Doc. 20.-the rebel conscription act.1
An act to amend an act, entitled, “An act to provide further for the public defence.”The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be and he is hereby authorized to call out and place in the military service of the confederate States, for three years, unless the war shall have been sooner ended, all white men who are residents of the confederate States, between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five years, at the time the call or calls may be made, and who are not at such time or times legally exempted from military service; or such parts thereof as in his judgment, may be necessary to the public defence, such call or calls to be made under the provisions and according to the terms of the act to which this is an amendment; and such authority shall exist in the President, during the present war, as to all persons who now are, or may hereafter become, eighteen years of age; and, when once enrolled, all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years shall serve their fill time; provided, that if the President, in calling out troops into the service of the confederate States, shall first call for only a part of the persons, between the ages hereinbefore stated, he shall call for those between the age of thirty-five, and any other age less than forty-five; provided that nothing herein contained shall be understood as repealing or modifying any part of the act to which this is emendatory, except as herein expressly stated; and provided further, that those called out under this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, shall be first and immediately ordered to fill to their maximum number the companies, battalions, squadrons and regiments from [114] the respective States at the time the act to further provide for the public defence, approved sixteenth April, 1862, was passed; and the surplus, if any, shall be assigned to organizations formed from each State since the passage of that act, or placed in new organizations, to be officered by the State having such residue, according to the laws thereof, or disposed of as now provided by law; provided that the President is authorized to suspend the execution of this, or the act to which this is an amendment, in any locality where he may find it impracticable to execute the same; and that in such localities, and during such suspension, the President is authorized to receive troops into the confederate service under any of the acts passed by the confederate Congress prior to the passage of the act to further provide for the public defence. Approved sixteenth April, 1862.
