Did Conscription help or hurt the Confederacy?

leftyhunter

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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los angeles ca
Has we know the CSA was so short of manpower that by April 16 1862 it had to resort to concription to fill its dwindling ranks. The Union would have a draft which meant not all eligible men would have to enlist one year later.
I will argue that conscription hurt the CSA more then helped of course feel free to argue differently. Gen. Kirby Smith CSA estimated that by the end of April 1862 has many has 7k young men from East Tn fled to Ky where they then joined the Union Army to avoid the CSA conscription. Very few men from East Tn joined the Union Army prior to the Conscription act. See p.122 Licolnites and Rebels A divided town in America Robert McKenzie Oxford Univ Press.
Leftyhunter
 
I'd mercifully forgotten the correct state - however, Alabama had its own similar incident where an entire county threatened to "secede" from the state! I agree about the danger of trusting Hollywood's inaccuracies, but sometimes as in this case they do point up otherwise overlooked aspects of things, and I'm surprised no one else had remembered this particular movie in this regard.

As did Tennessee and Gagaw and Floida and every seceeded state that made up the CSA.
 
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Actually the BON was wildly popular it was arguably the first major block buster. The film's political argument's were well received in the South and they are still exposed today especially on CWT.
Leftyhunter
D o you suspect the film'ds wide popularity had something to with the race riots occurring on the North during the early 20th century?
 
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D o you suspect the film'ds wide popularity had something to with the race riots occurring on the North during the early 20th century?
Maybe but there was plenty of violence directed against blacks in the South during that same period. My main point is that white folks from the South we're not criticizing Hollywood when Hollywood made racist films.
Leftyhunter
 
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Actually the Confederacy enacted conscription in April of 1862.
No there were no draft riots but in this thread there are examples of deserters and conscription evaders fighting back. A huge motivation of Unionist guerrillas was Confederate conscription. Lots of examples in my thread " Union vs Confederate guerrillas".
The Confederacy did conscript immigrants they just had less then the Union to conscript.
The Confederacy had the 20 Negro Rule which is rather similar to hiring a substitute.
Leftyhunter

The North had to resort to conscription less than a year after the Confederates despite a vast difference in population in the North's favor, especially white population from which the Confederates depended for the great majority of their troops.
 
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The North had to resort to conscription less than a year after the Confederates despite a vast difference in population in the North's favor, especially white population from which the Confederates depended for the great majority of their troops.
But the Union did not have to deal with thousands of draftee's defecting to the Confederate Army or forming guerrilla of free lance bandit gangs.
Leftyhunter
 
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The way conscription was enacting in the South-- surprise "attacks" on homesteads, threatening and following through on threats by death in hanging, or forcing, kidnapping at gunpoint, or placing in stockades and starving until the man relented, and robbing the family of food in the process- these actions left many Southerners with a deep and lingering distrust of political leaders who would order such travesty of justice.
 
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I wonder how southern conscription played out when compared to its northern counterpart. Relatively few troops were conscripted up north because the threat of being drafted led men to accept the federal or state bounties and volunteer on their own, or buy their way out or get substitutes. Was the southern experience similar?
 
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I don't think conscription was a big issue in the Virginia theater. The army there was highly motivated. But in the west, Confederate conscription caused out migration, local defection to US control, and led to poorly motivated regiments looking for the earliest chance to save their lives.
 
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I wonder how southern conscription played out when compared to its northern counterpart. Relatively few troops were conscripted up north because the threat of being drafted led men to accept the federal or state bounties and volunteer on their own, or buy their way out or get substitutes. Was the southern experience similar?
No it was not. Many Conscripted Confederate soldiers defected to the Union Army. The 2nd Florida Cavalry Union and the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Union being excellent examples of the above. There were many deserters who fought the Confederacy as guerrillas or free lance bandits and I have examples earlier in this thread.
Leftyhunter
 
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I don't think conscription was a big issue in the Virginia theater. The army there was highly motivated. But in the west, Confederate conscription caused out migration, local defection to US control, and led to poorly motivated regiments looking for the earliest chance to save their lives.
Then again approximately 20k men from North West Virginia joined the Union Army prior to West Virginia becoming a state in 1863.
Desertion from Virginians does not appear to be a major problem for the Confederacy. Different story in North Carolina.
Leftyhunter
 
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The way conscription was enacting in the South-- surprise "attacks" on homesteads, threatening and following through on threats by death in hanging, or forcing, kidnapping at gunpoint, or placing in stockades and starving until the man relented, and robbing the family of food in the process- these actions left many Southerners with a deep and lingering distrust of political leaders who would order such travesty of justice.

Minus the dramatics, in anybody's army if you were drafted and didn't report when called folks came to get you. Then again, If conscription was worse in the South than in the North why were all the draft riots were in the North?
 
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Minus the dramatics, in anybody's army if you were drafted and didn't report when called folks came to get you. Then again, If conscription was worse in the South than in the North why were all the draft riots were in the North?
Am betting folk in the South voted with their feet to the northern forces, than to go thru the trouble to organizing riots in the south.

Kevin Dally
 
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Do these supposed defections figure in your the Confederate army was only outnumbered 1.86 to 1 estimate?
The defections are well documented in other threads . I already showed my work in the thread" By what metric is the Confederate Army superior".
So yes the defections helped the Union maintain a 1.86 to 1 manpower ratio.
Leftyhunter
 
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Minus the dramatics, in anybody's army if you were drafted and didn't report when called folks came to get you. Then again, If conscription was worse in the South than in the North why were all the draft riots were in the North?
I can't speak for @Gladys Hodge Sherrer but defections and guerrillas among Southern men was a far more long term serious threat then a few riots lasting maybe a week at most.
Leftyhunter
 
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Minus the dramatics, in anybody's army if you were drafted and didn't report when called folks came to get you. Then again, If conscription was worse in the South than in the North why were all the draft riots were in the North?
I never heard of women folk in the North being tortured to reveal the whereabouts of Union deserters. I have posted many times about women being tortured by Confederate Militia to obtain the location of Southern mossbacks.
Leftyhunter
 
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At least the most infamous draft riot in New York City was more complicated than simply resistance to conscription. It combined elements of racism by a poorer working class who resented fighting for what they perceived was simply the freedom of enslaved blacks.
 
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But the Union did not have to deal with thousands of draftee's defecting to the Confederate Army or forming guerrilla of free lance bandit gangs.
Leftyhunter
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
Once again you crack me the h e double hockey sticks up.
But all Unionist Guerillias and Home Made Yankee units were pure as the driven snow right? :bounce::bounce::bounce:

that schtick NEVER gets old.:running:
 
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