be prescribed by law. The fourth section prescribed that the men thus enrolled should be assigned by the Secretary of War to the companies in service from their respective States, until said companies should be filled to the maximum, which, by the twelfth section, was fixed at 125 rank and file for the infantry and 80 for each company of cavalry. The sixth section prescribed that if the number of organizations in the service from any State were not sufficient to absorb the number of persons subject to military service under the act, the excess should be kept as a reserve, from which, at stated periods, if not greater than three months, details determined by lot should be made so that every company, if practicable, might be kept full. The section also authorized the whole excess or reserve to be called into service in case of emergency, the same to be organized into companies and regiments, the troops to have the privilege of electing company and field officers. The seventh section allowed to all twelve months' men, as also all others continued in the service by the act, a bounty of $50. The eighth section prescribed that any man who would keep himself armed with an "approved musket, rifle, shotgun, or carbine," should receive for the use of his weapon $1 per month. The ninth section sanctioned the pernicious principle of substitution. It prescribed: That persons not liable for duty may be received as substitutes for those who are, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War.c a P. 29, 30. b P. 30, 31. c Sec. 9, p. 31. The tenth section conferred on the Confederate President the exclusive right of appointing all officers, but continued the vicious system of promotion established in the bounty and furlough act. It prescribed: That all vacancies shall be filled by the President from the company, battalion, or regiment in which such vacancies occur by promotion according to seniority, except in case of disability or other incompetency: Provided, however, That the President may, when in his opinion it may be proper, fill such vacancy or vacancies by the promotion of any officer or officers or private or privates from such companies, battalions, squadrons, or regiments, who shall have been distinguished in the service by exhibition of valor and skill; and that whenever a vacancy occurs in the lowest grade of the commissioned officers of a company, said vacancy shall be filled by election: Provided, That all appointments made by the President shall be by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." The eleventh section still further extended the principle of election; it prescribed: That the provisions of the first section of this act relating to the election of officers shall apply to those regiments, battalions, and squadrons which are composed of twelve months' and war companies combined in the same organization, without regard to the manner in which the officers thereof were originally appointed. The thirteenth and last section, recognizing the natural aversion of our people to conscription, and sure of the effect of the law in regard to volunteering, wisely prescribed: That all persons subject to enrollment, who are not now in the service under the provisions of this act, shall be permitted, previous to such enrollment, to volunteer in companies now in the service. c If the condition of military affairs in the Confederacy be considered in connection with the above legislation, it may be safely affirmed that in human history no deliberative body ever dared to push its authority so far. In the West, the loss of Fort Donelson, with 9,000 d prisoners, had compelled the Confederate troops in February, 1862, to evacuate Kentucky and Tennessee. This retrogade movement was followed, on the 6th of April, by the desperate battle of Shiloh, in which, baffled and defeated, the Confederate troops fell back to Corinth. In the East the Army of the Potomac, the largest, best equipped, and best disciplined army ever assembled on the Continent, was already advancing toward the Confederate capital. The Confederate armies blindly created for twelve months, and as blindly disorganized in the hope of filling their depleted ranks by voluntary enlistment, were rapidly hastening to their dissolution. The proud Confederacy, whose flag had floated within the distinct view of the national capital, through blunders of legislation was tottering to its fall. A month more, or two months at the farthest, and the gigantic Rebellion, organized to establish the sovereignty and independence of the States, would be a thing of the past, its leaders fleeing from the wrath of a loyal and outraged people. The situation was desperate; the crisis had arrived; the triumph of the Union was at hand. At this juncture it was reserved for a Confederate Congress to explain for all time, the meaning and extent of the power to raise and support armies. Appalled, but not unmanned, it rose to the occasion and setting an example that was followed a year later by the national Congress, resolved to meet the emergency, by declaring every man between a Sec. 10, p. 32. Sec. 13, p. 32. the ages of 18 and 35, a soldier. Had it been the object of the law to force reluctant citizens into the ranks, the experiment might not have seemed hazardous, but going far beyond, to conscript armies numbering more than 100,000 soldiers, who had faithfully fulfilled their engagements and were already turning their affections homeward, the temerity of this legislation finds no parallel in the history of the world. But the end justified the means; the reorganization which was languishing was immediately completed; the ranks were filled up and given the strength of increasing numbers; the Confederate armies again took the field to baffle and resist the onset of the Union hosts until, dwindling to the former shadows of themselves, they were finally compelled to lay down their arms at Appomattox Court-House. The immense power for resistance which this one law gave to the Confederacy should for a moment turn our thoughts from the Rebellion to the Revolution, and suggest the question why the military policy of the Continental Congress was so weak, while that of the Confederate Congress became so strong. The answer is obvious. The Continental Congress, while still fighting for independence, paid a sacred regard in theory and in fact to the sovereignty and independence of the States. The Confederate Congress, on the other hand, treating the principle as a dead letter, although it was incorporated in the preamble of the provisional constitution, boldly assumed and exercised all of the sovereign powers which under the Constitution of the United States are granted to Congress. Had the Continental Congress declared every able-bodied man a soldier, when it was first warned by Washington of the inevitable dissolution of his army, it is more than probable that the British fleet which left Boston in March, 