The Confederate Congress, in April of 1862, passed its first conscription act. Although Texas now had fifty-five regiments formed,[44] all able-bodied young men from eighteen to thirty-five (the age limits were later repeatedly raised) would henceforth be subject to the draft.[45] Indignation against this act caused many protests to be heard in areas that were unenthusiastic about the war. Strongest anti-conscription feeling centered in Gillespie County. In fact, the German settlers near Fredericksburg went so far as to form a five hundred man Union Loyal League to defy the draft and to promote sympathetic feelings for the United States. To suppress this subversive group, Dunn’s and Freer’s state militia companies took control of the town, declared martial law, and gave the citizens six days in which to take an oath of loyalty to the South. Most Germans peacefully complied with this requirement, a few troublemakers were arrested for a short time, and a small number of incorrigibles quietly fled to Mexico.[46] Occasionally pro-Union refugees would make their way to occupied New Orleans, where they could enlist in Judge E. J. Davis’ First Regiment of Texas United States Volunteers. As this unit grew in size, Texas officials came to fear that it might be used in the execution of raids on the state. One embittered Houston editor, in publishing the facts on Davis’ command, stated “let these refugee traitors set foot on the soil of Texas, whether as mounted or unmounted riflemen, and their blood will wash out their treason.... God grant that their carcasses may all enrich the soil their lives have cursed!”[47] As passive signs of disloyalty continued to exist, Confederate military and state civil officials decided to cope with Unionism in an overpowering fashion. In mid-1862 martial law was declared over the entire state. Every alien and all native white males over sixteen were to register and to answer the questions of county provost marshals. People were required to have passes to cross county lines. Severe punishments were set for those who attempted to depreciate Confederate currency. Finally, those suspected of disloyalty were to be expelled from their counties—presumably to settle in some other county and conform, or else, to be driven from county to county until they left the state. Unfortunately for the proponents of this stern policy, the martial law decree was not approved by Richmond. That fall President Jefferson Davis declared it to be an unwarranted assumption of power and revoked the entire program.[48]