The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.

Confederate Government, 1862

CONFEDERATE STATES. 1862 The States united in the Southern Confederacy are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Their population and resources, as presented by the returns of the census of 1860 are important considerations in the present struggle to maintain a separation from the other States. Their on was as follows:

State. While. Free Colored. Slave. […].

The ratio of increase during the ten years closing with 1860, was as follows: […].

In the cotton-growing States of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, the increase of the slave population is more rapid than that of the white population. In Louisiana, which raises sugar and cotton, the increase is nearly in the same ratio as that of the white population. In Virginia and South Carolina the increase of the white population is in the most rapid ratio. In these two States such physical causes were in operation as might ultimately have released the slaves. The white population of the Confederate States ,according to sex, in 1860, was as follows […].

The following is  statement of the amount and value of certain articles produced in the Confederate States during the year ending June 1,1860, and in all the States during the same period: […].

Page 236

In the production of the staples for food above mentioned, the proportion of the Confederate States is veil maintained. In manufactures they are less advanced. These States possess also their peculiar products of sugar, cotton, and tobacco, which are an inexhaustible source of wealth, and enable them to be consumers of the productions of all the other States. […].

The amount of capital invested in the manufacture of cotton goods in the Confederate States during the year ending Juno 1, 1860, was $9,303,921; total in the United States, $99,551,465.

The amount of capital invested in the manufacture of woollen goods in the Confederate States during the same period was $1,817,980; total in the United States, $35,520,527.

The annual product of the manufacture of boots and shoes in the four States of Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, during the same period, was $2,729,327; total in the United States, $89,549,900. The value of the product of leather in the Confederate States, during the same period, […].

____________________________________

* This includes the salt mines of western Virginia held by United States forces. States.

A provisional government for the Confederate States, to continue for one year, was adopted by the Provisional Congress at its first session in February, 1861. This was simply a temporary form for the regulation of the actions of those persons who should exercise the combined authority of these States during the first year of their union as Confederate States. It consisted of the Constitution of the United States with such modifications as were necessary to adapt it to the peculiar circumstances then existing. The members of this Provisional Congress were appointed by the conventions in the respective States, who were elected by the people while they were a part of the United States. The Provisional Congress elected the Executive and clothed him with powers to organize and execute the duties of a Government, in opposition to the United States. During the year a permanent form of government was proposed and submitted to the approval of the Conventions or Legislatures of the respective States. It was approved unanimously. The time for it to go into operation by superseding the Provisional Government, was the 18th of February, 1862. Thus far nothing had been submitted to the action of the people. When last at the polls they were citizens of the United States. Now they were declared to be citizens of another country, acting under another Government, and performing duties prescribed by another supreme law. This change had been produced, not by the natural operation of forms already adopted by themselves, but in consequence of their destruction. It was provided that in November the officers under the Permanent Government should be elected. The name of one candidate for the Presidency only was submitted to the people. Like the election in France, the people were perfectly free to vote for electors who would choose him, or not vote at all. He was unanimously elected. At the same Page 237 time, members of Congress under the Permanent Constitution were elected. The only point involved before the people in these elections, was whether this or that man should be chosen to Congress. Every question relative to the previous condition of the people, as citizens of the United States, and the change which had been made, had passed beyond the consideration of the voters. In fact, no such question was ever submitted to their action. Such were the forms under which the Government of the Confederate States came into operation, and at the close of 1861, when nearly a year had passed away, it was weak and trembling under the uncertainty of its future existence. A frenzy, like that which suddenly created.it, might as suddenly extinguish it. It hod no hold upon the hearts of the people, arising from convictions long entertained of its necessity. There had never been any peculiar interests in existence, which required its organization for their special protection; and there never would be, unless the Government of the United States by future hostile action should assail the interests of the people, and demonstrate its necessity. In that case only, and under such adverse circumstances, could it be expected to become so rooted in the hearts of the people as to receive their unanimous and unfaltering support. The existence of the Confederate Government at this period was entirely in the hands of the Federal Government; and the statesmanship with which the latter was wielded, was destined either to extinguish the former or to nurse it into vigorous life. The causes of this weakness were developed as early as the beginning of the year 1862, and were then in operation. The movement to establish the Confederate States was urged upon the people as necessary to save themselves from degradation and to preserve their property in slaves against the hostile action of the Federal Government, as it would be administered by the newly elected President, Abraham Lincoln. These arguments were addressed to two classes of citizens—those who were wealthy and the owners of slaves, or whose interests were interwoven with this class, and those who were comparatively poor, and whose labor suffered under the competition of that of the slaves. They were insufficient to convince the majority of either class to espouse the movement, and it would have been an utter failure had there been no stimulating causes created outside of the limits of the Confederate States. Even with the aid of the latter it was successful only by a resort to all those arts which the skilful can devise to bios the public mind. In the choice of delegates to the State Conventions, a large minority of the voters did not appear at the polls. Thus the Confederate Government came into existence by the tolerance of a large mass of its citizens. This mass was the chief element which Federal statesmanship should have used for its destruction. The new Administration of the United States was not entirely insensible of the advantages within its grasp. Its first movements aimed to secure the confidence of this mass of the citizens in the Confederate States.  President Lincoln denied that he had any designs hostile to the institutions of those States, and declared that he would not be foremost to commence hostilities, but. would continue the benefits of the Government to those States as far as practicable in their existing posture. He said:

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that, by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property, their peace, and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of these speeches when I declare that" I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists." I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. And, more than this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic Institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soli of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of Crimea

I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so 1 only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I add too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be Even, will be cheerfully given to all the States when fully demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another.

The effect of these and similar declarations was to stop the progress of secession, and the great States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri quietly continued as members of the United States. Still the declarations of a President are of little value, any further than they express the views of the political party he represents. The Confederate Government, as yet powerless at home, protested that peace was its only wish. As if gathered strength by completing its independent organization, it soon became apparent that without hostilities with the Federal Government it must soon perish through deficient vitality. The brilliant and dazzling dreams of the future republic still failed to warm the hearts of a portion of the Southern people in its favor; the most bitter denunciations of the tyranny of the North were equally unable to kindle the anger of those citizens, and rouse in them a stern determination to sustain the new union with a patriot's firmness. War alone would relieve the Confederate Government of these embarrassments. It would cut .off all communication between the North and the South. It would shut out the Federal Government, and destroy all its means of access to the Page 238 minds of the Southern people. It would become an inexhaustible fountain to furnish bitterness between the North and the South. It would separate the neutral mass of Southern citizens from the Federal Government, and render them powerless against the new Government over them. The gauntlet of hostilities was thrown down by the Confederate Government, and as quickly caught tip by the Federal Government Instantly four of the States above mentioned, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, were precipitated out of the Federal Union, and joined the Confederacy. The Confederate Government then appealed to its citizens to bear witness to the truth of the original charges of hostile designs against them on the part of the Federal Administration—asserting that the convictions of the reality of these hostile designs had led to its own organization, and demanded their undivided and hearty support. This coup d'etat on the part of the Confederate Government was immediately followed by a system of rigid and arbitrary measures in the Confederate States, to repress and extinguish every indication of sympathy for the Federal Union. The most bitter denunciations were hurled against the Northern people, and contempt cast upon them as designing to accomplish a social and political equality between the mass of the white people and the negroes.

Notwithstanding all these efforts, the Confederate Government at the beginning of 1862 was still weak and insecure of the confidence and honest support of a portion of its citizens. The action of the Federal Government had been such as to cause to some extent this withholding of confidence. When it accepted hostilities with the South and became aware of the advantages it thereby lost for reaching the minds of the Southern people, it proclaimed in the most solemn manner, by a nearly unanimous vote of Congress, "that in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not prosecuted on our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States, unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." Its public action had thus far been generally consistent with this declaration, and the effect of it was to preserve the adhesion of the slaveholding States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and a majority in Missouri to the Federal Union. At the same time it produced an unfavorable effect upon secession.

Other causes had operated against the success of the Confederate States which may be briefly mentioned. The expectation that the manufacturing necessities of England and France would force them to a speedy recognition of the Confederacy and to an interference) with the Federal blockade, had proved entirely groundless. The supply of cotton was as large in Liverpool at the beginning of 1862 as at the beginning of 1861, although the blockade of the Southern ports had then existed more than six months. No necessity for an interference existed, and no disposition voluntarily to interfere had been manifested anywhere. At the courts of Europe the Confederate ambassadors were not noticed in their official character. The Governments of those nations, grown hoary during an existence of a thousand years, stood far aloof from the youthful aspirant. The Confederate people said: "They who have managed our public affairs have not, with any Government, any class, or any description of people, succeeded in securing one reliable friend; and so insupportable has the position of Commissioner to Europe become, that Mr. Yancey is impatient for his recall." The news of the capture of Messrs. Mason and Slidell brought gold down at Richmond from thirty-five to fifteen per cent, premium. Confidence in the Confederate Government increased as the prospect of a war between the United States and England appeared. The release of these men was a bitter disappointment, and under the depression gold mounted rapidly again to an exorbitant premium. The ardent adherents of the Confederate Government, those most deeply involved in the cause, exclaimed against the North in their anger. "Wonderful people! wonderful press 1 wonderful Congress I wonderful Secretaries I wonderful Yankeedom! Certainly the World never saw your like before. Even Egypt, 1 the basest of kingdoms,' is respectable when compared to you." The hope that the commercial enterprise of England would spring at once to the enjoyment of the high prices the blockade established, by sending forward cargoes of arms, munitions, medicines, mid other stores most needed, was found likewise to be a delusion. The Governors of several of the States were obliged to issue appeals to the citizens to contribute their shot guns and fowling pieces to arm the Confederate troops. In Alabama an appropriation was made by the Legislature to manufacture pikes with which to arm the soldiers. It consisted of a keen two-edged steel head, like a large bowie-knife blade, nearly a foot and a half in length, with a sickle like hook, very sharp, bending back from near the socket. This was intended for cutting the bridles of cavalrymen, or pulling them off their horses, or catching hold of an enemy when running away. The head was mounted on a shaft of tough wood about eight feet long. In the southwest General Beauregard issued a proclamation, in which he appealed to the people to contribute brass and other metal to the Government to be moulded into cannon. Under this call the bells of churches and plantations Page 239 in vast numbers were given, and even brass andirons and the weights of clocks and windows were not withheld by some. Appeals were made to the people to rouse them to new exertions, which proclaimed the desperateness of their situation: "A thousand proofs exist that the Southern people are not sufficiently alive to the necessity of exertion in the struggle in which they are involved. Our very victories have brought injury upon the cause, by teaching us to despise the public adversary. The immense magnitude of his preparations for our subjugation has excited no apprehension and had little effect in rousing us to exertion." Again it was cautiously said: "It seems to be the popular impression, we see it in men's faces, when we do not hear it in their words, that the military affairs of the Confederacy are not very cheering." The Governor of Virginia issued a proclamation to the people, saying: "The exigencies of the times are not duly appreciated by many of our people. The dangers which environ us are too lightly estimated. We must see and feel their imminence before we can be aroused to that action which is necessary to save us from alarming ills, and to avert evils which threaten our existence, our peace, and our organization as a Government." Complaints and charges of imbecility were now brought against the Confederate Government in terms like the following: "There has been a sad absence of enterprise, genius, and energy in the conduct of public affairs, such as gives nerve to the soldier's arm and kindles a flame in his heart." "We ask why the year has passed and we further than ever from recognition at home or abroad. We ask why we are fiftyfold worse off than when the war commenced?" "The want of faith in the Government is more and more clearly manifested every day." Apprehensions of the power of the United States oppressed the citizens of the Confederacy; they said: "A lull, a pause, a suspense exists, preceded by minor events which cause a feeling of apprehension more than of confidence in the future. We know that the enemy are in great power and meditate mischief, and we feel that ere long their blows, the heaviest of the war, must fall." "The dark hour of our trial will come whenever McCLellan has succeeded in converting his Yankees into the involuntary machines known to the military science as regiments, brigades, and divisions. This is the end that he proposes to himself. This is the secret of his long delay. This is the work of his hands and his head at this moment." The flattering hope was also indulged that the finances of the United States would soon be exhausted, that the spirit of the people would Soon be discouraged. These circumstances serve to show the weakness of the Government in the confidence of the people. On the other hand, public bodies, as if to produce an inspiriting and reviving effect, passed resolutions expressive of the greatest determination.

