2nd Alabama Cavalry
Sergeant
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2019
I first came across an article from the 4 Feb 1864 issue of The New York Times, entitled; "An Address by the Rebel Soldiers," several years ago and have done a considerable amount of research into it since then. Basically, when news of what was to be included in the third and final Confederate Conscription Act first reached Confederate soldiers, in January and February 1864, the news began to spread throughout numerous Confederate camps in the South. It was disturbing and infuriating to many three year volunteers, who were coming up on the expiration of their terms of service in the Confederate army. Among other things, this new Conscription Act extended the ages from 17-50, and stated that any volunteer whose three year term of service was about to expire, who did not re-enlist into the Confederate army for the remainder of the war, would be conscripted and forced to serve the remainder of the war against their will. This initiated a knee-jerk reaction from many, which resulted in; "An Address by the Rebel Soldiers," being penned, reportedly by a Colonel of a Tennessee regiment in General Hardee`s corps of the Army of Tennessee, and was quickly copied from man to man, being sent to numerous Confederate camps throughout the region. Soon the copied manifesto was being seen and read by thousands of Confederate soldiers in countless camps throughout the South.
Then a U.S. Scout, who was in secret service to the U.S. Government, disguised as a Confederate soldier, was given a copy of the document at a camp in Calhoun county, AL, and quickly reported it up through his chain of command. By 2 Feb 1864 it was published in the Cincinnati Commercial as; "An Address by the Rebel Soldiers," and was quickly picked up by dozens of northern papers and read in numerous Union camps. The article was a strong arraignment of the new Conscription Act which caused a countless number of Confederate soldiers to go home after their three year terms of service had expired, with some deserting immediately and many of those crossing the Union lines and taking the oath of enlistment into the U.S. Army.
Below is that address:
The New York Times, 4 Feb 1864, An Address to the Rebel Soldiers:
AN IMPENDING REBEL REVOLT.; The Results of Their Wholesale Conscription--Remarkable Address of Rebel Soldiers in Arms--They Denounce Their Leaders and Refuse to Serve. THE ADDRESS.
The Cincinnati Commercial, of Feb. 2, publishes the following address, which it editorially vouches for as genuine. It says: "It comes to us from two distinct and independent sources, each professing to be a literal copy of the document, including italics and capitals. These transcripts of the original, are corroborative, and leave no room to doubt the genuineness of this revolutionary manifesto. How extensively it has been circulated, or to what extent it has influenced the rank and file of JOHNSTON's army, we have no means of knowing."
Eds. COMMERCIAL: The following address was procured by me from some rebel soldiers in Calhoun County, Alabama, a few days past. I was on secret service for the Government, and was, therefore, in disguise, and the rebels gave me the address, supposing me to be a rebel soldier. There is no mistake as to its genuineness; and I know that it has circulated to a considerable extent among the dissatisfied rebel soldiers. The italics and capitals are the author's; the punctuation is mine. I have the original copy in my possession. U.S. SCOUT.
FELLOW SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE! -- Three years ago we were called upon to volunteer in the Confederate army for a term of three years; and we all nobly responded to the call, with the express understanding that we were to be discharged as soon as our term of service expired. Indeed, we were faithfully assured by all of our officials that such a course would be pursued. The Secretary of War proclaimed that those who volunteered for "three years or during the war" would have to be discharged from the army at the end of three years. But, to our utter surprise, we are now told that we must be CONSCRIPTED and FORCED to enter the army for another term of three years! Our feelings are not to be consulted -- WE MUST BE CONSCRIPTED!??
Was such a thing ever heard of before? Do the annals of war furnish a single instance of volunteer soldiers being forced to continue in the service after the expiration of their term of service? Surely not! If we search the history of the world, from the days of Adam down to the present, we will find that in every instance, a volunteer soldier was discharged as soon as his term of service expired, unless he of his own accord, reenlisted as a volunteer; and are we, Americans, once the boast and pride of the world -- ARE WE to be treated worse than the heathen of the dark ages treated their soldiers? Are we to be made the worst slaves ever known to the world? And are we to become the laughing-stock of the world?
