Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Essentially, I think it was all of them. Unless a man was able to get an exemption somehow, they were all included, and there were not that many exemptions. Call it 99%.
Regards,
Tim
Do any of you know offhand the percentage of the CS Army that was concripted or forced to remain in the ranks when the CS switched enlistments to "Duration" enlistments?
What about the original enlistees at the begining of the war? All those militias training for war for many years before Sumter surely were not forced nor conscripted. They were ready and willing.
__________________ -
"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
Ancestors in USA Army: 6th IA Inf, 11th IL Cav, 1st AL Cav; 122nd NY Inf; 6th MI Cav; 35th MA Inf; 100th IL Inf; 1st CO Inf/Cav; 22nd IN Inf
A reb PoW was asked a question. Here's his account.
Quote:
"What are you Rebels fighting for, anyway?"
The question struck me there and then as supremely ludicrous. Here were we Virginians standing on our own soil, fighting on our native heath against an invading army, defending what every man holds dear - his home and fireside. As well asked a game-**** why he crows and bares his spurs on his own dung-hill. So I replied:
"We are fighting to protect our mint-beds."
There was an Irishman on the staff, and he nearly fell off his saddle; he spurred his horse forward and slapped me on the shoulder and said:
"True for ye, me boy, there's not a lad in ould Ireland that wouldn't do the same for his poteen."
Even the brigadier smiled, and said that he had heard often of a Virginia julep but never tasted one, and the group clattered away, laughing.
Do any of you know offhand the percentage of the CS Army that was concripted or forced to remain in the ranks when the CS switched enlistments to "Duration" enlistments?
What about the original enlistees at the begining of the war? All those militias training for war for many years before Sumter surely were not forced nor conscripted. They were ready and willing.
Aye Sam, but the option not to re-up was never given and the men were not given a vote in the manner. I have little doubt there were many who questioned exactly what they were fighting for when the 20 slave exemption was revealed... we know Sam Watkins did.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
Do any of you know offhand the percentage of the CS Army that was concripted or forced to remain in the ranks when the CS switched enlistments to "Duration" enlistments?
What about the original enlistees at the begining of the war? All those militias training for war for many years before Sumter surely were not forced nor conscripted. They were ready and willing.
Conscription was voted in by the Confederate Congress in early 1862.
Prior to that unpopular action, all Confederate soldiers had been Volunteers or Militia (with a sprinkling of Regulars). All had enlisted of their own accord, or simply been called up in accordance with their state Militia laws in some cases, perhaps.
Enlistments in those early Volunteer regiments was for a period of 1 year. When you throw in delays for organization and acceptance into the Confederate army, and the times when Jeff Davis actually issued the calls, the terms of the regiments were generally expiring from March to August of 1862.
The Confederacy discovered that they could not convince enough troops to re-up in 1862. Initial expectations had been that this would be a short war, over after the first fight, and it was showing no sign of that. Many men who had volunteered and served their term thought it was now someone else's turn to serve. Hardships at home encouraged an early return. The Confederacy tried all the same tricks the Yankees did, in terms of enlistment bounties and re-enlistment bonuses. They were not working.
As the Confederacy mulled over the looming danger that the might lose the war because their army melted away without a struggle, the Union was obviously preparing massive campaigns in both East and West. Suddenly, Grant struck. Heavy fighting at Ft. Donelson produced what were thought of as heavy casualties and a large haul of prisoners, followed by the loss of Nashville. New Orleans fell. None of this was good for morale.
Then, like the explosion of a boiler, the horrid casualty lists of Shiloh hit both North and South. Nothing like them had ever hit the American public before.
It is in this dark situation that the Confederacy turns to conscription. The enlistees of 1861 were given no choice. Their enlistment was automatically extended; they were now volunteers who had been conscripted.
Many might have stayed to fight anyway, but from this moment on the Southern army was no longer an army of volunteers. It was an army of conscripts, where no man had a choice unless he could qualify for an exemption -- which generally meant he owned slaves.