In the Legislature of Tennessee resolutions were offered "that all propositions of the Congress of the (so called) United States to reconstruct a union which they have prostituted to the base purposes of annihilating the liberties, trampling upon the rights, destroying the lives, and plundering the people of the Confederate States, is but another form under which our enemies would subjugate the South and reduce us to the despotism of their degrading doctrines, &c, and that any such proposition should be met promptly and unhesitatingly with our indignant rejection."

The Legislature of Georgia passed resolutions at this time declaring that the separation " is, and ought to be final, and irrevocable," and that no proposition having for its object reconstruction would be entertained; and that Georgia pledged herself "to stand by her sister States of the Confederacy throughout the struggle."

Governor Letcher of Virginia, in his Message to the Legislature, said: "We have therefore separated from them, and now let it be understood that the separation ' is, and ought to be final and irrevocable,'—that Virginia will under no circumstances entertain any proposition from any quarter, which may have for its object a restoration or reconstruction of the late Union on any terms and conditions whatever." It should be remembered that the Legislatures which received or passed these resolutions, and the governor who expressed similar views— were all elected while their constituents were citizens of the United States, and by their acts the secession of their respective States was accomplished.

On the 26th of February, a resolution was offered in the Confederate Congress, then in session at Richmond, by a Senator from Kentucky, and referred, which declared "that the people of the Confederate States will to the last extremity maintain and defend their right to self-government, and the government established by them, and to this end will pledge their last man and their last dollar for the vigorous prosecution of the war, until their independence is acknowledged; and also that they will submit to any sacrifice and endure any trial, however severe, and firmly relying on the justice of their cause, and humbly trusting in the providence of God, will maintain their position before the world and high heaven while they have a voice to raise or an arm to defend."

On the next day it was observed in Richmond that the walls in different parts of the city were "scrawled over with inflammatory and treasonable mottoes." The circumstances were thus described: "They attracted but little attention at first, as the chalked letters were supposed to be the amusement of some idlers. On further examination, however, it was found that these mottoes were displayed all over the city with a system and consistency that showed that there were purpose and organization in this appeal to the multitude. The following Page 240 are some of the mottoes; they were written in largo and singularly well-formed letters, at different points in the city, extending even to the suburbs on Church .Hill, and show a literary merit that could hardly be ascribed to blackguards, and is seldom found in mere rowdy scrawls on the street corners:

"Nationals, to the rescue!"

'' Nationals, arise and gird on your strength!"

"Unionists, it is time to assert your rights!"

"Too many stars on the flag!"

"The Scorpion of Secession—it has stung itself!"

"The South—the land of the white man!"

"The Northern advance—it is the tread of the freeman," &c.

It was declared to be the work of traitors, and demands were made for the appointment of a vigilance committee as required "by the most conservative and precious interests of society." At the same date one of the daily prints of the city, made the following statement: "Our Tennessee exchanges give us gloomy prospects for the future in that part of the Confederacy. Several leading journals intimate plainly that there is really a threatening state of idolatrous love of many of these people for the old Union."

A letter from the interior of Tennessee, published at this time in the city of Memphis, stated thus: "The condition of the interior counties is not improved by the lapse of time. The people apprehend an immediate advance of the Northmen, and traitors to the South evince their joy in every village and neighborhood. The Unionists are making demonstrations in many of the northern counties, and even at Memphis there were exhibitions of joy at the arrival of the news from Beech Grove.

"In the remote counties many have been shot at night in their own houses, who adhered to the fortunes of the South."

On the part of those who had been the principal actors in accomplishing the secession of the Confederate States, the same determined purpose was still manifested. This is illustrated by the following address to the people of Georgia by their representatives in the Provisional Congress, which was issued on the 31st of January;

FELLOW CITIZENS: In a few days the Provisional Government of the Confederate States will live only in history. With it we shall deliver up the trust we have endeavored to use for your benefit, to those more directly selected by yourselves. The public record of our acts is familiar to you, and requires no further explanation at our hands. Of those matters which policy as required to be secret, it would be improper now to speak. This address, therefore, will have no personal reference. We are well assured that there exists no ".necessity for us to arouse your patriotism, nor to inspire your confidence. We rejoice with you in the unanimity of our State, in its resolution and its hopes. And we are proud with you that Georgia has been "illustrated," and we doubt not will be illustrated again by her sons in our holy struggle. The first campaign is over; each party rests in place, while the winter's snow declares an armistice from on high. The results in the field arc familiar to you, and we will not recount them. To some important facts we call your attention:

First.—The moderation of our own Government, and the fanatical madness of our enemies, have dispersed all differences of opinion among our people, and united them forever in the war of independence. In a few border States a waning opposition is giving way before the stern logic of daily developing facts. The world's history does not give a parallel instance of a revolution based upon such unanimity among the people.

Second.—Our enemy has exhibited an energy, a perseverance, and an amount of resources which we ad hardly expected, and a disregard of constitution and laws which we can hardly credit. The result of both, however, is that power, which is the characteristic element of despotism, and renders it as formidable to its enemies as it is destructive to its subjects.

Third.—An immense army has been organized for our destruction which is being disciplined to the unthinking stolidity of regulars. With the exclusive possession of the seas, our enemy is enabled to throw upon the shores of every State the nucleus of an army. And the threat is made, and doubtless the attempt will follow in early spring to crush us with a giants grasp by a simultaneous movement along our entire borders.

Fourth.—With whatever alacrity our people may rush to arms, and with whatever energy our Government may use its resources, we cannot expect to cope with our enemy either in numbers, equipments or munitions of war. To provide against these odds we must look to desperate courage, unflinching daring, and universal self-sacrifice.

Fifth.—The prospect of foreign intervention is at least a remote one, and should not be relied on. If it comes, let it be only auxiliary to our own preparations for freedom. To our God and ourselves alone we should look.

These are stern facts, perhaps some of them arc unpalatable. But we are deceived in you if you would have us to conceal them in order to deceive you. The only question for us and for you is, as a nation and individually, What have we to do? We answer:

First.—As a nation we should be united, forbearing to one another, frowning upon all factious opposition and censorious criticisms, and giving a trustful and generous confidence to those selected as our leaders in the camp and the council chamber.

Second.—We should exert every nerve end strain every muscle of the body politic to maintain our financial and military healthfulness, and by rapid aggressive action, make our enemies feel, at their own firesides, the horrors of a war brought on by themselves.

The most important matter for you, however, is your individual duty. What can you do? 

The foot of the oppressor is on the soil of Georgia. He comes with lust in his eye, poverty in bis purse, . and hell in his heart. He comes a robber and a murderer. How shall you meet him? With the sword, at the threshold! With death for him or for yourself! But more than this—let every woman have a torch, every child a firebrand—let the loved homes of our youth be made ashes, and the fields of our heritage be made desolate. Let blackness and ruin mark your departing steps, if depart you must, and let a desert more terrible than Sahara welcome the Vandals. Let every city be levelled by the flame, and every village be lost in ashes. Let your faithful slaves share your fortune and your crust. Trust wife and children to the sure refuge and protection of God—preferring even for these loved ones the charnel house as a home than loathsome vassalage to a nation already sunk below the contempt of the civilized world. This may be your terrible choice, and determine at once and without dissent, as honor and patriotism and duty to God require.

FELLOW CITIZENS: Lull not yourselves into a fatal security. But prepare for every contingency. This  Page 241 is our only hope for a sure and honorable peace. If our enemy was to-day convinced that the feast herein indicated would welcome him in every quarter of this confederacy, we know his base character well enough to feel assured he would never come. Let, then, the smoke of your homes, fired by women's hands, tell the approaching foe that over sword and bayonet they will rush only to fire and ruin.

We have faith in God, and faith in you. He is blind to every indication of Providence who has not seen an Almighty hand controlling the events of the past year. The wind, the wave, the cloud, the mist, the sunshine, and the storm have all ministered to our necessities, and frequently succored us in our distress. We deem it unnecessary to recount the numerous instances which have called forth our gratitude. We would join you in thanksgiving and praise. "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Nor would we condemn your confident look to our armies, when they can meet with a foe not too greatly their superior in numbers. The year past tells a story of heroism and success, of which our nation will never be ashamed. These considerations, however, should only stimulate us to greater deeds and nobler efforts. An occasional reverse we must expect—such as has depressed us within the lost few days. This is only temporary.

We have no fears of the result—the final issue. You and. we may have to sacrifice our lives and fortunes in the holy cause; but our honor will be saved untarnished, and our children's children will rise to call us blessed."

HOWELL COBB,

R. TOOMBS,

M. J. CRAWFORD,

THOMAS R. R. COBB.

Such was the public sentiment in the Confederate State3 at the beginning of 1832. In a military aspect their position appeared extremely favorable. Their extreme line of defence had been unassailed, and was believed to be impregnable. The intrenchments at Manassas, the fortifications on the Cumberland, and at Bowling Green and Columbus were regarded as too strong to be taken by any Federal force. In the contests of the previous year, the Confederate soldiers claimed that victory had constantly fallen to their cause, .and in personal prowess they had no fear of their foe. There were, however, other causes more hidden that threw a cloud over these cheering prospects. The United States were known to be preparing to exert their utmost strength, and it could be clearly seen that a fearful struggle was at hand. Arms and munitions of war could not be had in sufficient abundance. The commerce of the Confederate States was annihilated, and a most stringent blockade endangered every venture. The luxuries of life were consumed, and even the necessary articles were becoming scarce. The credit of the Government was declining, and its obligations vastly depreciated. At such a time the Federal troops began their march of invasion, and the strong Confederate positions in Kentucky were captured or evacuated. (See ARMY OPERATIONS.)

Amid such circumstances the Provisional Government ceased to exist, and the Permanent Government was inaugurated. This ceremony took place at Richmond, the seat of Government, on the 22d day of February. At half past 7 o'clock on the morning of that day the two Houses  A Congress asst. 18th, and appoint President and Vu they were escorted Delegates of Virginia, assemblage moved by t. capitol in grand procession those in Washington on sue statue of Washington on the  statue of Washington the Vice-President elect, the Pr Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the officiating clergyman, Conti: Judges, Governors of States, Judges of the supreme Courts of States, the Chief Marshal and his aids, and six of the Committee of Arrangements, took positions on the platform. Prayer was then offered by Bishop Johns. The delivery of the inaugural address by Jefferson Davis then followed (see Public Documents), and the oath of office was administered by Judge J. D. Halliburton.