FELLOW SOLDIERS! is it not clear to every rational mind that our pompous and merciless rulers are daily stealing away our rights and liberties, and reducing us to the most abject slavery ever known to the world? And shall we cowardly submit to this palpable infringement upon our most sacred rights ? We were told that we must come out to fight for our rights: yet our inhuman leaders are gradually robbing us of every right inherited by nature or transmitted to us by our predecessors! The Federals did not hesitate to discharge all their nine months' troops whose term of service expired last Summer -- they were promptly discharged, and their places filled up by new levies: and shall we suffer ourselves to be treated worse than our enemies are treated? No, brave comrades, let's assert our rights, and unflinchingly maintain them! Let's show our beastly rulers that they can not thus enslave us because we are private soldiers! They have already cunningly led us to the very threshold of destruction; they have practiced one deception after another upon us; they have told us lies -- HORRIBLE LIES -- to induce us to become their ABJECT SLAVES.
Among the innumerable lies promulgated by these unmitigated scamps, we call your attention to the following: They told us that the war would not last three months; that foreign nations would recognize us as an independent people, and help us fight; that the Yankees could not fight; that one of us could whip ten Yankees; that Vicksburg could never be taken; that Chattanooga could never be taken; that the peace party of the North would force LINCOLN to MAKE PEACE with the South; THAT WE SOLDIERS SHOULD BE DISCHARGED AS SOON AS OUR TIME EXPIRED, and that we would not be heavily taxed. These are but a few of the many hypocritical lies proclaimed by those conspirators who have precipitated us into irretrievable revolution. Shall we submit to be beguiled by these UNPARDONABLE USURPERS, and permit our families to STARVE TO DEATH, through want of our labor at home? Are we not aware that if our absence from our families be protracted another term of three years, many of them will suffer wretchedly for the necessaries of life, if they do not starve entirely to death? And are we not bound by the MOST SACRED LAWS known to man to provide for our families? And should we permit a set of usurping profligates to prevent us from complying with this DIVINE LAW? By the late laws of Congress, our families are to be taxed to an almost unlimited extent; and if we submit to become conscripts, the last ray of hope will have to be expelled from our hearts, for we can then hope for nothing but AN UNTIMELY STATE OF ABJECT SLAVERY, NOT ONLY OF OURSELVES, BUT ALSO OF OUR FAMILIES!
NOW IS THE TIME TO ASSERT OUR RIGHTS, for if we wait longer our DOOM WILL BE FOREVER SEALED! We who write this address are determined to demand our rights, and, if necessary, we will DEMAND THEM AT THE POINT OF THE BAYONET! We are not enemies to the South; but we are lovers of our rights, liberties and families; and if we must lose all our sacred rights, and permit our families to starve, in order to sustain our wicked leaders in their DECEPTIVE COURSE, we prefer to return to our ALLEGIANCE TO THE OLD GOVERNMENT, ACCEPT OF LINCOLN's PARDON, and let the leaders and their CONFEDERACY go to HELL TOGETHER! This may be hard language for men who have fought in many a hard battle to use; but silent endurance ceases to be a VIRTUE, and confident are we that the Government of the United States can treat us no worse than we are being treated by our heartless officials in the field as well as at Richmond.
But we are told that if we will let the authorities CONSCRIPT us the war will soon close, favorable to our side! Can any rational man credit such a perfidious lie? Does not this conscripting business plainly say to the world we are fast playing out? That our weakness is rapidly manifesting itself to our own deluded minds? Fellow-soldiers, we have been too often deceived by these wily liars to place the slightest confidence in anything they tell us. They are but INVENTED LIES to enable them to tie the cord of DESPOTISM tighter around our wrists! Every intelligent soldier among us knows that we are already whipped; and why not acknowledge it at once? Why not show our leaders that we know we are whipped as well as they do? PRESIDENT DAVIS VIRTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THIS FACT; so do the SECRETARY OF WAR and the SECRETARY of the TREASURY! What use is there for us to contend against a DEAD CURRENCY and an EMPTY COMMISSARY in the face of the best army ever marshaled for combat? Think of these things, fellow-soldiers, and decide what shall he your course. WE HAVE MADE UP OUR MINDS TO GO HOME AS SOON AS OUR TIME IS OUT!
MANY SOLDIERS.