Did the average Confederate soldier fight for slavery?
Here are some words from some of them:
"If it had not for them ... preaching abolitionism from every northern pulpit, I would never have been soldiering." - Pvt. James Williams, Twenty-first Ala., to wife, December 20, 1861, Fort Gaines, Ala. --- "we are ruined if we do not put forth all our energies & drive back the invaders of our slavery South" - Pvt. Thomas Taylor, Sixth Ala., to parents, March 4, 1862, Manassas Junction, Va. --- "Now, any man who pretends to believe that this is not a war for the emancipation of the blacks, and that the whole course of the Yankee Government has not only been directed to the abolition of slavery, but even to a stirring up of servile insurrections, is either a fool or a lier." - The Vidette, November 2, 1862, Springfield Tenn. The Vidette was a camp newspaper for Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan's troops. --- "The proclamation of Lincon has filled every one with indignation, and we are all now in favor of raising the 'black flag' and asking and showing 'no quarter'." - Capt. Christopher Winsmith, First S.C., to father, October 4, 1862, near Winchester,Va. --- "we must never dispair, for death is preferable to a life spent under the gaulling yoke of abolition rule." - Pvt. John Street, Eighth Tex., to wife, October 2, 1862, Miss.
The song itself, titled Run Yank or Die by Thomas W. Crowson, I will reprint here:
Run Yank or Die
Now if you will listen, while I relate
About the case of freedom you're here to calculate
Old Abe tried to enslave us, but soon it was the cry;
"O liberty for Southern boys; run Yank or die."
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die.
Charles, the finest looking mortal that ever I did see;
He tied John Brown's body to a white oak tree.
To see him tie the rope you ought to stand by.
'Twas done with Carolina cotton; run Yank or die.
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
There's old Andy Johnson of East Tennessee,
He's gone and joined Lincoln to set the negroes free.
But when he undertakes it, he's shore for to sigh
He'll back from the Southern boys; run Yank or die.
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
The little Southern Yankees are getting very sick.
They don't like medicine, because it is so thick;
And when they go to take it, it is sure to hurt their eye.
They don't like Southern pills; run Yank or die
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
We're going out to Richmond to get all the news,
We're coming back by Washington to get old Lincoln's shoes.
And as we walk the streets, the Yankees they will fly.
They'll hollow out, "It's Southern boys"; run Yank or die.
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
Old General Scott is a might great sinner,
Who never comes to fight us, but he's sure to bring his dinner.
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
The little northern Yankees are getting very grand.
They brought down their dinner and set it on our land.
They had all kinds of sweets, mixed up in a pie,
But the Southern boys ate it up; run Yank or die
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
There were the northern ladies, no doubt they look fine,
Standing round the table with demijohns of wine.
but when they saw us coming, they made their hoops fly.
'Twas no place for women folks; run Yank or die.
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
Old Abe's head is now getting gray.
He asked General Davis for ninety days' stay.
He had to have money; he wanted time to try.
But Jeff would not grant it to him; run Yank or die.
Chorus
Hurrah for slavery, for Southerners are the boys
For singing and fighting, and stopping Yankee noise.
The young Confederacy is getting on quite spry,
So big Yank, little Yank, run Yank or die
---
The quotes above from: What This Cruel War Was Over by Chandra Manning
__________________ -
"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
Ancestors in USA Army: 6th IA Inf, 11th IL Cav, 1st AL Cav; 122nd NY Inf; 6th MI Cav; 35th MA Inf; 100th IL Inf; 1st CO Inf/Cav; 22nd IN Inf
Finally got the book, What This Cruel War Was Over, by Chandra Manning.
More than happy to compare notes and critique at this thread concerning the entries and conclusions by the author at this thread.
How say you?
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Sam, to answer your question: of course not. That's some silly mess that Neil likes to promote. Soldiers fought for the same thing they've always fought for: Ladies.
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
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