In this address President Davis asserted that the Confederate Government was established to maintain their "ancient institutions;" "to preserve in spirit as well as in form a system of government we believed to be peculiarly fitted for our condition." For proofs of the sincerity of this purpose he says: "We may point to the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws enacted under it, as well as to the fact that through all the necessities of an unequal struggle there has been no net on our part to impair personal liberty, or the freedom of speech, of thought, or of the press." He then points to the acts taking place in the United States under the Federal Administration as flagrant violations of private rights, and asserts that if any Union feeling has thus far existed it must now expire as hopeless. "Whatever of hope some may have entertained that a returning sense of justice would remove the danger with which our rights were threatened, and render it possible to preserve the Union and the Constitution, must have been dispelled by the malignity and barbarity of the Northern States in the prosecution of the existing war. The confidence of the most hopeful among us must have been destroyed by the disregard they have recently exhibited for all the time-honored bulwarks of civil and religious liberty—bastilles filled with prisoners, arrested without civil process or indictment duly found; the writ of habeas corpus suspended by executive mandate, &c." (See Annual Cyclopedia, 1861, Habeas Corpus.)

It was by such appeals as this that he sought to convince men of Union sentiments of the futility of all hopes for a restoration of the Union, unless at the sacrifice of their rights, their honor, and their independence. Unfortunately the facts alleged by him as existing under the Federal Government, were undeniable, and within the limits of the Confederacy they furnished powerful arguments with which to urge the justice of its organization, and the necessity of yield-

Page 242

Hence in the effort effect by our arms the whole territory of , Confederate States, seaboard and inland, we have been so exposed as recently to encounter serious disasters." To withstand these disasters, and to secure its successful existence, the only hope of the Confederate Government now was founded upon its own efforts and the mistakes of its adversary. Its efforts soon became of the most vigorous nature. The system of voluntary enlistments had furnished all the soldiers required during the first months of the war. These, however, had volunteered for short terms, -under the expectation that there would be an early peace. To supply their places, as the term of enlistment expired, the Provisional Congress, in January, passed an act providing for receiving individual volunteers as they might offer their services without requiring a whole company to be formed and organized before they could be mustered in. It provided subsistence, transportation, and pay from the day of enlistment. Additional inducements were held out to those who might raise companies, battalions, or regiments. About the 1st of February a call upon tbo States for troops was made by President Davis, which he expected would be answered in full by the close of March. On the 26th of February the number of Confederate troops in the field was four hundred regiments of infantry, with a proportionate force of cavalry and artillery. The true position of the military at this time is found in these remarks of President Davis, made at the same date: "I deem it proper to advert to the fact that the process of furloughs and reenlistments in progress for the last month had so far disorganized and weakened our forces as to impair our activity for successful defence; but I heartily congratulate you that this evil, which I had foreseen and was powerless to prevent, may now be said to be substantially at an end, and that We shall not again during the war be exposed to seeing our strength diminished by this frightful cause of disaster—short enlistments."

The Confederate army of 1861 was composed chiefly of men enlisted for twelve months. These enlistments commenced immediately upon the secession of the States to which the troops belonged. The expiration of their terms of service therefore took place during the first months of 1862.

To meet this decrease of the army, the Provisional Congress offered, as above stated, inducements to volunteers, and the President called upon the respective States to fill up their quotas of men to serve during the war. The number which had been demanded from each State was such as to make the proportion of troops in the field from each nearly equal. The minimum number for companies when mustered in as such was sixty-four privates and twelve officers. The call upon Mississippi was for seven regiments; on Alabama for twelve regiments; on Georgia for twelve thousand men; on North Carolina for five additional regiments. If the quota was not made up by volunteers, drafting was threatened by the Governors of the States.

These men, with those in service for the war and volunteers for twelve months who were expected to reenlist, were intended to form the armies of 1862. By the 1st of April the Government expected the whole body of new levies and reenlisted men to be ready in the ranks. The Federal Government, however, had brought its troops into camp during the latter part of 1861, and immediately commenced to organize and drill them, and prepare the immense materials necessary for an active campaign. It was thus at least four months in advance of the Confederate Government. The army of General McClellan before Washington, hanging like an ominous cloud near the horizon, created much uneasiness at Richmond, but so long as the Confederate army remained at Manassas no vigorous and active measures for future military operations wore made. Amid this position of affairs, the Federal movements were ordered to be commenced on the 22d of February. Forts Henry and Donelson were captured, Bowling Green and Columbus evacuated, and Nashville surrendered. The entire Confederate line of defence in the "West was swept away, and a march by the Federal troops into the heart of the Southwestern States was threatened. Consternation seized the Southern people. The Government was aroused to action, and the President sent the following cautious Message to Congress:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate Staffs:

The operation of the various laws now in force for raising armies has exhibited the necessity for reform. The frequent changes and amendments which have been made have rendered the system so complicated as to make it often quite difficult to determine what the law really is, and to what extent prior amendments arc modified by more recent legislation.

There is also embarrassment from conflict between State and Confederate legislation. I am happy to assure you of the entire harmony of purpose and cordiality of feeling which has continued to exist between myself and the executives of the several States; and it is to this cause that our success in keeping adequate forces in the field is to be attributed.

These reasons would suffice for inviting your earnest attention to the necessity of some simple and general system for exercising the power of raising armies, which is vested in Congress by the Constitution.

But there is another and more important consideration. The vast preparations made by the enemy for a combined assault at numerous points on our frontier Page 243 and seaboard hare produced results that might have been expected. They have animated the people with a spirit of resistance so general, so resolute, and so self-sacrificing, that it requires rather to be regulated than to be stimulated. The right of the State to demand, and the duty of each citizen to render military service, need only to be stated to be admitted. It is not, however, a wise or judicious policy to place in active service that portion of the force of a people which experience has shown to be necessary as a reserve. Youths under the age of eighteen years require further instruction; men of matured experience are needed for maintaining order and good government at home, and in supervising preparations for rendering efficient the armies in the field. These two classes constitute the proper reserve for home defence, ready to be called out in case of any emergency, and to be kept in the field only while the emergency exists.

But, in order to maintain this reserve intact, it is necessary that in a great war like that in which we are now engaged all persons of intermediate ages not legally exempt for good cause, should pay their debt of military service to the country, that the burdens should not fall exclusively on the most ardent and patriotic. I therefore recommend the passage of a law declaring that all persons residing within the Confederate States between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years, and rightfully subject to military duty, shall be held to be in the military service of the Confederate States, and that some plain and simple method be adopted for their prompt enrollment and organization, repealing all of the legislation heretofore enacted which would conflict with the system proposed.

                                                              JEFFERSON DAVIS.

The 1st of April found not only the new levies and reenlisted men in the ranks, but the Confederate Congress, in compliance with the above Message, was about to pass a conscript law to bring all men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five into the field. All furloughs were revoked by the following order from the "War Department:

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE,

                                RICHMOND, March 24,1863.

General Order, No. 16.

All leaves of absence and furloughs, from whatever source obtained, are revoked; and officers and men absent from duty, except on surgeon's certificate of disability, will return at once to their respective commands. It is with extreme reluctance that the Department adopts a measure which deprives our patriotic soldiers of the relaxation they have so well earned; but the enemy presses on every side, and the necessities of the service demand new illustrations of that noble self-denial which has been so many times evinced since the commencement of our struggle for independence. The furloughs of all who have engaged for the war, which are thus curtailed, will be extended hereafter, when circumstances will permit. But judging from the past, no fears are entertained of an unwilling response to the call. Those who have so many times proved their devotion to their country, cannot be diffident or backward in the hour of her greatest need

By order of the President.

                                                                       S. COOPER,

                                                 Adjutant and Inspector-General.

Thus, although the Confederate losses were severe at first, they were soon prepared to meet the enemy. The danger which they escaped was thus stated at Richmond: "The disasters we have suffered are mortifying to us, and exhilarate our enemies; but they have startled without crippling the Confederacy. Had it lain still two months more, with the army dwindling daily under the furlough system, disgusted with the inaction of stationary camps, while the Government was quarrelling with the generals, and the people sinking under indifference, we would have been overrun between the 15th of April and the 1st of May."

On the 16th of April the conscript act, having passed both Houses of Congress, was approved by the President. This act annulled all previous contracts made by volunteers, and by explicit terms made all men under the age of thirty-five years and over eighteen years, soldiers for the war, or until they attained the age of thirty-five years. It drew every male citizen within the prescribed ages immediately and entirely from the control of State action, and placed them at the disposal of the President during the war. It also provided, " That all persons under the age of 18 years, or over the age of 35 years, who are now enrolled in the military service of the Confederate States, in the regiments, squadrons, battalions, and companies hereafter to be organized, shall be required to remain in their respective companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments for ninety days, unless their places shall be sooner supplied by other recruits, not now in the service, who are between the ages of 18 and 35 years, and all laws and part of laws provided for the reorganization of volunteers, and the organization thereof into companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed,"

The existing organization of companies, regiments, &c, was preserved, but the companies were required to be filled up to the number of 135 men. When thus filled up, the privates had the privilege of electing their officers in the same manner as under former laws, but the commissions were issued by the President. The provision of the law annulling the contract with volunteers and requiring those under 18 years or over 35 to continue in service 90 days after its passage, without regard to their term of enlistment, was construed by these volunteers as entitling them to a discharge on the 16th of July. Previous to that date, however, an order was issued by the War Department placing them on the same footing as conscripts, and requiring them to continue in the service. So extreme was this order that it retained in service all enlisted men without regard to the time of their enlistment or their ages. Thus youths of 17 and men of 50 were not allowed to withdraw, nor any who were in the army at the time of the passage of the law. In a word, the law set aside all contracts, and the Government retained all the soldiers in the field and sought to add to them every man between the required ages. Not even physicians were exempted. President Davis, in a letter to the governor of Georgia, thus states the reason for this injustice to the volunteers:

I would have very little difficulty in establishing to your entire satisfaction that the passage of the law was not only necessary, but that it was absolutely indispensable: that numerous regiments of 12 months' men were on the eve of being disbanded, whose places would not be supplied by new levies in the face of superior Page 244 numbers of the foe without entailing the most disastrous results: that the position of our armies was so critical as to fill the bosom of every patriot with the liveliest apprehension, and that the provisions of the law were effective in warding off a pressing danger.

The regulations for executing the law detailed an officer to each State to take charge of the enrolment, mustering in, subsistence, transportation, and disposition of the recruits. The cooperation of State officers in making the enrolment was requested of the governors of the States, and in any cases in which such assistance might be refused, the duty was performed by officers of the army. Not more than two camps of instruction were established in each State, where the recruits were made ready for the field with the utmost despatch. The recruits were not organized in force as separate bodies, but were sent to supply deficiencies in regiments, battalions, squadrons, or unattached companies, and, so far as practicable, in corps from their own region of country. Recruits were allowed to choose any corps to which they desired to be attached, in which vacancies existed. They could also join any corps, the formation of which had been authorized by the Government. All 12 months' volunteers in service were required to reorganize by the election of new officers within 40 days after the act passed. Those who preferred a guerilla service were authorized to form as partisan rangers by an act specially passed for that purpose. The operation of the act was suspended in Missouri and Kentucky, under a provision authorizing it to be done by the President. Troops from those States were received under the acts passed previous to the conscription law. Maryland was regarded as exempt from the law, as appears by the following from the Secretary of War, dated April 26:

Major J. A. Weston:

    In reply to your letter of the 17th inst., yon are respectfully informed that Marylanders are not subject to the conscription act.

