3. Confederate troops were volunteers
In days immediately following the secession of the first seven Confederate states, the central government in Montgomery, Alabama, called for the states’ militias to place their troops under federal control. Control over the Army, both new volunteers and the nationalized militias, was under the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. Throughout the American Civil War, volunteers made up the bulk of the armies of both sides, and all of the Navy’s crews. But not all men were volunteers. By April 1862, it was evident that the numbers of men needed by the Confederacy could not be obtained relying on voluntary enlistment alone. That month the Confederate States of America authorized the first compulsory conscription law – the draft – in American history. It was not received well. Initially, able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35 were liable to be drafted.
As with all conscription, certain professions were exempted as they were considered necessary to the war effort. Men who owned 20 or more enslaved persons were exempt, as they were needed to maintain control of the slave population. By early 1864 the age of men authorized to be drafted extended from 17 to 70. At first, men could hire substitutes to serve for them, a practice also allowed in the Union Army. On both sides, the use of substitutes caused resentment from those of insufficient means to avail themselves of the option. It is true that most of the Confederate, as well as the Union Army, was made up of volunteers. The draft caused riots and legal suits on both sides throughout the war. Draft protests led to riots in New York and other Northern cities. In the South, resistance to the draft continued through the war’s end.