Confederate Re-Assessment
Chapter 38: Beginning of Total Mobilization
During the Winter of 1861-62 once President Wise had secured his six-year term at the urging of Vice-President Bismarck and Secretary of War Roon a law for Conscription. Using militia was no way to combat a modern war, and this war was becoming more modern every day. Already bolt action rifles would dominate both major armies of the Confederacy. Secretary Mallory talked of an under water submerged vessel to sink the new developing Union blockade.
So when debate began on a draft to do away with the militia system and call forth a professional standing army many of the old fire-eaters attacked Wise and his cabinet. Cries were made against the German-influenced President, and called for a return of former Vice-President Toombs. Things soon became even hotter in debate when an amendment to allow slave owners a way out of serving. Many in Congress now called it a “rich man’s war and a poor mans death” . Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson soon rallied against the slaveocracy that was stopping the CSA from achieving greatness. Virginia Senator Edmund Ruffin would come short of calling Johnson an abolitionist.
The Ruffin-Johnson debates were critical for the passage of the 1862 Conscription Act.
Eventually the more State’s Right/Anti-Administration members of Congress were able to delay passage; while word of Confederate victories out west would initially bolster their arguments, generals in the field begged the war department for more soldiers for the duration of the war.
During the Winter of 1861-62 once President Wise had secured his six-year term at the urging of Vice-President Bismarck and Secretary of War Roon a law for Conscription. Using militia was no way to combat a modern war, and this war was becoming more modern every day. Already bolt action rifles would dominate both major armies of the Confederacy. Secretary Mallory talked of an under water submerged vessel to sink the new developing Union blockade.
So when debate began on a draft to do away with the militia system and call forth a professional standing army many of the old fire-eaters attacked Wise and his cabinet. Cries were made against the German-influenced President, and called for a return of former Vice-President Toombs. Things soon became even hotter in debate when an amendment to allow slave owners a way out of serving. Many in Congress now called it a “rich man’s war and a poor mans death” . Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson soon rallied against the slaveocracy that was stopping the CSA from achieving greatness. Virginia Senator Edmund Ruffin would come short of calling Johnson an abolitionist.
The Ruffin-Johnson debates were critical for the passage of the 1862 Conscription Act.
Eventually the more State’s Right/Anti-Administration members of Congress were able to delay passage; while word of Confederate victories out west would initially bolster their arguments, generals in the field begged the war department for more soldiers for the duration of the war.
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