The Unpopular History of the United States by Uncle Sam Himself/Chapter 23

by Harris Dickson

XXIII

THE CONFEDERACY FIRST SEES THE LIGHT

Volunteers will never provide a certain and dependable supply of man-power to maintain a long war. It's like this: On the first chill day of winter you start your furnace to warm the house. It won't do just to light a fire, throw on some coal, slam the furnace door and let her heat up. That might be all sufficient if the cold spell only lasted a couple of hours. But the winter runs on, and blizzards get worse. To keep that furnace going full blast you must have plenty more coal, right handy in your cellar. No man is fool enough to light one fire, then sit down and depend upon voluntary contributions of coal that the neighbors may send in. Not much! Your full supply must be steady, reliable, convenient — where it may be shoveled into the proper place at the proper time.

It's exactly like that with an army during a protracted war — you must know where the supply of man-power is coming from. Volunteers will never maintain a uniform supply of the numbers needed and, above all, when needed.

At the opening of the Civil War, both the Union and Confederate governments pursued the same temporizing and uncertain policy of relying upon voluntary enlistments for short terms. After the Confederate defeat at Fort Donelson, the evacuation of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the battle of Shiloh, the Confederate Congress first displayed to the world the full meaning and extent of the power to "raise and support armies." By act of April 16, 1862, the Confederate States totally abandoned the principle of voluntary enlistment, authorizing President Davis to call out and place in the military service all white men between the ages of 18 and 35. The draft had already been adopted by the State of Virginia in February, 1862, with the effect of immediately adding nearly 30,000 men to the Virginia contingent. Conscripts were fitted into old organizations, and three months' drilling made them effective.

This Confederate Act of 1862, was, apparently, the first declaration on this continent of equal and universal military service. One year later the Federal Congress was forced into the same policy by declaring every man between 18 and 35 to be a soldier. Every well-informed American knows the result of this legislation. North and South. It filled the army, and kept men continuously in the field, until long service and habits of steady obedience transformed raw and rabbit-legged recruits into veterans, as capable and efficient as ever shouldered a musket. The same faint-hearted individuals who fled from the first battle of Bull Run, afterwards became the sturdiest troops who were finally victorious at Appomattox.

In passing let us note a singular and significant state of affairs. The South stood largely upon the doctrine of States Rights, which the North repudiated. Yet during the second period of the war, the Union fought as a co-partnership of States, while the Confederacy fought as a nation. The Union appealed to the States, adhered to voluntary enlistments, and left the Governors with power to appoint commissioned officers. The Confederacy appealed directly to the people. President Davis appointed the officers, they abandoned voluntary enlistment, and first adopted the republican principle that every citizen owes his country military service.

To illustrate the extravagant use of men under this haphazard volunteer system, and as a fact interesting in itself, it may be mentioned that in 1861 the total force of the Federal Government exceeded the total field army of Germany by nearly 120,000 men. Our infantry of volunteer forces exceeded the Russian field army on a war footing by 237 battalions. Our cavalry, which was practically useless until 1863, exceeded the total cavalry of the Russian regular army by 965 squadrons. Of course we saved money in times of peace, but in war times we spent by billions, when it was too late, and got nothing for it.