CHAPTER XXXI. MILITARY POLICY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICACONTINUED. CONSCRIPTION LAW. On April 16, 1862, the following conscription law was passed by the first session, First Confederate Congress: In view of the exigencies of the country, and the absolute necessity of keeping in the service our gallant army, and of placing in the field a large additional force to meet the advancing columns of the enemy now invading our soil: Therefore The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the president be, and he is hereby authorized to call out and place in the military service of the Confederate States, for three years, unless the war shall have been sooner ended, all white men who are residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years at the time the call or calls may be made, who are not legally exempted from military service. All of the persons aforesaid who are now in the armies of the Confederacy, and whose term of service will expire before the end of the war, shall be continued in the service for three years from the date of their original enlistment, unless the war shall have been sooner ended: Provided, however, That all such companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments, whose term of original enlistment was for twelve months, shall have the right, within forty days, on a day to be fixed by the commander of the brigade, to reorganize said companies, battalions, and regiments, by electing all their officers, which they had a right heretofore to elect, who shall be commissioned by the President: Provided further, That furloughs not exceeding sixty days, with transportation home and back, shall be granted to all those retained in the service by the provisions of this act beyond the period of their original enlistment, and who have not heretofore received furloughs under the provisions of an act entitled "An act providing for the granting of bounty and furloughs to privates and noncommissioned officers in the provisional army," approved eleventh December, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, said furloughs to be granted at such time and in such numbers as the secretary of war may deem most compatible with the public interest: And provided further, That in lieu of a furlough the commutation value in money of the transportation herein above granted shall be paid to each private, musician, or noncommissioned officer who may elect to receive it, at such time as the furlough would otherwise be granted: Provided further, That all persons under the age of eighteen years or over the age of thirty-five years who are now enrolled in the military service of the Confederate States, in the regiments, squadrons, battalions, and companies hereafter to be reorganized, shall be required to remain in their respective companies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments for ninety days, unless their places can be sooner supplied by other recruits not now in the service, who are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years; and all laws and parts of laws providing for the reenlistment of volunteers and the organization thereof into companies, squadrons, battalions, or regiments shall be and the same are hereby repealed. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That such companies, squadrons, battalions, or regiments organized, or in process of organization by authority from the secretary of war, as may be within thirty days from the passage of this act so far completed as to have the whole number of men requisite for organization actually enrolled, not embracing in said organizations any persons now in service, shall be mustered into the service of the Confederate States as part of the land forces of the same, to be received in that arm of the service in which they are authorized to organize, and shall elect their company, battalion, and regimental officers. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That for the enrollment of all persons comprehended within the provisions of this act, who are not already in the service in the armies of the Confederate States, it shall be lawful for the President, with the consent of the governors of the respective States, to employ State officers, and on failure to obtain such consent he shall employ Confederate officers, charged with the duty of making such enrollments in accordance with the rules and regulations to be prescribed by him. SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That persons enrolled under the provisions of the preceding section, shall be assigned by the Secretary of War to the different companies now in the service, until each company is filled to its maximum number, and the persons so enrolled shall be assigned to companies from the States from which they respectively come. SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That all seamen and ordinary seamen in the land forces of the Confederate States, enrolled under the provisions of this act may, on application of the Secretary of the Navy, be transferred from the land forces to the naval service. SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That in all cases where the State may not have in the army a number of regiments, battalions, squadrons, or companies, sufficient to absorb the number of persons subject to military service under this act, belonging to such State, then the residue or excess thereof shall be kept as a reserve, under such regulations as may be established by the Secretary of War, and that at stated periods of not greater than three months, details, determined by lot, shall be made from said reserve, so that each company shall, as nearly as practicable, be kept full: Provided, That the persons held in reserve may remain at home until called into service by the President. Provided also, That during their stay at home they shall not receive pay: Provided further, That the persons comprehended in this act shall not be subject to the rules and articles of war, until mustered into the actual service of the Confederate States; except that said persons when enrolled and liable to duty, if they shall wilfully refuse to obey said call, each of them shall be held to be a deserter, and punished as such under said articles: Provided further, That whenever, in the opinion of the President, the exigencies of the public service may require it, he shall be authorized to call into actual service the entire