                        G. W. RANDOLPH, Sec. of War.

This extreme measure met with much opposition on the part of the people in the Southern States. It was an evidence, in itself, that the ardor of the people had ceased to be a safe medium of reliance in the conduct of the war. It was a measure which had never before been adopted in the States of the Union during any previous war. It necessarily established a consolidated government founded on military principles, and was thus spoken of by some of the Southern leaders:

If it be absolutely necessary to save us from a conquest by the North, we are willing to submit to it, but we fear the public mind must prepare itself for a great change in our government.

President Davis, in the letter to Governor Brown of Georgia, above mentioned, argued at much length that the act may be pronounced "constitutional" in spite of its seeming invasion of State rights, and said:

There seems to me to be a conclusive test on that whole subject. By our constitution, Congress may declare war offensive as well as defensive. It may acquire territory. Now, suppose that, for good cause and to right unprovoked injuries, Congress should declare war against Mexico and invade Sonora. The militia could not be called forth in such case, the right to call it being limited "to repel invasion." Is it not plain that the law now under discussion, if passed under such circumstances, could by no possibility be aught else than a law to "raise an army” Can one and the same law be construed into a " calling forth the militia," if the war be defensive, and a " raising of armies," if the war be offensive?

At some future day, after our independence shall have been established, it is no improbable supposition that our enemy may be tempted to abuse his moral power by depredations on our commerce, and that we may be compelled to assert our rights by offensive war. How is this to be carried on. Of what is the army to be composed? If this Government cannot call on its arms-bearing population more than as militia, and if the militia can only be called forth to repel invasion, we should be utterly helpless to vindicate our honor or protect our rights. War has been well styled "the terrible litigation of nations." Have we so formed our government that in litigation we may never be plaintiff? Surely this cannot have been the intention of the framers of our compact?

The most serious opposition to the act was manifested in the State of Georgia. The attempt was made to enroll militia officers holding commissions as such under the State authority. The following correspondence took place between the governor of that State and the Confederate Secretary of War:

                                               ATLANTA, June 17,1862.

Your enrolling officers have enrolled several of the State officers of the militia, who will not be permitted to be carried away from their commands. You stated in your letter of the 20th ultimo that no State officer is liable to enrolment, and asked me to call your attention to it if done. Please send me by telegraph an order for the release of all such who have been enrolled, and direct Major Dunwoody to stop the enrolment of State officers, or I shall order the arrest of each officer who arrests a State officer. I wish an immediate reply.

                                                  JOSEPH E. BROWN.

Hon. G. W. Randolph, Sec. of War, Richmond.

The Secretary of War replied as follows: Richmond, June 18, 1862.

Major Dunwoody has been instructed not to enroll militia officers recognized by the State authorities as in commission. Request him to show you his instructions. If yon arrest him, or any of our enrolling officers, in their attempts to get men to fill up the Georgia regiments now in the face of the enemy, you will cause great mischief. I think we might as well drive out our common enemy before we make war on each other.

                                  G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War.

His Excellency Governor Brown. To this the Governor in answer said:

                                                        MARIETTA, June 23,1862.

As Major Dunwoody's subordinates in different parts of the State do not seem to regard your orders to him, please direct him to give them the necessary instructions to stop the enrolment of the officers of the militia. I agree with you fully that we should unite all our energies to drive out the common enemy, and not make war among ourselves. I am most happy, therefore, that the Confederate Government has decided to respect the constitutional rights of the State so far as not to force her to the alternative of permitting any department of her constitutional government to be disbanded and destroyed, or to defend the existence and integrity of her government by force.

                                                                      JOSEPH E. BROWN.

       HON. G. W. RANDOLF, Sec. of War, Richmond.

Page 245 Soon after, some measures were taken to test the constitutionality of the law before the courts of that State. James M. Levingood, who had been enrolled as a conscript, sued out a writ of habeas corpus before Judge T. W. Thomas, of the superior court in the county of Elbert, Georgia. The principal point made before the court was thus expressed: "The conscript act is unconstitutional, and therefore the act itself, and all regulations and orders based upon it, are likewise void." A lengthy opinion was given by the court, which concluded thus:

In the preamble of our Confederate Constitution care is taken to assert and maintain that the States are sovereign and independent. In what sense can this be said of Georgia, if every man of her militia can be taken from under the control of her constitutional commander-in-chief without his consent? Must he abdicate his most important duties by permitting himself to be disarmed of his forces, and all this too in violation of his oath of office, in case he should think them necessary for the protection of the State?

If Congress can pass a conscript act with certain exemptions, they can pass it without -exemptions. No one will deny this. If, therefore, they have the power to prescribe what shall be militia and to conscribe at pleasure, they may take the governor, general assembly, and the whole judiciary, and thus annihilate the State government.

The palpable infraction of the Confederate compact is sometimes—indeed, principally—defended on the plea of necessity. What a dangerous fallacy! We have expended 100,000 lives and untold millions of money to maintain the constitution and the independence of the States, and shall we now violate it, and destroy the State government? As reasonably might we commit suicide to avoid personal danger.

Nor is this plea of necessity true in fact. The conscript law can only furnish men. We have, and had before. State laws to reach every man in the State between 18 and 45, and to say the conscript law was necessary to procure men is to maintain the arithmetical absurdity that there is more men in the country between 18 and 35 than between 18 and 45.

Whereupon, and for these reasons, it is ordered and adjudged by the court that the act of the Confederate Congress known as the conscript law, and entitled "An act to further provide for the public defence," is void; and the plaintiff, James M. Levingood, be released and discharged from the custody and control of Sidney P. Bruce, and from the custody and control of the sheriff of this court, and be set at liberty, to go wherever he pleases.

The case was immediately carried up to the Supreme Court of the State, which overruled this decision.

Subsequently, on the approach of the Federal forces into Camden county, an application was made to Governor Brown for authority to call out the local militia for its defence. Instead of authorizing the call of the non-conscripts, he laid the subject before the Legislature. The joint committee to whom it was referred were divided. A majority reported most decisive resolutions against the constitutionality of the conscript act, but the minority recommended acquiescence in the measures of the Confederate Congress. (See Georgia.) While the discussion was going on in the Legislature, the subject was taken up before the people, and Mr. A. H. Kenan, a member of the Confederate Congress, delivered a public address at Milledgeville, the seat of government, in which he thus stated that their safety depended on the success of the conscription law: Georgia is the last State that ought to complain and resist this law.

Georgia has not yet been invaded. We have not yet suffered at our doors and in our estates from the presence of a hostile foe. The battles in our defence have been fought hundreds of miles away from us. The Virginians have suffered in person and property to an extent that you who are at home and far from the enemy cannot appreciate. You have never had your patriotism and devotion to our cause and country tested. The people of Virginia have lost their property, their negroes, their food, their all. Their houses, their barns and fences have been burned before their eyes, their wives and children insulted and driven from home, and themselves carried away captives, and still they are true. You know nothing of the ravages of war. When you and your wives and children arc driven from home without food and clothing, to hide in the mountains and caves, your negroes stolen and the torch applied to your premises, then your patriotism will be tested. Can you endure that r Had you not better do all you can to keep the war away from your borders? Is it well for you to be squabbling about State rights and who shall appoint captains and colonels when the enemy is thundering at your doors? We have had brilliant victories, and our arms have performed such deeds as history has nowhere recorded. Conscription has done it for us. If this war goes on, we have to whip 100,000 of the best men the enemy has got before next spring, or they will whip us. If we whip them, conscription will have done it—without it we will fail.

In Alabama a citizen not exempt under the law, was elected a justice of the peace. The probate court refused, to accept his bond on the ground that he was ineligible, being between the ages of 18 and 35, and virtually a conscript. An application was made to the circuit court for a mandamus to the probate court. The circuit court, Judge Henry, ruled: 1st. That the probate court had no right to inquire into the question of eligibility. 2d. The court also ruled, obiter dictum, that by the passage of the conscript law, and the call of the President, and instructions of the Secretary of War, every man between the ages fixed by the law was virtually a conscript, and could not, by having office cast upon him subsequently, escape the conscription.

These were the most important instances of opposition to the law. All methods wore resorted to by private individuals to escape its operation which the most skilful ingenuity could devise. In the city of Mobile, nearly 500 men of the ages subject to military duty, applied for and received certificates of citizenship from consular agents. These were certificates of their allegiance to other powers than the Southern Confederacy. Others took shelter under the exemptions to be found in the militia laws of the State Legislatures. This, in some instances, was acquiesced in by the Confederate authorities, although the conscript law did not recognize any acts of State Legislatures.

The call of the President was for the whole body of men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. Immediately after the publication of the call the enrolment commenced. Much time elapsed during the preliminary arrangements and it was not until the month of June Page 246 that the benefits of the conscription began to be felt in the increase of the armies. Although the act declared every man a soldier with a few exceptions, between certain ages, yet the number of exempts was comparatively large and the number of" conscripts less than might be supposed. A certain number were exempted in proportion to the number of slaves; the officers of the Confederate and State Governments, those incapable from physical disability, clergymen, persons engaged in Government work and some others exempted from militia duty by State laws. Still during the summer months the Confederate force largely outnumbered the Federal armies, and caused the issue by President Lincoln in July, of a call for three hundred thousand men for the war and an additional three hundred thousand for nine months.

The usual consequences of the enforcement of a conscription law were apparent in this instance. While the enrolment was going forward, substitutes were sought out and engaged at bounties from one hundred to two thousand dollars. It became such a serious evil in the city of Richmond as to cause the issue of the following order:

               HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, 

                        RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, August 1,1862.

The obtaining of substitutes through the medium of agents is strictly forbidden. When such agents arc employed, the principal, the substitute and the agent will be impressed into the military service, and the money paid for the substitute, and as a reward to the agent, will be confiscated to the Government. The offender will also be subjected to such other imprisonment as may be imposed bv a court martial.

     By order of Brigadier General JOHN H. WINDER,

commanding Department, &c.

              I. R. Page, Assistant Adjutant-General.

Desertions also followed in such vast number as to call for the interference of the War Department. The following orders were accordingly issued from that quarter:

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, 

                                                RICHMOND, June 13. 1862.  

I. With the consent and approbation of his Excellency Governor Letcher, all sheriffs, deputy sheriffs and constables of the State of Virginia are authorized and requested to apprehend deserters from the army wherever they may be found, and to deliver them to an officer of too army at the most convenient post or station, or to lodge them in jail, and report their names and regiments to General S. Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond.

Thirty dollars will be paid for all deserters delivered to an officer and fifteen dollars for each deserter lodged in jail. No allowance will be made for expenses of apprehension or transportation. All jailors receiving deserters are requested to detain them. The usual allowance for the support of prisoners will be made.

II. Transfers from the line to partisan corps will not be permitted, and if any officer of partisan corps knowingly enlist them from the line, the authority to raise the partisan corps will be revoked in addition to such punishment as a court martial may inflict.

By command of the Secretary of War.

                             S. COOPER, Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJ'T AND INSP.-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

                                                RICHMOND, July 14,1862.

General Orders No. 49.

