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A quarter of military age men died. Think about that stat for a minute before you start spouting about the lack of popular support.

A tribute to the misplaced devotion of the confederate hardcore. But if the whole south rallied to Dixie's call, why did the rebs have to resort to an extremely heavy-handed conscription system? Mighty strange action by the champions of individual liberty. Eventually, most people in the south determined that the establishment of the slaveowners' empire wasn't worth the price of Sherman's tour of GA and SC.

why did the DAMNyankees have to resort to the DRAFT, too??

could it be because:

a. SMART northern boys didn't want to suffer, bleed & die for lincoln's EGOmania & lust for POWER & MONEY???

b. further, that they thought the war was UNJUST & needLESS??? and/or, perhaps,

c. they thought that a union that had to be "preserved" by force of arms was NOT worth "preserving"???

UNfortunately the "draft riots" happened where SEVERAL HUNDRED unarmed, INNOCENT, uninvolved, Black men,women & children were HANGED, rather than the TYRANT & "his merry band of thugs, profiteers & thugs"!!!

according to a FIRST PERSON account in the New York Post,published the next day after the FIRST day of the Draft Riots, "the bodies of coloured men decorated every lamppost for MILES." (the number "lynched" MAY have been as many as 2-3 THOUSAND hanged,burned and/or beaten to death!!!)

NONE of the victims deserved hanging/burning/shooting/beating. lincoln & his henchmen DID deserve that treatment!!!

free dixie,sw

Eventually, most people in the south determined that the establishment of the slaveowners' empire wasn't worth the price of Sherman's tour of GA and SC.

I'm not sure price had anything to do with it. The war effort simply became unsustainable, and unrestrained actions of Sherman burning and looting his way through the civilian South short-circuited any attempt to maintain it either logistically or politically.

As for the draft, neither side had problems with recruitment early in the war, when both sides thought a quick fight would preceed a lasting peace. Once the war turned bitter, both parties resorted to conscription, and I have not read of anything in the South that approximated the resistance in the North.

And of course, one final note requesting a quote from Lee or Johnston, or any of the Confederate military leadership concerning the establishment of a slave empire would be nice, since it's the crumbling rock on which you're building an argument.