draft

THE CONFEDERATE DRAFT

On April 16, 1862, the Confederate Congress passed the first national conscription law in American history. All white males between 18 and 35, not legally exempt, were declared members of the Confederate Army for a term of three years or until the war ended. Those who wished to volunteer before being drafted were allowed to do so and to choose their own company. Those who did not care to enter the service were allowed to provide a substitute from "persons not liable for duty."

On April 21, 1862, the Congress set up an elaborate list of exemptions from military duty. Those included were Confederate and state civil officials, mail carriers, ferrymen, river and railway workers, telegraphic operators, miners and metalworkers, laborers in cotton and woolen factories, newspaper printers, one apothecary for each establishment, ministers of religion, professors in colleges and academies and teachers with as many as 20 pupils, teachers in deaf, dumb and blind institutions, and nurses and attendants in hospitals.

On September 27, 1862, Congress amended the Conscription Act to increase the age limit from 35 to 45.

On October 11, 1862, following the 2nd Conscription law, the number of exemptions were greatly increased. Exemptions were added for one editor for each newspaper, shoemakers, tanners, blacksmiths, millers, wheelwrights and other industrial workers. Acricutural exemptions were included allowing an exemption to one person for every 500 head of cattle or sheep or 250 head of horses or mules; one overseer for every plantation containing as many as 20 slaves, and one overseeer for any two plantations not more than five miles apart having as many as 20 slaves combined. People with religious scruples against war, including Quakers, Dunkards, Nazarenes and Mennonites were exempted if they provided a substitute or paid $500.

On February 17, 1864, Congress changed the age limits to run from 17 to 50, but those under 18 and over 45 were constituted a reserve for state defense and were not required to serve beyond their state's limits.

The February 17, 1864 conscription law abolished all industrial exemptions but did continue to exempt the physically unfit, ministers, editors, printers, apothecaries, physicians, hospital and asylum workers, mail carriers and government officials. This law ended once and for all the exemption for cattlemen.

Cattle owners in Florida who had previously been exempt from military service were now subject to the draft, either as conscripts or reserve soldiers. Many "conscripts" or "reserves" later served in Munnerlyn's 1st Battalion, Florida Special Cavalry, otherwise known as the Cattle Battalion. Also in the battalion were some "exempts," boys under 17 and men over 50, and persons who held other exemptions. The Cow Cavalry also included a few deserters.

Source--E. Merton Coulter, The Confederate States of America 1861-1865 (1950).