1776, would have sailed with an army of paroled prisoners, never again to return to our shores. Unhampered by the Articles of Confederation which ultimately deprived it of all executive powers, the Continental Congress, despite the warnings and protests from the Army, unfortunately adhered to short and voluntary enlistments. Temporarily relieved by the evacuation of the British, who speedily returned in increasing numbers, the end of the year 1776 closed with the investment of Washington, with all the power of a dictator. To this end were affairs under the policy of the Provisional Congress rapidly drifting when, by a single stroke of legislation, the Confederate Congress insured the subordination of the military to the civil authority throughout the entire war. This resolution cost the nation the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives and thousands of millions of treasure; but great as was the sacrifice, if our legislators will but study the lesson, it may yet in the remote future teach them how to rescue and defend our liberty and independence. The foregoing reflections bear on the decision of the Confederate Congress to substitute conscription for volunteering, or rather to supplement volunteering by conscription, as under the law any citizen by voluntary enlistment could still escape the odium of draft. Having, therefore, determined to compel the soldiers to serve for an additional term of two years, the question may be asked, Why were the men still given the right to reorganize and elect their officers? The answer naturally suggests itself, that in making independent of the States the first experiment of conscription ever tried on the conti nent, the Confederate Congress did not dare to repudiate the promise made to the soldiers by the Provisional Congress. Had the soldiers revolted, the Rebellion would have instantly collapsed. It was therefore of vital importance to appease and pacify the army, and to this end every soldier coming under the operation of the law was given not only a voice in the selection of his commanders, but a furlough for two months and a bounty of $50. Here, at farthest, the concessions should have stopped, but such was not the case. The legislators, as has been seen, in the tenth section confined promotions to the companies and battalions in which vacancies might occur, and, further, required all appointments in the lowest grade of officers to be filled by election. This feature of the law was not dictated by any regard for the sovereignty of the States, for by the terms of the law all appointments were to be made by the Confederate President. It is rather to be explained by the inability of civilians to appreciate the proper qualifications of officers, and the relations which must exist between them and the soldier in order to attain the highest degree of efficiency and discipline. However that may be, to this principle of election may be ascribed the fact now generally admitted that in instruction and discipline the Confederate armies never equalled those of the Union, a drawback that was again largely compensated for by the advantages of topography and the defensive. CHAPTER XXXI. MILITARY POLICY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA— CONTINUED. CONSCRIPTION LAW. On April 16, 1862, the following conscription law was passed by the first session, First Confederate Congress: In view of the exigencies of the country, and the absolute necessity of keeping in the service our gallant army, and of placing in the field a large additional force to meet the advancing columns of the enemy now invading our soil: Therefore The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the president_be, and he is hereby authorized 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 eighteen and thirty-five years at the time the call or calls may be made, who are not legally exempted from military service. All of the persons aforesaid who are now in the armies of the Confederacy, and whose term of service will expire before the end of the war, shall be continued in the service for three years from the date of their original enlistment, unless the war shall have been sooner ended: Provided, however, That all such companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments, whose term of original enlistment was for twelve months, shall have the right, within forty days, on a day to be fixed by the commander of the brigade, to reorganize said companies, battalions, and regiments, by electing all their officers, which they had a right heretofore to elect, who shall be commissioned by the President: Provided further, That furloughs not exceeding sixty days, with transportation home and back, shall be granted to all those retained in the service by the provisions of this act beyond the period of their original enlistment, and who have not heretofore received furloughs under the provisions of an act entitled "An act providing for the granting of bounty and furloughs to privates and noncommissioned officers in the provisional army," approved eleventh December, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, said furloughs to be granted at such time and in such numbers as the secretary of war may deem most compatible with the public interest: And provided further, That in lieu of a furlough the commutation value in money of the transportation herein above granted shall be paid to each private, musician, or noncommissioned officer who may elect to receive it, at such time as the furlough would otherwise be granted: Provided further, That all persons under the age of eighteen years or over the age of thirty-five years who are now enrolled in the military service of the Confederate States, in the regiments, squadrons, battalions, and companies hereafter to be reorganized, shall be required to remain in their respective companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments for ninety days, unless their places can be sooner supplied by other recruits not now in the service, who are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years; and all laws and parts of laws providing for the reenlistment of volunteers and the organization thereof into companies, squadrons, battalions, or regiments shall be and the same are hereby repealed. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That such companies, squadrons, battalions, or regiments organized, or in process of organization by authority from the secretary of war, as may be within thirty days from the passage of this act so far completed as to have the whole number of men requisite for organization actually enrolled, not embracing in said organizations any persons now in service, shall be mustered into the service of the Confederate States as part of the land forces of the same, to be received in that arm of the service in which they are authorized to organize, and shall elect their company, battalion, and regimental officers. |