During the last several years in which I have researched this, I have found and saved about twelve other period news paper accounts, spanning February-March 1864, which picked up the manifesto from the Cincinnati Commercial (2 Feb 1864) and ran the article, with several papers updating it as new information came in. I know that my 3rd Great Grandfather, who served with the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment in Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade, would have most likely read this, as one of the articles stated that about fifteen of the men who had deserted together from the Confederate army and enlisted into the U.S. Army, did so after receiving their copies of the manifesto from men of the 2nd Tennessee and 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiments (CSA), while in their respective camps. This manifesto, which was written as a direct consequence of the third Confederate Conscription Act, reportedly drove so many deserters and Unionists from northern Alabama across Union lines that the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment USV, was organized by Brig. General Grenville M. Dodge, becoming the sister regiment of the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment USV, which he also organized about 16 months earlier. If my 3rd Great Grandfather did read the manifesto, it must not have been enough to dissuade him or to change his mind, as he continued in service with the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment (CSA), until the close of the war.
What do you guys think of this address? Have any of you seen it before? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Then a U.S. Scout, who was in secret service to the U.S. Government, disguised as a Confederate soldier, was given a copy of the document at a camp in Calhoun county, AL, and quickly reported it up through his chain of command. By 2 Feb 1864 it was published in the Cincinnati Commercial as; "An Address by the Rebel Soldiers," and was quickly picked up by dozens of northern papers and read in numerous Union camps. The article was a strong arraignment of the new Conscription Act which caused a countless number of Confederate soldiers to go home after their three year terms of service had expired, with some deserting immediately and many of those crossing the Union lines and taking the oath of enlistment into the U.S. Army.
Below is that address:
The New York Times, 4 Feb 1864, An Address to the Rebel Soldiers:
AN IMPENDING REBEL REVOLT.; The Results of Their Wholesale Conscription--Remarkable Address of Rebel Soldiers in Arms--They Denounce Their Leaders and Refuse to Serve. THE ADDRESS.
The Cincinnati Commercial, of Feb. 2, publishes the following address, which it editorially vouches for as genuine. It says: "It comes to us from two distinct and independent sources, each professing to be a literal copy of the document, including italics and capitals. These transcripts of the original, are corroborative, and leave no room to doubt the genuineness of this revolutionary manifesto. How extensively it has been circulated, or to what extent it has influenced the rank and file of JOHNSTON's army, we have no means of knowing."
Eds. COMMERCIAL: The following address was procured by me from some rebel soldiers in Calhoun County, Alabama, a few days past. I was on secret service for the Government, and was, therefore, in disguise, and the rebels gave me the address, supposing me to be a rebel soldier. There is no mistake as to its genuineness; and I know that it has circulated to a considerable extent among the dissatisfied rebel soldiers. The italics and capitals are the author's; the punctuation is mine. I have the original copy in my possession. U.S. SCOUT.
FELLOW SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE! -- Three years ago we were called upon to volunteer in the Confederate army for a term of three years; and we all nobly responded to the call, with the express understanding that we were to be discharged as soon as our term of service expired. Indeed, we were faithfully assured by all of our officials that such a course would be pursued. The Secretary of War proclaimed that those who volunteered for "three years or during the war" would have to be discharged from the army at the end of three years. But, to our utter surprise, we are now told that we must be CONSCRIPTED and FORCED to enter the army for another term of three years! Our feelings are not to be consulted -- WE MUST BE CONSCRIPTED!??
Was such a thing ever heard of before? Do the annals of war furnish a single instance of volunteer soldiers being forced to continue in the service after the expiration of their term of service? Surely not! If we search the history of the world, from the days of Adam down to the present, we will find that in every instance, a volunteer soldier was discharged as soon as his term of service expired, unless he of his own accord, reenlisted as a volunteer; and are we, Americans, once the boast and pride of the world -- ARE WE to be treated worse than the heathen of the dark ages treated their soldiers? Are we to be made the worst slaves ever known to the world? And are we to become the laughing-stock of the world?
FELLOW SOLDIERS! is it not clear to every rational mind that our pompous and merciless rulers are daily stealing away our rights and liberties, and reducing us to the most abject slavery ever known to the world? And shall we cowardly submit to this palpable infringement upon our most sacred rights ? We were told that we must come out to fight for our rights: yet our inhuman leaders are gradually robbing us of every right inherited by nature or transmitted to us by our predecessors! The Federals did not hesitate to discharge all their nine months' troops whose term of service expired last Summer -- they were promptly discharged, and their places filled up by new levies: and shall we suffer ourselves to be treated worse than our enemies are treated? No, brave comrades, let's assert our rights, and unflinchingly maintain them! Let's show our beastly rulers that they can not thus enslave us because we are private soldiers! They have already cunningly led us to the very threshold of destruction; they have practiced one deception after another upon us; they have told us lies -- HORRIBLE LIES -- to induce us to become their ABJECT SLAVES.
