Did Conscription help or hurt the Confederacy?

leftyhunter

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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May 27, 2011
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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
 
And @Mike Griffith
Conscription is a two edged sword it certainly increases the size of an army but it risks possible defection to the enemy, desertion that can lead to in the case of the Confederate Army Unionist guerrillas or free lance bandits.
It puts guns in the hands of potentially dangerous opponents of the Confederacy.
Certainly other militaries have had very bad outcomes with conscription similar to the Confederacy.
On the other hand some conscript's do fight well. So it's a tough call.
Leftyhunter


“It all added up to war-weariness. At the polls the voters cast votes, when they were permitted a free choice, against the radical program of emancipation and confiscation. At the recruiting stations, by failing to enlist, the war-weary people cast an even more effective vote. Against this wave of negation the governors had no weapon they dared to use. Political considerations prevented them from coercing the people, and their reluctance to exercise power enabled Lincoln and the national government to step into the breach. The nation government asserted and maintained the power to conscript men for their armies, and the state executives yielded to or co-operated with the Washington authorities. Eventually states' rights, weakened by war-weariness and rendered inarticulate by politics, died of attrition.” (Page 274.)

“In Ohio, Tod [David Tod Gvernor of Ohio] was alarmed over the number of desertions and asked Lincoln to issue a proclamation granting amnesty to those who returned to their regiments in thirty days, and threatening punishment to those who remained in flight. Kirkwood [Samuel Kirkwood Governor of Iowa] was so alarmed he wanted arms for loyal citizens to protect themselves from deserter bands., while Morton's [Oliver P. Morton Governor of Indiana] provost marshal general told the War Department that “Southern Indiana is ripe for revolution... The Government does not recognize... the peril. The sooner the draft comes the better.”

The alarm over the desertion problem was reflected in Congress, when in February, Massachusett senator Wilson introduced a bill for national conscription. For a couple of weeks the House and senate debated the measure, but they hurried their discussion in the full knowledge that the next Congress, product of the 1862 upheaval, would not adopt a national draft. Even so Democrats and border-state men rallied to oppose this new, un-American assault on states' rights and individual liberties. When A.B. Olin of New York, sponsoring the measure in the House, declared that the government should not petition the state governments for the “boon” of troops, the Democrats objected. When Olin asserted that the idea of calling on the governors for troops was born of the “accursed doctrine of States rights, State sovereignty, which has been chiefly in bringing upon the Republic our present calamity,” the Democrats countered with excoriations of national concentration. This would, in Democratic eyes, establish an irresponsible despotism. Democrats declared that desertions were increasing and recruiting was at a standstill because the Republicans endorsed tyranny; Republicans found the cause in the Democrats' advocacy of treason.” (Pages 290-291)

William B. Hesseltine, Lincoln And The War Governors.
 
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“It all added up to war-weariness. At the polls the voters cast votes, when they were permitted a free choice, against the radical program of emancipation and confiscation. At the recruiting stations, by failing to enlist, the war-weary people cast an even more effective vote. Against this wave of negation the governors had no weapon they dared to use. Political considerations prevented them from coercing the people, and their reluctance to exercise power enabled Lincoln and the national government to step into the breach. The nation government asserted and maintained the power to conscript men for their armies, and the state executives yielded to or co-operated with the Washington authorities. Eventually states' rights, weakened by war-weariness and rendered inarticulate by politics, died of attrition.” (Page 274.)

“In Ohio, Tod [David Tod Gvernor of Ohio] was alarmed over the number of desertions and asked Lincoln to issue a proclamation granting amnesty to those who returned to their regiments in thirty days, and threatening punishment to those who remained in flight. Kirkwood [Samuel Kirkwood Governor of Iowa] was so alarmed he wanted arms for loyal citizens to protect themselves from deserter bands., while Morton's [Oliver P. Morton Governor of Indiana] provost marshal general told the War Department that “Southern Indiana is ripe for revolution... The Government does not recognize... the peril. The sooner the draft comes the better.”

