Enlistment versus conscription ?

[atlantis]

Would the confederacy have been better served keeping 1 yr enlistments as an option instead of conscription.

 

[JeffFromSyracuse]

No. Those choosing not to re-enlist would have far outnumbered the number of deserters in the second half of the war.

 

[atlantis]

No. Those choosing not to re-enlist would have far outnumbered the number of deserters in the second half of the war.

I don't know about that, the men with families yes I think they would not re enlist for another year but for the single 19 or 20 year old I think there was a good chance they would re enlist for another year.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

In East Tennessee, conscription turned a number of "fence-straddlers" into committed Unionists.

 

[JeffFromSyracuse]

I don't know about that, the men with families yes I think they would not re enlist for another year but for the single 19 or 20 year old I think there was a good chance they would re enlist for another year.

Based on what? There's no realistic reason to think Confederate re-enlistment rates would be any higher than Union re-enlistment rates in 1863 and 1864.

 

[jackt62]

The Confederacy's problem was a diminishing pool of white males of military age. By 1864 (if not even sooner), the Confederacy had pretty much eked out this pool, even with expanding the age range and eliminating many conscription exemptions. So conscription, for all its flaws and opposition it entailed, was still the only realistic option. In fact, the conscription law was originally promulgated in March 1862, in part because of the difficulty the Confederacy was having in getting its original 1 year soldiers to re-enlist.

 

[Lampasas Bill]

The conscription law did prompt many Southerners to enlist to avoid the stigma of being conscripted.