AboutTom Schott Expertise Civil War, Reconstruction, military and political, Southern politics, slavery, civil war causation, general American history. Prefer 18th/19th century, but can handle all.
Experience Ph.D. in American history. College level teacher. Published author.
Question In doing some family history research, I've come upon a puzzling question concerning my great-great grandfather, a resident of Quitman Co., Georgia, who enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private late in the war, on June 15, 1864. My question is what would explain his failure to enlist earlier.
When the war broke out in April 1861, he was 36 years old, one year older than the top age at the time for mandatory enlistment. In 1862 the Confederate conscription law was changed to raise the top age to 45, but he did not enlist even though he was 37 at the time and thus clearly subject to the law. In fact, his enlistment followed by several months a subsequent Confederate law in 1864 raising the top age further to 50.
I do not believe he was a coward or otherwise disloyal, since, if he had been, he undoubtedly would have been scorned by his neighbors. But this did not happen. To the contrary, he seems to have been highly regarded. After the war, he was elected repeatedly to public office, first as sheriff, then as tax receiver and then as clerk of court.
I have come across no explanation as to why this man didn't enlist in accordance with the requirements of the conscription law after it was amended in 1862. He did have ten children, some very young, and a large cotton plantation to manage, but I don't know whether the law created an exception for such circumstances. I somehow doubt it.
Any help you can provide on this would be much appreciated.
Answer Joe,
I can give you an educated guess, and I think it's as likely an explanation as any. Contrary to your expectation, as a plantation owner/manager he would have been exempted from conscription under any of the three Confederate conscription statutes. These kind of exemptions were what gave rise to the description of the war by less fortunate men as "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." At the time your ancestor enlisted, Sherman's army had invaded Georgia and was soon to invest Atlanta. It would not have been an uncommon impulse for a native Georgian not yet under arms to enlist. You don't say whether this enlistment was into the regular Confederate army or into the Georgia state forces. Any number of reasons, including family obligations, age, health, or something else could explain his not enlisting before 1864.