All persons engaged in enrolling conscripts are hereby authorized and required to arrest deserters from the army and to deliver them to the commandant of the nearest camp of instruction, or to lodge them in the nearest jail, and to return their names, company, and regiment to the Adjutant and Inspector General. Jailers are requested to detain them, and will be allowed the fees and charges for the detention of prisoners prescribed by the laws of the State in which the jail is situated.

Enrolling officers are also required to report to the Adjutant and Inspector General the names and address of all persons absent from the army without leave, whether by the expiration of their leaves of absence, furloughs, details, or otherwise. And where this unauthorized absence exceeds the time required to correspond with the War Department, the enrolling officer will arrest the person and send him to the nearest camp of instruction, reporting the arrest to the Adjutant and Inspector General.

Commandants of camps of instruction are required to forward deserters and persons absent without leave to their regiments, and have the powers of arrest conferred upon the enrolling officer.

By command of the Secretary of War.

                         S. COOPER Adjutant and Inspector General.

Circular to Officers enrolling Conscripts.

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

                                                          RICHMOND, July 14, 1862.

Agreeably to General Orders No. 49, current series, this day published, you are required to arrest all deserters, and, under certain circumstances, all persons absent from the army without leave.

The public welfare requires you to discharge this duty, and the more important duty of enrolling conscripts, with the utmost activity, and without fear, favor, or affection.

Our capacity to improve the brilliant victories now favoring our arms depends mainly upon your exertions to fill the ranks of our armies.

If you are zealous and active we shall make our enemy taste the bitterness of war; if you are negligent we shall continue to witness its ravages on our own soil.

        By command of the Secretary of War.

                                                         S. COOPER,

                                         Adjutant and Inspector General.

This circular was issued just before the invasion of Maryland was commenced.

The public press appealed to the citizens in all parts of the South to assist in the apprehension of deserters and stragglers from the army "by giving information to the authorities of the place of refuge of these creatures." They said: "There should be no resting place for the feet of these creatures. Every man and woman in the country is able to do something in pursuing, shaming, and driving back to the ranks those who have deserted their colors and their comrades and turned their backs upon their country's service. Let all ages and sexes in the country assist the Government in reclaiming deserters and stragglers, and in maintaining the integrity of our army. We trust this exhortation will not be lost upon the country. Desertions are reducing our army, defying its discipline, corrupting its spirit and morals, and seriously endangering the fortunes of our cause."

The unrelenting vigor with which this work of conscription was pushed forward was sufficient to bring out the full power of the Confederacy. The defeat of these armies would necessarily have taken away the principal strength of its military resistance.

Page 247 At the time when the conscript law was passed by the Confederate Congress, another act, to provide for Partisan Rangers, was also adopted. It was as follows:

"An act to organize bands of Partisan Rangers:"

SECTION 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be and he is hereby authorized to commission such officers as he may deem proper, with authority to form bauds of Partisan Rangers, in companies, battalions or regiments, either as infantry or cavalry, the companies, battalions or regiments to be composed, each of such number as the President may approve.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That such Partisan Rangers, after being regularly received into the service, shall be entitled to the same pay, rations and quarters, during their term of service, and be subjected to the same regulations as other soldiers.

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted. That for any arms and munitions of war captured from the enemy by any body of Partisan Rangers, and delivered to any quartermaster at such place or places as may be designated by a Commanding General, the Rangers shall be paid their full value in such manner as the Secretary of War may prescribe.

                  Approved April 21, 1862.

Its practical operation is fully set forth in the following correspondence between a member of the Senate from Missouri and the Secretary of War:

              SPOTSWOOD HOTEL, RICHWOOD, July 15,1862.

Hon. George W. Randolph, Secretary of War:

SIR—I respectfully desire to know from you whether the several Partisan Corps of Rangers, now organized or that may be organized in the several States of the Confederacy, are to be regarded as part of the army of the Confederacy, and protected by the Government as such; and whether, if any of said corps are captured in battle, or otherwise while in the line of their duty, by the enemy, this Government will claim for them the same treatment, as prisoners of war, which is now exacted for prisoners belonging to our provisional army.

Are not all Partisan Rangers, organized by your authority, emphatically a part of the Confederate army, and will they not be regarded and treated as such?

I consider that it is not only the right, but the duty of every loyal citizen of the Confederate States, to resist, by all means in his power, even to the death, if necessary, the attempt of the enemy in a body or singly to invade his domicile or to capture his person, or that of his wife, child, ward, or servant, or to take from him against his will any of his property; and if, in making such resistance, whether armed or not, our citizens are captured by such invading enemy, have they not the right to demand to be treated by the enemy as other prisoners of war; and will not this Government exert all its power, if necessary, to the end that its citizens are thus protected and treated?

This is a war waged against the sovereignty of the several States of the Confederacy, and against the lives liberty and property of every citizen yielding allegiance to the States and Government of their choice, in which they reside. Such a war has no parallel in the history of Christian nations.

I respectfully request you to give me your opinions on the several points in this letter, in a form to be submitted to my constituents, to enlighten them in regard to the extent of their rights and powers as viewed by this Government, and how far their Government will protect them in the exercise of those rights, which, to an intelligent freeman, are dearer than life itself. Your early answer is respectfully requested.

With great respect,

                                                   JOHN B. CLARK.

                                       CONTEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 

WAR DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, July 16,1862.

Hon. John B. Clark, Confederate States Senate:

SIR—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, and to reply, that Partisan Rangers are a part of the provisional army of the Confederate States, subject to all the regulations adopted for its government, and entitled to the same protection as prisoners of war. Partisan Rangers are in no respect different from troops of the line, except that they are not brigaded, and are employed oftener on detached service. They require stricter discipline than other troops to make them efficient, and without discipline they become a terror to their friends and are contemptible in the eyes of the enemy.

With reference to your inquiry as to the protection which the Government will extend to private citizens taken in hostile acts against the enemy, it is not easy to lay down a general rule.

War, as conducted by civilized nations, is usually a contest between the respective governments of the belligerents, and private individuals, remaining quietly at home, are respected in their rights of person and property. In return for this privilege they are expected to take no part in hostilities, unless called on by their government.

If, however, in violation of this usage, private citizens of Missouri should be oppressed and maltreated by the public enemy, they have unquestionably a right to take up arms in their own defence, and if captured and confined by the enemy, under such circumstances, they are entitled, as citizens of the Confederate States, to all the protection which that Government can afford; and among the measures to which it may be useful to resort is that of the lex talionis.

We shall deplore the necessity of retaliation, as adding greatly to the miseries of the war, without advancing its objects; and, therefore, we shall act with great circumspection, and only upon facts clearly ascertained. But if it is our only means of compelling the observance of the usages of civilized warfare, we cannot hesitate to resort to it when the proper time arrives. Very respectfully your obedient servant.

               GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War.

Notwithstanding these extreme efforts by the Confederate Government to obtain men, such was the power of its adversary, now marshalling nearly six hundred thousand fresh volunteers for the field, and such the reduction of the Confederate forces by desertion, sickness, and losses in battle, that renewed exertions were demanded. The Confederate Congress, therefore, in September, passed another act of conscription, calling out every man between the ages of thirty-live and forty-live, and all youths as soon as they became eighteen years of age. The important part of the act was as follows: An act to amend an act, entitled "

An act to provide further for the public defence," approved April 10, 1862.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be, and he is hereby authorized, to call out and place in the military service of the Confederate States, for three years, unless the war shall have been sooner ended, all white men who are residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five years, at the time the call or calls may be made, and who are not at such time or times legally exempted from military service; or such parts thereof as, in his judgment, may be necessary to the public defence, such call or calls to be made under the provisions and according to the terms of the act to which this is an amendment; and such authority shall exist in the President, during the present war, as to all persons who now arc, or may hereafter become, eighteen years of age; and, when once enrolled, all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years shall serve their full time; Provided, That if the President, in calling out troops into the service of the Confederate States, shall first call for only a port of the persons, between the ages herein before Page 248 stated, He shall call for those between the age of thirty-five, and any other age less than forty-five; Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be understood as repealing or modifying any part of the act to which this is amendatory, except as herein expressly stated; and Provided further, that those called out under this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, shall be first and immediately ordered to fill to their maximum number the companies, battalions, squadrons, and regiments from the respective States at the time the act to further provide for the public defence, approved 16th April, 1862, was passed; and the surplus, if any, shall be assigned to organizations formed from each State since the passage of that act, or placed in new organizations, to be offered by the State having such residue, according to the laws thereof, or disposed of as now provided by law; Provided, that the President is authorized to suspend the execution of this, or the act to which this is an amendment, in any locality where he may find it impracticable to execute the same; and that in such localities, and during such suspension, the President is authorized to receive troops into the Confederate service under any of the acts passed by the Confederate Congress prior to the passage of the act further to provide for the public defence, approved 16th of April, 1862.

On the 8th of October President Davis, in a Message to Congress, relative to incompetent army officers, stated that numerous regiments ;md companies had been so reduced by the casualties of war, by sickness and other causes, as to be comparatively useless under the existing organization. There were companies in the army in which the number of officers exceeded that of the privates present for duty, and regiments in which the number of such privates did not exceed that which was required for a single effective company.

Such were the measures by which the Confederate Government succeeded in obtaining men for its armies during 1862. It was equally deficient at the beginning of the year, in the munitions of war. When the new levies camo forward, at the call of the President at the beginning of the year, the Ordnance Department had not the arms for them. The Government issued a call upon the people for their shot guns ac follows:

                HEADQUARTERS ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT,

                        RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, March 23, 1862.

This department is desirous of purchasing arms from those parties having good double barrel shot guns, sporting rifles, or any Kind of weapon that will be useful in the field. These arms will be fairly appraised on their delivery in Richmond, and payments will be promptly made. Agents heretofore "collecting State arms for this department are requested to collect and forward these private arms as promptly as possible.

      O. DIMMOCK, Colonel of Ordnance of Virginia.

Of the fifty-nine regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and eleven cavalry battalions sent into the field from Tennessee, the Confederate Government had found arms for only fifteen thousand of them, and the remainder were furnished with the shot guns obtained from the citizens.

Official calls were also made by the Government for sulphur, lead, and saltpetre. The advance in the price of the latter article caused the Secretary of War to issue the following order:

                             CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,

                     WAR DEPARTMENT, February 4, 1862.

Bands of speculators have combined to monopolize all the saltpetre to be found in the country, and thus force from the Government exorbitant prices for an article indispensable to the national defence. The department has hitherto paid prices equal to four times the usual peace rates, in order to avoid recourse is impressment, if possible. This policy has only served to embolden the speculators to fresh exactions. It is now ordered that all military commanders in the Confederate States impress all saltpetre now or hereafter to be found within their districts, except such as are in the hands of the original manufacturers, or of Government agents and contractors, paying therefore forty cents per pound, and no more. The price fixed is the highest rate at which contracts have been made, and leaves very large profits to the manufacturer.

                           J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War.

The deficiency of light artillery was so great that the Government issued the following notice:

The Ordnance Bureau of the Confederate States solicits the use of such bells as can be spared during the war, for the purpose of providing light artillery for the public defence. While copper is abundant, the supply of tin is deficient to convert the copper into bronze. Bells contain so much tin that 2,400 lbs. weight of bell metal, mixed with the proper quantity of copper, will suffice for a field battery of six pieces. Those who are willing to devote their bells to this patriotic purpose will receive receipts for them, and the bells will be replaced, if required, at the close of the war, or they will be purchased at fair prices.

