The statement is often made that the Confederate Conscription embraced all white males between 16 and 60 years of age. This is an error. The first Act, April 16, 1862, embraced men between 18 and 35 years; the second, of Sept. 27, 1862, men between 18 and 45 years; the third and last, of February 17, 1864, men between 17 and 50. Both General Adams and Colonel Livermore acknowledge this. Yet the latter rests his argument on the supposition that the Conscription gathered in all males between 16 and 60 years. In further illustration of this subject, I may point out that one of the difficulties confronting the conscript officers was the opposition of the governors of some of the States, notably the Governor of Mississippi, the Governor of North Carolina, and the Governor of Georgia. Thus the doctrine of States' Rights, which was the bedrock of the Southern Confederacy, became a barrier to the effectiveness of the Confederate government! South Carolina passed an exemption law which nullified to a certain extent the conscript laws of the Confederacy, and Governor Vance of North Carolina proposed "to try title with the Confederate Government in resisting the claims of the conscript officers to such citizens of North Carolina as he made claim to for the proper administration of the State." "The laws of North Carolina," General Preston complains (W. R., iv, iii, p. 867), "have created large numbers of officers, and the Governor of that State has not only claimed exemption for those officers, but for all persons employed in any form by the State of North Carolina, such as workers in factories, salt-makers, etc." "This bureau has no power to enforce the Confederate law in opposition to the ... claims of the State." Governor Brown of Georgia forbade the enrollment of "large bodies of the citizens of Georgia." The number is supposed to have reached eight thousand men liable to Confederate service. General Preston complains in like strain of the action of the Governor of Mississippi. EXEMPTS AND DETAILS There is an important report by General Preston in February, 1865 (W. R., iv, iii, pp. 1099-1011). In this he gives the number of exempts allowed by the Conscript Bureau in seven States, and parts of two States, east of the Mississippi as 66,586. He then gives the agricultural details, details for public necessity, and for government service, contractors and artisans, a total of 21,414--the whole aggregating 87,990 men. In another report, already referred to, November, 1864, he gives the number of State officers exempted on the certificates of governors in nine States as 18,843. This, with the preceding, makes a grand total of 106,833.