Among the innumerable lies promulgated by these unmitigated scamps, we call your attention to the following: They told us that the war would not last three months; that foreign nations would recognize us as an independent people, and help us fight; that the Yankees could not fight; that one of us could whip ten Yankees; that Vicksburg could never be taken; that Chattanooga could never be taken; that the peace party of the North would force LINCOLN to MAKE PEACE with the South; THAT WE SOLDIERS SHOULD BE DISCHARGED AS SOON AS OUR TIME EXPIRED, and that we would not be heavily taxed. These are but a few of the many hypocritical lies proclaimed by those conspirators who have precipitated us into irretrievable revolution. Shall we submit to be beguiled by these UNPARDONABLE USURPERS, and permit our families to STARVE TO DEATH, through want of our labor at home? Are we not aware that if our absence from our families be protracted another term of three years, many of them will suffer wretchedly for the necessaries of life, if they do not starve entirely to death? And are we not bound by the MOST SACRED LAWS known to man to provide for our families? And should we permit a set of usurping profligates to prevent us from complying with this DIVINE LAW? By the late laws of Congress, our families are to be taxed to an almost unlimited extent; and if we submit to become conscripts, the last ray of hope will have to be expelled from our hearts, for we can then hope for nothing but AN UNTIMELY STATE OF ABJECT SLAVERY, NOT ONLY OF OURSELVES, BUT ALSO OF OUR FAMILIES!
NOW IS THE TIME TO ASSERT OUR RIGHTS, for if we wait longer our DOOM WILL BE FOREVER SEALED! We who write this address are determined to demand our rights, and, if necessary, we will DEMAND THEM AT THE POINT OF THE BAYONET! We are not enemies to the South; but we are lovers of our rights, liberties and families; and if we must lose all our sacred rights, and permit our families to starve, in order to sustain our wicked leaders in their DECEPTIVE COURSE, we prefer to return to our ALLEGIANCE TO THE OLD GOVERNMENT, ACCEPT OF LINCOLN's PARDON, and let the leaders and their CONFEDERACY go to HELL TOGETHER! This may be hard language for men who have fought in many a hard battle to use; but silent endurance ceases to be a VIRTUE, and confident are we that the Government of the United States can treat us no worse than we are being treated by our heartless officials in the field as well as at Richmond.
But we are told that if we will let the authorities CONSCRIPT us the war will soon close, favorable to our side! Can any rational man credit such a perfidious lie? Does not this conscripting business plainly say to the world we are fast playing out? That our weakness is rapidly manifesting itself to our own deluded minds? Fellow-soldiers, we have been too often deceived by these wily liars to place the slightest confidence in anything they tell us. They are but INVENTED LIES to enable them to tie the cord of DESPOTISM tighter around our wrists! Every intelligent soldier among us knows that we are already whipped; and why not acknowledge it at once? Why not show our leaders that we know we are whipped as well as they do? PRESIDENT DAVIS VIRTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THIS FACT; so do the SECRETARY OF WAR and the SECRETARY of the TREASURY! What use is there for us to contend against a DEAD CURRENCY and an EMPTY COMMISSARY in the face of the best army ever marshaled for combat? Think of these things, fellow-soldiers, and decide what shall he your course. WE HAVE MADE UP OUR MINDS TO GO HOME AS SOON AS OUR TIME IS OUT!
MANY SOLDIERS.
During the last several years in which I have researched this, I have found and saved about twelve other period news paper accounts, spanning February-March 1864, which picked up the manifesto from the Cincinnati Commercial (2 Feb 1864) and ran the article, with several papers updating it as new information came in. I know that my 3rd Great Grandfather, who served with the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment in Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade, would have most likely read this, as one of the articles stated that about fifteen of the men who had deserted together from the Confederate army and enlisted into the U.S. Army, did so after receiving their copies of the manifesto from men of the 2nd Tennessee and 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiments (CSA), while in their respective camps. This manifesto, which was written as a direct consequence of the third Confederate Conscription Act, reportedly drove so many deserters and Unionists from northern Alabama across Union lines that the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment USV, was organized by Brig. General Grenville M. Dodge, becoming the sister regiment of the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment USV, which he also organized about 16 months earlier. If my 3rd Great Grandfather did read the manifesto, it must not have been enough to dissuade him or to change his mind, as he continued in service with the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment (CSA), until the close of the war.
What do you guys think of this address? Have any of you seen it before? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
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