The alarm over the desertion problem was reflected in Congress, when in February, Massachusett senator Wilson introduced a bill for national conscription. For a couple of weeks the House and senate debated the measure, but they hurried their discussion in the full knowledge that the next Congress, product of the 1862 upheaval, would not adopt a national draft. Even so Democrats and border-state men rallied to oppose this new, un-American assault on states' rights and individual liberties. When A.B. Olin of New York, sponsoring the measure in the House, declared that the government should not petition the state governments for the “boon” of troops, the Democrats objected. When Olin asserted that the idea of calling on the governors for troops was born of the “accursed doctrine of States rights, State sovereignty, which has been chiefly in bringing upon the Republic our present calamity,” the Democrats countered with excoriations of national concentration. This would, in Democratic eyes, establish an irresponsible despotism. Democrats declared that desertions were increasing and recruiting was at a standstill because the Republicans endorsed tyranny; Republicans found the cause in the Democrats' advocacy of treason.” (Pages 290-291)

William B. Hesseltine, Lincoln And The War Governors.
We know Southern Indiana was not ripe for Revolution because there was no revolution nor guerrilla warfare. The Confederacy didn't seem to have a problem with si called "states rights" because they had a national conscription. If the Union Army was has demoralized a Hesseltine asserts then what major malfunction prevented the Confederate Army from winning?
Leftyhunter
 
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We know Southern Indiana was not ripe for Revolution because there was no revolution nor guerrilla warfare. The Confederacy didn't seem to have a problem with si called "states rights" because they had a national conscription. If the Union Army was has demoralized a Hesseltine asserts then what major malfunction prevented the Confederate Army from winning?
Leftyhunter
Hesseltine asserted what Northern governors and other politicians were saying about the situation in their states.
 
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Hesseltine asserted what Northern governors and other politicians were saying about the situation in their states.
Which doesn't necessarily mean as in the case of the governor of Indiana that the governor's are always right. We know that every single year the supposedly severely demoralized Union Army suffering from massive desertions some how sizes and holds increasing amounts of Confederate territory every single year of the war. Go figure.
Leftyhunter
 
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Which doesn't necessarily mean as in the case of the governor of Indiana that the governor's are always right. We know that every single year the supposedly severely demoralized Union Army suffering from massive desertions some how sizes and holds increasing amounts of Confederate territory every single year of the war. Go figure.
Leftyhunter
I'm pretty sure the Governor of Indiana would have known more about what was going in his state at the time than you.
 
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So you can document a rebellion and or guerrilla warfare in Southern Indiana. I eagerly await your sourced reply.
Leftyhunter
See Post 164 for my source. Now for your source that historian William B. Hesseltine and Oliver P. Morton, the wartime governor of Indiana don't know what they are talking about.
 
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See Post 164 for my source. Now for your source that historian William B. Hesseltine and Oliver P. Morton, the wartime governor of Indiana don't know what they are talking about.
Dyer's Compendium lists no Union regiments engaged in quelling any rebellion or engaging in counterinsurgency in Southern Indiana. The Indiana Legion which was the Indiana State Militia ha time enough to conduct counterinsurgency in Kentucky. So I still would like to see sources of an actual rebellion in Southern Indiana.
Leftyhunter
 
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Dyer's Compendium lists no Union regiments engaged in quelling any rebellion or engaging in counterinsurgency in Southern Indiana. The Indiana Legion which was the Indiana State Militia ha time enough to conduct counterinsurgency in Kentucky. So I still would like to see sources of an actual rebellion in Southern Indiana.
Leftyhunter

Lefty, if you had read post 164 you would know nothing was said about militias quelling rebellions in southern Indiana. What Governor Morton's provost marshal general did tell the War Department: “Southern Indiana is ripe for revolution... The Government does not recognize... the peril. The sooner the draft comes the better.”
 
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The topic of this thread is whether conscription helped or hurt the Confederacy. I do not believe events in Ohio or Indiana are germane to this topic. Please limit your posts to the subject of the thread.

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The following link discusses the pro-southern conflict in Indiana as well as Illinois:

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/battle-of-brazil-indiana.1080/
I appreciate the link. There was no serious attempt to overthrow Union authorities. There was a brief attempt as mentioned in the thread but a Union general talked the approximately 500 pro Confederate Militia out of their attempt and they never tried again. There was no guerrilla warfare in Southern Indiana.
Leftyhunter
 
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