reserve, or so much as may be necessary, not previously assigned to different companies in service under provisions of section four of this act; said reserves shall be organized under such rules as the Secretary of War may adopt: Provided, The company, battalion, and regimental officers shall be elected by the troops composing the same: Prorided, The troops raised in any one State shall not be combined in regimental, battalion, squadron, or company organization with troops raised in any other States. SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That all soldiers now serving in the army or mustered in the military service of the Confederate States, or enrolled in said service under the authorizations heretofore issued by the Secretary of War, and who are continued in the service by virtue of this act, who have not received the bounty of fifty dollars allowed by existing laws, shall be entitled to receive said bounty. SEC. 8. Be it further enacted, That each man who may hereafter be mustered into service, and who shall arm himself with a musket, shotgun, rifle, or carbine, accepted as an efficient weapon, shall be paid the value thereof, to be ascertained by the mustering officer under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War, if he is willing to sell the same; and if he is not, then he shall be entitled to receive one dollar a month for the use of said received and approved musket, rifle, shotgun, or carbine. SEC. 9. Be it further enacted, That persons not liable for duty may be received as substitutes for those who are, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War. SEC. 10. Be it further enacted, That all vacancies shall be filled by the President from the company, battalion, squadron, or regiment in which such vacancies shall occur by promotion according to seniority, except in case of disability or other incompetency: Provided, however, That the President may, when in his opinion it may be proper to fill such vacancy or vacancies by the promotion of any officer or officers, or private or privates, from such company, battalion, squadron, or regiment who shall have been distinguished in the service by exhibition of valor and skill, and that whenever a vacancy shall occur in the lowest grade of the commissioned officers of a company, said vacancy shall be filled by election: Provided, That all appointments made by the President shall be by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. SEC. 11. Be it further enacted, That the provisions of the first section of this act, relating to the election of officers, shall apply to those regiments, battalions, and squadrons which are composed of twelve months and war companies combined in the same organization, without regard to the manner in which the officers thereof were originally appointed. SEC. 12. Be it further enacted, That each company of infantry shall consist of one hundred and twenty-five, rank and file; each company of field artillery, of one hundred and fifty, rank and file; each of cavalry, of eighty, rank and file. SEC. 13. Be it further enacted, That all persons subject to enrollment who are not now in the service, under the provisions of this act, shall be permitted, previous to such enrollment, to volunteer in companies now in the service. Approved April 16, 1862. a It was possible under this law (there being no exemptions whatever) o break up all State governments. April 17, 1862, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue $5,000,000 of treasury notes of $1 and $2 each. The third section of the bill authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue notes in denominations not less than $100 each, bearing interest at the rate of 2 cents per day for each $100, the notes to be in lieu of $165,000,000 of bonds authorized by the act of April the 12th, five days previous; the notes to be payable six months after ratification of peace between the Confederate States and the United States.' April 19, 1862, a Signal Corps was authorized to be composed of 10 captains and 10 sergeants. The corps thus constituted was to be organized at a separate call or be attached to the Department of the Adjutant and Inspector General or to the Engineer Corps, as the Secretary of War might direct. The same date, April 19, 1862, another law authorized one ordnance sergeant to each regiment in the service.d The third act limited the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, in all cases of arrests made by the authorities of the Confederate Government, or for offenses against the same, the suspension of the writ to continue for thirty days after the next meeting of Congress. A fourth act authorized the Confederate President to appoint— drillmasters for camps of instruction or reserve forces in any arm of the military forces, with such pay as the Secretary of War might prescribe. A fifth act fixed the pay of chaplains at $80 per month, besides the rations already allowed. April 21, 1862, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to exchange bonds or stock of the Confederate States for any articles in kind needed for the use of the Confederate States; the articles to be valued according to regulations established by the Secretary. The provisions in kind embrace cotton, tobacco, and other agricultural products; the amount of cotton and tobacco to be received not to exceed the value of thirty-five millions of dollars." A second act, of April 21, 1862, to punish drunkenness in the army," prescribed that any officer convicted of being "found drunk, either while on or off duty" should be cashiered, suspended, or publicly reprimanded, according to the aggravation of his offense. If cashiered, the law further prescribed that in addition to the sentence the officer should be declared incapable of holding any military office under the Confederate States during the war."i a Constitution and Statutes of the Confederate States of America, First Congress, 1st session, Chap. XXXI, pp. 29–32. b Ibid., Chap. XXXV. Ibid., Chap. XL. d Ibid., Chap. LXIII. e Ibid., Chap. LXIV. f Ibid., Chap. LXVI. 9 Ibid., Chap. LVI. Ibid., Chap. LXI. A third act authorized the Confederate President to commission officers to raise bands of Partisan Rangers to be organized in companies, battalions, or regiments of infantry or cavalry. The third section prescribes that for any "arms and munitions of war captured from the enemy" by the Rangers they should be paid the full value