View single post by DanWalker
 Posted: Tue Nov 17th, 2009 01:45 am
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DanWalker
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Mana: 
 Did you know that slave owners -- those who owned over 20 slaves -- were exempt from the draft?   

According to a  J.B. Jones, a clerk who kept a diary in Richmond,  exempting slave owners from the draft doomed the south by creating massive discontent in the troops, who as time went on, were made up more and more of those "without property" meaning, no slaves.    IT became more and more a war fought by the poor, to enrich the rich even more.

The diarist made a distinction between those who fought in 62 - they were property men.   But by 64,  the soldiers were entirely diffent.  They deserted en masse -- a problem far more servere than most people seem to realize.