Conscription

The Confederacy passed the first conscription law of the Civil War in April 1862, requiring all physically fit males between the ages of 18 and 35 to serve three years of active duty unless they had a job that was crucial to the war effort. This law was not one that was taken lightly from the start.

For example, the same Captain James Duff started enforcing conscription in Hill Country after he oversaw the murders of all those German immigrants at Nueces. His tactics would involve torching houses and beheading 20 draft resisters. In reality, the immigrants' initial attempt to flee Texas was greatly influenced by the harsh enforcement of the draft.

Two of the conscription act's provisions in particular gave rise to animosity. Secondly, there was the $300 replacement cost for a substitute that could be recruited. Second, owners of 20 or more slaves were excluded from the draft (although this was later amended, being lowered to 15 slaves).

This gave rise to the adage that "it was a wealthy man's war and a poor man's struggle" at the time. At demonstrations like Newton Knight's historic anti-Confederacy revolt in Jones County, Mississippi, more individuals lost their lives. Although class had a significant role in the Civil War, race played a significant one as well.