in such manner as the Secretary of War might prescribe." The fourth act looked to increasing the effective strength of each company. It authorized each captain to enlist in his company four cooks, white or black, free or slave; the chief cook to receive $20, the other cooks $15 per month, with a clothing allowance the same as the rank and file of a company. Slaves could only be enlisted with the written consent of their masters." A fifth act authorized the appointment of additional captains in the corps of engineers, the whole corps not to exceed one hundred." A sixth act for the purpose of enlarging the number of officers of artillery and enabling them to discharge more effectively the duties of ordnance officers, authorized the appointment in the Provisional Army of not to exceed 80 captains and first lieutenants." A seventh act authorized the Secretary of War to organize a battalion of sharpshooters for each brigade, to consist of not less than three nor more than six companies each, the men to be selected from the brigade or otherwise; the officers, field, staff, and company to be commissioned by the Confederate President. Each battalion was to form a part of the brigade to which it belonged, the men to be armed with long-range rifles or muskets, taken, if necessary, from the other troops." An eighth act authorized the Confederate President to accept the service of any companies, squadrons, battalions, or regiments in serv ice under the authority of any of the States of the Confederacy which might be tendered by the governors. EXEMPTIONS FROM CONSCRIPTION. Another act related to exemptions under the law of conscription. It prescribed: That all persons who shall be held to be unfit for military services under rules to be prescribed by the Secretary of War; all in the service or employ of the Confederate States; all judicial and executive officers of Confederate or State governments; the members of both Houses of the Congress and of the legislatures of the several States and their respective officers; all clerks of the officers of the State and Confederate Government allowed by law; all engaged in carrying the mail; all ferrymen on post routes; all pilots and persons engaged in the marine service and in actual service on river and railroad routes of transportation; telegraphic operators and ministers of religion in the regular discharge of ministerial duties; all engaged in working iron mines, furnaces, and foundries; all journeymen printers actually employed in printing newspapers; all presidents and professors of colleges and academies, and all teachers having as many as twenty scholars; superintendents of the public hospitals, lunatic asylums, and the regular nurses and attendants therein, and the teachers employed in the institution for the deaf and dumb and blind; in each apothecary store now established and doing business one apothecary in good a Constitution and Statutes congress, Chap. LXIII. Ibid., Chap. LXIV. of the Confederate States of America, 1st session, 1st Ibid., Chap. LXXII. standing who is a practical druggist; superintendents and operatives in wool and cotton factories, who may be exempted by the Secretary of War, shall be, and are hereby, exempted from military service in the armies of the Confederate States." PROMOTION OF OFFICERS. The last act of April 21, 1862, recognized promotion by company, battalion, or regiment, as also the principle of election to the lowest grade, which, however, was modified, if not neutralized, by an important proviso. The act was as follows: All vacancies shall be filled by the President from the company, battalion, squadron, or regiment in which such vacancies shall occur by promotion, according to seniority, except in case of disability or other incompetency, and that whenever a vacancy shall occur in the lowest grade of commissioned officers of a company, such vacancies shall be filled by election: Provided, however, That the President may, when in his opinion it is proper, fill any vacancy by the promotion of any officer from any company, battalion, squadron, or regiment in which the same may occur who shall have been distinguished in service by the exhibition of extraordinary valor and skill; and that when any vacancies shall occur in the lowest grade of commissioned officers of any company, the same may be filled by selection by the President of any noncommissioned officer or private from the company in which said vacancy may occur who shall have been distinguished in the service by the exhibition of extraordinary valor and skill; and that appointments made by the President shall be by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. It will be seen by the foregoing acts that the first Confederate Congress in its first session distinctly affirmed its right to place the appointment of every officer in the military service in the hands of the Confederate President, "subject in all cases to the advice and consent of the Senate." In no instance did it confuse the volunteers with the militia. On the contrary, having adopted the principle of conscription, it recognized the volunteers as national rather than State troops, and in the further exercise of its right to raise and support armies, did not hesitate to confer upon the Confederate Government, the sole authority to organize and officer them, in such manner as would best conduce to the interests of the service. SECOND SESSION, FIRST CONFEDERATE CONGRESS. The second session of the First Confederate Congress began at Richmond August 18, 1862, and ended October 13, 1862. The first law of the second session of the First Congress, approved September 16, 1862, related to the artillery. In addition to the 70 officers authorized by the law of April 21, it authorized the Confederate President to appoint seventy officers of artillery in the Provisional Army for the performance of ordnance duties. The rank of all officers appointed to perform ordnance duty, was fixed at one lieutenant-colonel for every command exceeding an army corps; one major for each army corps; the other officers to have the grade of captain, first and second lieutenants in such proportions as the Confederate President might direct. September 18, army corps were created, with commanders having the grade of lieutenant-general." a Constitution and Statutes of the Confederate States of America, 1st session First Congress, Chap. LXXIV, p. 57. Ibid., Chap. LXXV. Chap. II. d Chap. III. |