Civil War and Reconstruction in AlabamaFleming, Walter L. (Walter Lynwood)
History
Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama
Fleming, Walter L. (Walter Lynwood)
Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Alabama
Great dissatisfaction was expressed among the people at the enrolment law.
Some thought that it was an attack upon the rights of the states, and the
irritating manner in which it was enforced aroused, in some localities,
intense popular indignation. Conscription being considered disgraceful,
many who would have been glad for various good reasons to remain at home a
few months longer went at once into service to escape conscription. Yet
some loyal and honest citizens found it disastrous to leave their homes
and business without definite arrangements for the safety and support of
their families. Such men suffered much annoyance from the enrolling
officers, in spite of the fact that the law was intended for their
protection. The conscript officials, often men of bad character,
persecuted those who were easy to find, while neglecting the disloyal and
refractory who might make trouble for them. In some sections such weak
conduct came near resulting in local insurrections; this was especially
the case in Randolph County in 1862.[210] The effect of the law was rather
to stop volunteering in the state organizations and reporting to camps of
instructions, since all who did either were classed as conscripts. Not
wishing to bear the odium of being conscripted, many thousands in 1862 and
1863 went directly into the regular service.[211]
While the conscript law secured few, if any, good soldiers who would not
have joined the army without it, it certainly served as a reminder to the
people that all were needed, and as a stimulus to volunteering. Three
classes of people suffered from its operations: (1) those rightfully
exempted, who were constantly annoyed by the enrolling officers; (2) those
soon to become liable to service, who were not allowed to volunteer in
organizations of their own choice; and (3) "deadheads" and malcontents who
did not intend to fight at all if they could keep from it. It was this
last class that made nearly all the complaints about conscription, and it
was they whom the enrolling officers left alone because they were so
troublesome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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