Bells maybe directed as follows: Richmond Arsenal, Richmond, Virginia; Fayetteville Arsenal, Fayetteville, North Carolina; Charleston Arsenal, Charleston, South Carolina; Augusta Arsenal, Augusta, Georgia; Mount Vernon Arsenal, Mount Vernon, Alabama; Columbus Depot, Columbus, Mississippi; Atlanta Depot, Atlanta, Georgia; Savannah Depot, Savannah, Georgia; Knoxville Depot, Knoxville, Georgia; Baton Rouge Arsenal, Baton Rouge, La.; Montgomery Depot, Montgomery, Alabama.

The Government will pay all charges to these places, and receipts will be promptly returned to the proper parties.

Persons and congregations placing their bells at the service of the Government, are requested to send a statement of the fact, with a description and weight of the bell, to the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, at Richmond, for record in the War Department.

At the same time General Beauregard, in command at the Southwest, issued an appeal to the people to contribute their church bells to be manufactured into cannon. In response to these calls, the stewards of St. Francis street Methodist church, in Mobile, met and voted to send their bell to the Government foundery. The Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches in Marietta, Ga, sent forward their bells. The Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Cumberland Presbyterian, and Baptist churches in Huntsville, Alabama, sent forward their bells, weighing 4,259 pounds. These were considered sufficient to make two batteries of six guns each. The church bells of Fredericksburg, weighing in the aggregate 4,500 pounds, were tendered to the Government. The planters of Louisiana sent forward the bells used on their plantations. The public prints contained notes like the following:

MESSRS. EDITORS: I see General Beauregard has called for bells, to be manufactured into cannon, Cannot the Page 249 ladies assist by sending all their bell metal—preserving kettles? I send mine as a beginning.

                                                        A SOUTHERN WOMAN.

                                                        MOBILE, March 19,1862.

Messrs. Editors: I sec a call made through your paper for the ladies of Mobile to send their old brass to make cannon for the defence of our beloved city. I, therefore, send yon my mite, hoping that, small as it is, it may be of some use. With many prayers for the success of our beloved cause, I remain, yours respectfully.

GENTS: I send you, as a contribution to the Confederacy, the lead weight which was attached to the striking part of my clock, with the hope that every one, not only in our city but in the whole Confederacy, who may have such within their reach, will do likewise.

But there were other and more important sources for the supply of the munitions of war. Arms must be had or the Government would be vanquished. Swift steamers, freighted in England, were sent out to run the blockade, and while many were captured, others succeeded in reaching port. The value of their cargoes, and that of the cotton obtained for the return voyage, was more than sufficient to compensate the owners for the loss of two or three vessels. Munitions of war were also obtained from Mexico, whither they had been sent from Europe, and transported through Texas. Large quantities of small arms, clothing, and army wagons were captured from the United States. Manufactories were also put in operation extensively in the Confederate States, and at the close of the year the Government was better supplied with the munitions of war than at any previous period.

The plan of defensive operations adopted by the Provisional Government at the commencement of the war was from necessity continued. At the beginning of the year the Confederate armies were pushed forward to extreme positions on the territory claimed as a part of the Confederacy. On the North their line extended from Columbus, Kentucky, eastward through Bowling Green, the Cumberland river post, with advances on the Big Sandy and Kanawha rivers, Staunton, Winchester, Leesburg, Centreville, Aquia Creek and the Potomac. The weak points presented by the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were strongly guarded by Forts Henry and Donelson. This line was on the verge of the Northern States, and any advance from that quarter would soon meet with resistance. It was quietly occupied chiefly by twelve months' volunteers, confident of their ability to maintain their ground and feeling a degree of contemptuous defiance of their adversary. The comparative inactivity of the Federal forces since their defeat from Bull Run had lulled the apprehensions of the Southern people, and even the Confederate Government was reposing under an impression of security. This apparent inactivity of the Federal forces, however, concealed careful and laborious preparations for a most formidable and overwhelming campaign. An expedition had been sent to Port Royal, South Carolina, and another subsequently to North Carolina, not only to serve the purpose of seizing important localities and assisting the blockade, tut to divert the attention of the Confederate Government from the magnitude of the armies preparing at Washington, Louisville, and Cairo. The only effect which they produced upon the Confederate Government was to occupy its attention and move it to call for new levies to take the place of the twelve months' volunteers whose terms of enlistments soon expired. In this posture of affairs the Federal army was ordered by the Government to move even in the middle of winter, and while nearly half its gunboats at the West were without men. It swept the Confederate line of defence away from near Cumberland Gap to the Mississippi, which it relieved of blockade above and advanced into Arkansas beyond the river, and it opened the eyes of the Confederate Government to the real dangers of its position. A new line of defence was immediately adopted, intended to command the railroad system of the Southwest. It extended from Memphis on the west through Grand Junction, Corinth and Chattanooga. But the most vigorous and determined efforts, as above stated, wore made by the Government to turn the tide of disasters that set in upon it. Circumstances favored its efforts. The Federal army at the West, having pushed into the field in an incomplete condition, was now forced to move slowly in order to secure its effectiveness. Nothing of importance was done by it after the capture of Fort Donelson and the escape of a part of it from destruction lit Shiloh, until the end of May, when Corinth was acquired. The eastern portion of the line of defence remained unchanged sometime after it had been lost at the West, and was finally evacuated. The difficulties arising from the weather, the incomplete state of preparations, and the repeated changes in the destination of some of the forces for the campaign so retarded the army of the Potomac that it did not pass Yorktown and Williamsburg and begin to move directly upon the Confederate capital until the middle of May. Even at that period, so incomplete were the preparations of the Confederate Government for the great defence they were required to make, that Richmond was filled with consternation. The state of excitement there is thus described by an officer of the Confederate army: "All who could possibly get away packed up everything they had and fled southward. The nearer the hostile army approached the city the fiercer the tumult and uproar became. The burning waves of popular alarm could not be stayed. The Government itself furthered the confusion. Instead of resolving to triumph or to fall with the army in front of Richmond, it at once ordered all the different bureau to pack up, and caused the officers of ordnance to empty the magazines and convey their stores further south. Even President Davis took to the road and hastened, with his wife and children, Page 250 to North Carolina. As may be readily divined, this loss of presence of mind threw the people at large in the most frantic excess of terror. There was nothing on all sides but shouting and uproar, and confusion reached its utmost height. The secret police of General "Winder had lost all control. The civil authorities of Richmond were anxious to do something, but knew not what, and also lost their senses. A small number of the Baltimore rabble took advantage of the hubbub, and, in public meeting, passed resolutions condemning Richmond to conflagration so soon as the Union troops should enter it. Yet all who could escape did so. The sick and the wounded were carried farther into the interior; many public and private buildings were marked out for destruction; and, in short, a frightful catastrophe seemed to be impending over the Southern capital."

This contraction of the line of defence produced a greater concentration of forces and a capacity for more powerful resistance. At the same time the coast line of defence had been abandoned, and with the loss of the harbors of North Carolina and Florida, Fort Pulaski and New Orleans, the forces were withdrawn to interior lines. The first step of the Government under this aspect of affairs was to render Richmond impregnable. The next was to take such measures as would disperse the powerful force threatening it on the Chickahominy. The Federal Government was led to believe by rumors thrown out for the purpose, that the force of General Jackson was designed, after defeating General Banks, to march upon Washington or cross into Maryland, and reënforcements were sent forward to confirm the deception. It was successful. But General Jackson was immediately brought back to cooperate in an attack on the flank and rear of the Federal army on the Chickahominy at the same time that it was assailed in front by General Lee. The plans were successful. The Federal army was forced back upon the James river and finally evacuated the peninsula. The condition was now entirely changed. The Confederate forces were triumphant, while their enemy was everywhere reduced. It was determined to make the latter "taste of the bitterness of war." A Confederate campaign in Maryland and Kentucky was resolved upon, to obtain meat and bread and munitions of war." The Confederate States at this time were exhausted, in consequence of supporting not only their own population, but the armies of friend and foe. It was thus argued:

The great and true source of meat supply is the State of Kentucky. If our armies could push directly forward on that state and occupy it to the banks of the Ohio, the political advantages secured to the South would be of no small account compared with those she would derive in a sumptuary point of view. There are more hogs and cattle in Kentucky available for general consumption, two or three to one, than are now left in all the South besides, and steps ought to be taken bv Government to drive these animals, as well as mules and horses, as the armies march forward, and place them within our lines. It is not only positively important to us that these animals should be promptly secured as they fall within our grasp, but it is negatively so also, in depriving the enemy of the convenient supplies of meat. For their army which they have derived from Kentucky. In this point of view the campaign in Kentucky becomes doubly important, and assumes an interest as great as that in Maryland.

The capture of the stores at Manassas Junction and Harper's Ferry, and the spoils taken from Kentucky, were of immense service to the cause. The results of the campaign, however, developed to the Government the first fact of the war, which was that it could not carry on an offensive war against the North. Its military plans for the remainder of the year were confined to annoying the enemy, to preserving Richmond from danger, and to keeping up the blockade of the Mississippi by holding the strong positions of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. (See Army, Confederate, and Army Operations.)

The civil organization of the Government was as follows:

Secretary of State—J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana.

Secretary of War— George W. Randolph, of Virginia.

Secretary of the Navy—S. R. Mallory, of Florida.

Secretary of the Treasury—C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina

Attorney General—Thomas H. Watts.

Postmaster General—James H. Reagan, of Texas.

In November the Secretary of War resigned, and James A. Seddon, of Virginia, was appointed to his place. He was one of the commissioners sent by the Virginia Legislature to the Peace Conference at Washington in 1861, and had been a Representative to Congress from 1845 to 1847, and from 1849 to 1851.

The finances of the Confederate States have apparently not improved during the past year. The only dependence has been upon issues of paper money, which have followed their natural tendency to depreciation and ultimate worthlessness. It is probable that in the isolated condition of the Confederacy, being cut oft' from external intercourse, paper may float to better advantage in the currents of infernal trade than where similar issues, as at the North, are exposed by commercial transactions to continual contact with the specie currencies of the countries with which commerce is conducted. On the other hand, the Confederate system of finance has lacked the support which, with a powerful navy to keep its commerce open, it might have had from the duties on imports and upon the exports of cotton. Those two items were made a dependence for certain loans early in the war, but they have failed to realize the expectations based upon them. The first loan authorized, that of February 28,1861, was on a very sound principle, had it been possible to export cotton. The act provided for a loan of $15,000,000, bearing 8 per cent, interest, to be discharged by a duty of about 55 cts. per bale of cotton exported, it was supposed that the product for 1862 would be $2,200,000, which would pay the interest §1,200,000, and $1,000,000 of the principal. This operation, with an increasing crop of cotton, would, it was estimated, discharge the debt in 1870. The debt was contracted, but the duty is not forthcoming. This money was soon exhausted; Page 251 and the war assuming greater proportions, on the 16th of April, 1861, a law authorized the issue of Treasury notes, bearing 7,\ interest, fundable in 8 per cent. Confederate bonds, and payable on demand in currency. In August 1861, the authority was extended to the issue of notes not bearing interest, but fundable in 8 per cent. Confederate bonds. These issues immediately began to affect prices and cause an apparent rise in the value of gold, which indeed immediately disappeared from circulation, being hoarded by those who had the means; and in August, 1861, it was at 12 per cent, premium at Richmond. The downward tendency in the value of the paper produced its usual effects. Money was apparently very plenty, with an evident growing scarcity of capital; and on the 24th of December 1861, Congress authorized the receiving of the paper money on deposit, in exchange for certificates bearing 6 per cent, interest. These certificates were payable on demand at any time in currency. There were thus, at the commencement of 1862, three classes of paper, the 7/, notes fundable in 8 per cent, bonds, the currency notes also fundable, and the call certificates bearing 6 per cent. These all performed more or less the functions of currency. Congress then authorized an issue of $1 and $2 notes, and also a limited amount of two-year notes. The premium on specie had now risen to 50 per cent., and but a small amount of capital had been really subscribed to the loans of the Government. Indeed it was not to be expected, inasmuch as that the mass of Southern capital was looked up by the war. The great staples of cotton, rice, tobacco, naval stores, lumber, corn, coffee, which are exported in usual years, remained on hand in useless accumulation. The owners would subscribe to the Government wants if they could sell their produce. The subscriptions to this loan were very ample, but when the time came to realize they were found very difficult to be turned into money. On April 21st, 1862, an act was passed by the Permanent Government, which provided that the Government should take the products of the field and issue 8 per cent, bonds to the owners, under the following form of agreement:

In consideration of dollars, paid me in bonds of the Confederate States, I ———, of the county and Stats aforesaid, have sold to the Confederate States of America, bales of cotton, marked and numbered ns in the margin, now deposited at (naming location of plantation), and I hereby agree to take good care of the said cotton while on my plantation, and to deliver the same, at my own expense, at (naming the usual shipping point), in the State of , to the order of the Secretary of the Treasury, or his agents, or his or their assigns.

