Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/156

The Unpopular History of the United States to "raise and support armies." By act of April 16, 1862, the Confederate States totally abandoned the principle of voluntary enlistment, authorizing President Davis to call out and place in the military service all white men between the ages of 18 and 35. The draft had already been adopted by the State of Virginia in February, 1862, with the effect of immediately adding nearly 30,000 men to the Virginia contingent. Conscripts were fitted into old organizations, and three months' drilling made them effective.

This Confederate Act of 1862, was, apparently, the first declaration on this continent of equal and universal military service. One year later the Federal Congress was forced into the same policy by declaring every man between 18 and 35 to be a soldier. Every well-informed American knows the result of this legislation. North and South. It filled the army, and kept men continuously in the field, until long service and habits of steady obedience transformed raw and rabbit-legged recruits into veterans, as capable and efficient [138]