01/06/2015: I made a big mistake. The articles from the Dispatch I reprinted below were actually from the January 5, 1864 issue. I’m a year late with this news. I’m sorry.
“It will be difficult to get the world to understand
the odds against which we fought.”
—General Robert E. Lee[1]
150 years ago in the South: it was decided that a soldier elected as a Justice of the Peace was exempt and could be discharged from the service; relatively well off men were offering Government contractors lots of slave laborers if the contractors would also hire the slave owners and get them an exemption from military service; speculators were trying to flee the country to avoid the army. Apparently shoes were in short supply for those men actually serving in the Confederate military – some soldiers should be detailed as shoemakers
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch January 5, 1865 [really 1864]:
Local Matters.
Important Decision.
–We alluded some weeks since to the application of William T. Brooking for a discharge from the service on a writ of habeas corpus.
The petitioner volunteered in 1861, and served regularly in the army, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, in July, 1863.–While in the service he was elected as a Justice of the Peace in the county of Orange, and regularly qualified as such. On this qualification he applied for a discharge from the service. This was refused him. He then applied for a writ of habeas corpusbefore Judge Meredith, of this city. It was agreed by the counsel of Brooking, (John H. Gilmer, Esq.,) and the counsel for the Confederate States Government,(Messrs. T. Neeson and T. P. August,) that the merits of the case should be considered and decided on an argument for the application. The argument on the application was then heard fully on all the legal points, and the learned Judge awarded the writ, and yesterday, in Court, discharged Brooking from the service.
We understand the argument on the application was very full and earnest on both sides. The case turned on the judicial construction of the conscript act of 1862, March 16,as to exemptions, and the act of the Virginia Legislature passed in October, 1862,which expressly exempted Justices of the Peace from military service. …
A New dodge.
–The passage of the law against substitutes has created an excitement in the country that no one expected. Not only are able-bodied young men making herculean efforts to get into governmental departments to escape the army, but scores and hundreds of them are writing to Government contractors in Richmond, offering to furnish them with negro labor in abundance if the contractors will only accept the services of the young masters and get them exempted as essential to their business operations. As the contractors have to make oath to the essentiality of their exempts, these nice young patriots will not be able to slip the military cable by that dodge; but it is not improbable that other and more successful means will be resorted to, to escape contact with Yankee balls.
Clear the Track.
–Scores of speculators, who have substitute papers, are preparing to run the blockade rather than shoulder their muskets to aid in defending the wealth they have already accumulated out of the misfortunes of their country. Let them go if they will, but let Congress and the State Legislatures pass stringent laws to take possession of such of their effects as may be left behind and confiscate it to the good of the cause.–That they have left their families here should be no pleas against the law, for they are mere consumers, and should be sent off to join their patriotic protectors. …
Shoes for the army.
–The great difficulty in procuring shoes for the army may be partially obviated by detailing shoemakers in service, and establishing manufactories in each brigade. One or two wagons, arranged for the purpose, would furnish comfortable shop room for the workmen, and at the same time have them convenient for making, patching and repairing the shoes of the soldiers as they are needed. …
- [1]quoted at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34334/34334-h/34334-h.htm↩