The agreement must be endorsed by an agent, who certifies to the quality, quantity, weight, condition, and market value of the cotton; that it is under secure cover, and has been marked with the name of the planter and the initials of the Confederate States.

The bonds of the Confederate States draw interest at 8 per cent., payable semi-annually by the Treasury agent in each State, which is secured by the war tax or an export duty on cotton. The purchases thus made, together with the collections on the loan, at the close of the year, amounted to nearly $13,000,000, and, it is reported, were negotiated. The total amount of subscriptions to the loan, valued in money, was about twenty-five millions of dollars, of which $7,631,0.4 were collected at an expense of one third of one per cent. The purchases of cotton thus far reported by the agents amount to 69,507 bales, costing $-1,474,400. The purchases a few months later probably reached 250,000 bales. In order to dispose of the cotton, two forms of certificates were devised. By ono the various parcels of cotton were registered and disposed of. By the other the Government obligated itself to deliver certain quantities at certain points at a fixed price. By the advice of ministers abroad some of the latter certificates, covering about 30,000 bales of cotton, have been placed as an experiment in the foreign market. Congress, on the 12th of April, 1862, authorized a loan at 8 per cent., payable in from 10 to 30 years, but no bonds were issued under the act. The $100,000,000 loan, into which notes are fundable, is also an 8 per cent, loan, and is made payable in instalments, which fall due every six months in eighteen years, from the 1st of January, 1864. The first instalment of the principal of $1,288,700 is payable 1st of January, 1864; the second, of $1,340,200, is payable 1st of July, 1864. The expenditures of the Government continued to be met in paper money, and according to the official report made to Congress on August 1, 1862, the revenue and expenditures up to that date had been as follows since the commencement of the war:

Expenditures—War department …………$298.376.549 41

Navy department…………………………..$14,003,777 86

Civil and miscellaneous …………………..$15,756,508 43

Total …………………………………….$328,748,880 70

Outstanding requisitions …………………$18,024,123 10

Total expenditure, February, 1861, to August 1862  $847,272,953 35

Total receipts, February 1861, to August, 1862 $302,482,096 60

Deficient Treasury notes authorized ……$16,755,165 00

Do. to be provided $28,035,607 25— ….$44,790,862 23

The receipts were derived as follows:

Customs ………………………………….$1,437,899 98

War tax ………………………$10,539,910 70

Miscellaneous $1,974,769 83-$13,932,079 99

Loans—Bonds, February, '61, 5 per cent $15,000,000 00

Bonds, August, '61. 8 per ct. $22,613,846 01

Call certificates, December 1861, 6 per cent $37,515,200 00

Treasury notes, April, 186I, 7.310 Per cent $22,799,900 00

Demand notes, August, ‘61, no Interest 187,130,670 00

$1 and $-2 notes …………..$846.900 00

Due banks $2,625,000 00— $288,531,016 61

Total receipts ……………...$302,483,096 60

The customs collected were mostly before the Page 252 blockade became very rigid. The war tax was paid in by the several States about as follows:

North Carolina…….. $1,400,000 00

Virginia …………….$2,125,000 00

Louisiana …………..$2,500,000 00

Alabama ……………$2,000,000 00

Georgia ………………$434,120 12

Florida ……………….$225.374 11

Mississippi …………$1,484,467 07

Total …………….$110,168,907 90

The State of Georgia has substantially paid in the balance due by her, and the State of South Carolina paid the whole amount due by her into the Treasury, in the form of 6 per cent, call certificates. The States of Alabama and Louisiana paid their taxes in advance.

Thus the whole amount of funded debt at that date was a little over 37 millions. The balance was mostly due on demand serving for money, and authority then existed to issue 20 millions more paper under the law. Under this operation the depreciation of the currency was further marked by the prices of commodities. Some of the quotations were in Richmond as follows: gold 140 per cent., equal to 42 cents per dollar for paper. Flour was $14.50 in paper, or $6 in specie; corn $2 in paper, or 80 cents in specie; wheat $3.30 in paper, or $1.30 specie; rye $2.50 in paper, or$l specie; butter $1 in paper, or 42 cents specie; wool $1 in paper, or 42 cents specie; coffee (Rio) $2 paper, or 84 cents specie; brown sugar was 65 cents paper, or 26 cents specie. For those articles like flour and grain, of which the South is usually an exporter, the prices were not higher than at the North, measured in specie ; but for those of which she is usually an importer the dearth of supply was greatly aggravated by the depreciation of paper. Nevertheless prices were very unequal even in home produce. Thus while flour was $14.50 in Virginia, it was $30 in Georgia. At the same time shirtings and sheetings were selling at 60 cents, equal to 24 cents in specie, or not more than the price in New York at that time. One cause of the higher price of flour in North Carolina and Georgia was the fact that the millers had depended on Virginia wheat, and the Government of that State prohibited its export, and the usual transfer of flour was checked. Salt, on the other hand, was at 26 cents paper, 10 cents specie. The occupation of the Kanawha by the forces under General Loring, produced in October great activity to obtain supplies of salt sufficient for all the purposes of preserving the fall meats, from the Kanawha salines. These works, in the immediate neighborhood of Charleston, the county seat of Kanawha, produce annually an immense quantity of salt, and many hundred thousands of bushels were on hand at the time of the evacuation of Charleston by the Union troops. Long trains of wagons started for the salines from points as far distant as Staunton and Buchanan, and at one time three hundred wagons were awaiting at Gauloy Ferry their turn to cross the river. "When the Confederates first entered Charleston the salt was offered for thirty-five cents the bushel; but under the stimulus of the rapid demand for the article from abroad, it very speedily rose to one dollar a bushel. A great demand also sprung up for the Louisiana rock salt.

These prices give some idea of the utter derangement of the currency under the continued issues of paper for which there seemed to be no remedy. Since August 1, the appropriations outstanding and estimates for expenses for 5 months up to January 1,1863, reached $209,550,487. To supply this amount there was no resource but the issue of paper money, which might be changed by the holders into 7 3/10  bonds, receivable for dues, 6 per cent, certificates, payable on demand in currency, or 8 per cent, bonds, redeemable in from l0 to 30 years. The privilege of funding in the 8 per cent, bonds was to cease April 22, 1863, in order to hurry the conversion. After that date the holder would only get 7 per cent, bonds.

The following official notices indicate the uses of the several classes of paper:

        TREASURY DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, August 1,1862.

JOHN BOSTON, ESQ., Depositary, Savannah.

SIR: In answer to the inquiries of the 25th ult. you can say:

1. That the 7.30 interest notes will at any lime be accepted in exchange for eight per cent. Confederate bonds, or for any debt due the Government, and that interest will be allowed as well as principal.

2. That I shall recommend that Congress pay annually the interest due on these notes to the respective holders thereof on the 1st of January.

3. That the six per cent, call certificates cannot be issued for these interest bearing notes, because such certificates are payable on demand in general Treasury notes of every denomination.

4. The 7.30 notes may be issued in exchange for the six per cent, call certificates. Such exchange effects directly what the holder of the certificates may do indirectly by calling for payment of his certificate in current notes, and then exchanging them for interest notes.

5. The purpose intended by the issue of interest bearing notes is to take them out of the general circulation. This is effected by the fact that a circulation of interest takes place at every transfer. It is not expected, therefore, that they will pass into the general deposits or circulation of the banks. In passing them from hand to hand, the interest grows each day by an easy calculation of two cents on each hundred dollar note, until the end of the year, when the interest will be paid up, if Congress shall accept my recommendation. With much respect,

                      C. G. MEMMINGER, Secretary of Treasury.

                 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., RICHMOND, 

                                                               November 6,1862.

Dear Sir: Your letter of the Sd instant inquires whether "deposits made under the call loan can be funded on or before next April in the eight per cent, bonds." The conclusion of the department is, that the certificates of deposits issued under the six per cent, call loan entitle the holders to the same rights which they would have if they held the notes which had been deposited. It follows that certificates issued in exchange for the present issues of Treasury notes can be funded in eight per cent, bonds at any time on or before the 22d of April next, and up to that date tins privilege will be the same, whether the certificates arc issued before or after the 1st day of December next. Certificates winch shall he taken for the deposit of new Treasury notes, to be issued after the first of December Page 253 next, will be fundable only in seven per cent, bonds.

Respectfully,

     C. G. MEMMIXGER, Secretary of Treasury.

All these operations continued down to the close of the year, and the result was the following amount of debt, January 1, 1863:

Confederate Debt.

[…].

Total debt $280,405.675   $566,005,062   $285,599,377

Thus the debt apparently increased more in the last five months than in the previous sixteen months of the war. One cause was the rise in prices, which reacted upon the Government, requiring more money for the same purpose. This increase is however less than it appears; since, of the interest Treasury notes, $11,004,G00 were still on hand. Also of the 8 per cent, bonds $8,000,000 were on hand. Of the real increase of these bonds outstanding, $7,000,000 were derived from the produce loan, and $17,422,250 from funded notes. There was a large increase of interest bearing Treasury notes; and this increase added to the amount of bonds funded, makes nearly 20 J millions per month derived from that source. There remained, however, $290,149,692 paper money outstanding at the close of the year, and the estimates required the sum of $357,929,229 to carry on the Government to July, 1863. The disasters that must flow from a farther issue of paper to that amount induced many of the States of the Confederacy to guarantee a war debt of the Confederate Government. The Secretary of the Treasury therefore proposed that; 1st, all the paper money issued prior to Doc. 1 should cease to be currency on the 1st of July, 1863, up to which time it maybe funded in bonds; 2d, to impose a war tax on property that should yield $48,000,000 per annum to meet the whole interest on the public debt; 3d, that the States' guarantee should be accepted for $500,000,000, to be issued in a 6 per cent, stock.

The interest on the bonds being payable in paper suffers virtual decline through the rise in the prices of commodities. It was argued, therefore, that although by requiring the funding of the notes, the price of the bonds would decline in the market, their value to the holders would rise by reason of the better currency in which they get their interest. By the same means the expenses of the Government would be reduced, and the ultimate aggregate of the debt be decreased. The war tax proposed upon property, it was estimated, would give $35,000,000, and an income tax of $28,000,000 would give 63 millions, or 60 millions net, which would leave 12 millions to apply to so much of the principal of the debt annually.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury, for the close of the year, gave the revenue and expenditure from the 18th of February, 1862, when the Provisional Government terminated, to December 31,1862, being almost 10 ½  months. The results were as follows:

Customs ……………………..$668,556

War tax …………………..$16,064,518

Miscellaneous 6,171,533— $28,001,057

Bonds, 8 per cent ………$41,89S,286

Call certificates, 6 per cent $59,742,796

Treasury notes, 7 3/10  per cent. $113.740.000

Loans, February, 1861, 8 per cent. $1,875.276

Coin from Bank of Louisiana $2,520.799

Currency 215,554,»5— $434,842,042

Total ………………….$457,840,699

Expenses ……………..$375,244,413

Public debt paid $41,727 322— $416,971.735

Balance ………………..$40,874,964

The war tax collected was largo, but included a tax upon state bonds. In relation to which the Secretary remarks: "The very large amount of money invested in this form was included in the war tax of the last year, and the tax thereon was paid everywhere, except by those who raised the question in South Carolina. For the ensuing year the case would be different. If the same tax were laid by Congress, it is probable that the holders of State bonds would claim exemption under this decision, and Congress itself might be unwilling to reenact, in the same form, a law which had been declared unconstitutional by the coordinate branch of the Government, until that decision is reversed. The question is of such magnitude, and involves such great interests, that an appeal was taken. But this appeal cannot be decided until a Supreme Court shall be organized."

When the advance of the Federal armies into the Confederate States, both at the West and on the coast, commenced, the citizens were urged to burn all the cotton and tobacco. In Richmond, on the 26th of February, a convention of Representatives from a number of the States was held. Its object was thus stated by the chairman: "As cotton was king and tobacco vice-regal, it was proposed to ascertain how far they could be made to subserve the cause of independence." Several propositions were made, viz., "that the crops should be voluntarily destroyed,—that the Government should purchase them and then destroy them if necessary." The result of all the proceedings on the subject was the passage of a law by Congress ordering all cotton to be destroyed "when it was about to fall into the hands of the enemy." The amount of cotton raised during the year was about one fourth of that of the previous year. More land was devoted to raising crops of grain, and the demands of the war reduced the number of cultivators. The British consul at Savannah returned to the Foreign Office the following estimate of the stock on hand at the close of the year:

According to reports made to the Comptroller General of this State by the tax collectors, the amount of land planted in cotton this year in Georgia is about 200,000 acres, yielding in round numbers 60,000 bales of cotton of 500 pounds each; ordinarily the production is 700,000 bales, requiring an area of about 8,000,000 Page 254 acres. I am, of course, unable to report as accurately respecting the crops of other States, but the best information at my command strongly induces the belief that the entire crop gathered this year did not exceed 1,000,000 bales, proving the correctness of the approximate estimate transmitted to your lordship in my despatch, No. 16, of the 10th of May last. The crop of 1861 was estimated at 4,500,000 bales. Deducting from the crops of 1861 and 1862 the quantity of cotton which has run the blockade, the amount destroyed to prevent capture by the Federalists, and the quantity used for home consumption, which, since the commencement of the war, has enormously increased, being now fully €00,000 bales per annum, it will leave in the South not more than 8,500,000 bales. The urgent necessity for the cultivation of breadstuffs since the Federal occupation of Kentucky and the best grain growing regions of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and the consequent strong popular opposition to the planting of cotton, together with other causes of hardly less importance, such as the entire want of bagging and rope necessary to put the cotton into merchantable condition, will tend hereafter to prevent any increase in the stock, possibly to diminish it; while, should the Federals succeed in making farther advances into the interior of the cotton growing States, the cultivation of that plant will be entirely abandoned, and the negroes removed to the mountainous districts, where breadstuffs alone can be raised.

                                                                E. MOLYNEUX.

The manufacturing industry of these States became more extensive than ever before, and in some branches more highly developed. The necessities of the Government and people, and the advancing prices, furnished a most powerful stimulant. Munitions of war and manufactures of cotton constituted the most important branches of this industry.

The high postage imposed by the Government greatly reduced the correspondence of the people, who were forbidden to transmit letters in any other manner than through the mails. The advance in the rates was made in order to enable the department to defray its expenses with its receipts. The effect, however, was to reduce the receipts and increase the demands of the department. The Government now had the choice either to reduce the amount of mail service exacted of the department, or to contribute to its expenses from the treasury. The President doubted the constitutionality of the latter measure and referred the subject to Congress. The Constitution says:

Congress shall have power to "establish post offices and post routes; but the expenses of the Post Office Department, after the 1st day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteenth hundred and sixty-three, shall be paid out of its own revenues."

Congress took into consideration the meaning of the word "expenses," and thus avoiding the constitutional question, recommended a loan to the department, for payment of the interest and principal of which its revenues should be pledged. The postage stamps were imported from England; so stringent was the blockade that some of the colors required in their manufacture could not be obtained within the Confederacy.

Martial law was proclaimed at Richmond, Norfolk, and other places during the year. This was done by proclamations of the President, of which the following is the form stating that it is done by the authority of Congress:

By virtue of the power vested in me by law to declare the suspension of the privilege or the writ of habeas corpus in cities threatened with invasion, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, do proclaim that martial law is hereby extended over the City of Richmond and the adjoining and surrounding country to the distance of ten miles, and I do proclaim the suspension of all civil jurisdiction, with the exception of that of the Mayor of the City, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus within the said city and surrounding country to the distance aforesaid.

The subject of conciliating the northwestern States by the free navigation of the Mississippi river and the opening of the markets of the South to the inhabitants of those States upon certain terms and conditions, was the first proposition suggested toward a settlement of the difficulties. This was considered in Congress. (See Congress, Confederate.)

The relations of the Confederate States to foreign nations during the year are seen from the speeches and letters of their agents. Mr. Yancey, on his arrival at New Orleans on the 17th of March, made an address to the citizens, which is thus stated:

He remarked, on rising, that it was within ten days of a year since he left the country as the representative of the Confederate States to endeavor to procure the recognition of that independence for which his countrymen were gallantly contending. Be should undoubtedly surprise his auditors when he told them that they had no friends in Europe; that they must depend for the accomplishment of the end for" which they are striving upon themselves alone. And what he said of European feeling with regard to this Confederacy was equally true of its feeling toward the North, whose people, whose Government, and whose press, the statements and writings of whose public men and literary writers they believed to be altogether mendacious. The sentiment of Europe was anti-slavery, and that portion of public opinion which formed and was represented by the Government of England was abolition.

At the same time it is very well understood and believed that the pretexts upon which this war was inaugurated and is carried on against us were utterly false. They would never recognize our independence until our conquering swords hung dripping over the prostrate heads of the North. Their opinion of the character of the people of these States, and of the cause in which we are engaged, was derived altogether from Northern sources. They never see the journals and the periodicals of the South, and all the accounts with regard to us come to them filtered through those of the North. They believed that we arc a brave and determined people, and that we are resolved upon obtaining our independence by the most unyielding devotion to the cause in which we are contending. But they would like to see the two Confederacies crippled by the war, and so would give aid to neither. He alluded to the erroneous and hostile opinions entertained in England with regard to the people of these States, which had been sedulously inculcated by the North, by whom we were habitually represented as cruel, lawless, and oppressive; that the owner had the liberty to treat his slaves without reference to the laws of society or nature, and that the slaves were bred as the English breed their Durham cattle, &c.

As to the blockade, he said that the nations of Europe would never raise it until it suited their interest. In his own private opinion, he believed that that necessity would occur by a very early day. He said Page 255 it was an error to say that " Cotton is king." It is not. It is a great and influential power in commerce, but not its dictator. He alluded to the dependence which British statesmen placed upon the probability of obtaining cotton from other sources than America, and showed that this, to any practical extent or purpose, was impossible, and that the idea was a fallacy. He thought, he said, that the blockade was a blessing to the Confederate States, for it was teaching—nay, compelling—us to depend upon ourselves and to do that for ourselves for which we have hitherto been depending upon others, and they our deadliest foes.

He then counselled a firm, united, and generous support of the Government which has just been inaugurated. The chosen and the choosers were both in the same boat. The storm was raging, the wind was howling, and the waves were beating upon our bark. We had placed them at the helm. They might commit errors, but all history teaches that when there is mutiny in the crew the bark must go down. He concluded by expressing the strongest confidence in the final success of the cause in which we are engaged, and at the close was greeted with the most enthusiastic cheers.

At this period of the year Mr. Mason was in London, Mr. Slidell in Paris, Mr. Rost in Spain, and Mr. Mann in Belgium, as representatives of the Confederate States. They continued to occupy these positions during the year, but wore unsuccessful in obtaining a recognition of the Confederacy, or the adoption of any act which might change the existing relations.

The position of the Confederate Government at the close of the year was in some respects much stronger than at its commencement. The population of the States was brought to a more united action to sustain the cause. The determination manifested by the authorities of the States to sustain the Government, without agitating any vexatious questions as to the constitutionality of its measures, destroyed all opportunities for dissatisfied citizens to organize opposition. The declaration of the Federal Government that slavery was the cause of the war and that, to put an end to it, the cause must be utterly removed, placed the two Governments on the most extreme grounds of disagreement. President Davis appealed to the people in his Message to resist unitedly this attempt to destroy their domestic institutions, and reminded them that the declarations of the States as to the cause of secession were now shown to be true by the acts of their enemies. The measures of the Federal Government were thus used to produce union and determination of purpose in the Southern mind to continue the struggle to the very last extremity. The address of Vice-president Stephens to the citizens of Crawfordsville, Georgia, in November 1863, presents an instance ot the manner in which appeals were then made to the people:

If asked on our side, what is all this for? the reply from every breast is, that it is for home, for firesides, for our attars, for our birthrights, for property, for honor, for life—in a word, for everything for which freemen should live, and for which all deserving to be freemen should be willing, if need be, to die. In whatever trials and sacrifices this war may bring upon us, when the thought of " what is all this for," comes to the mind, recollect that it is, on our part, for everything most dear and sacred, and whatever reverses may await us in a struggle for such objects, let the watchword of the last survivors be, "Never give it up." Let the world know, and history record the fact if such should be our unhappy fate, that though our country may be invaded, our land laid waste, our cities sacked, our property destroyed, the people of the South could die in defence of their rights, but they could never he conquered.

Exhaustion, however, was gradually doing its work. The territory of the Confederate States was constantly growing smaller by the occupation of their enemies, who never gave up an important place, where they once got a foothold. The number of able-bodied men was becoming fatally reduced, and when the conscription acts were exhausted, none would be found for recruits but old men and boys. The depreciation of the currency was approaching that verge beyond which it would be worthless. Well could the Vice-President exclaim, with the indomitable heroism of the Red Man at the stake, "Let the watchword of the last survivors be, Never give it up." (The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1861, vol. 1. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868, pp. 235-255.)


Source: The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.