Also like the national Congress under the Articles, the
Confederate government had serious financial troubles throughout
the war because few states paid their fair share. The central government even
had trouble keeping the Confederacy together during the war: in 1861,
Unionists in western regions of Virginia seceded from the Confederacy
and then rejoined the Union as the new state of West Virginia two
years later.
The Conscription Act
The Richmond government did manage to pass the Conscription
Act of 1862 to
draft young men in all the Confederate states into the national
army. As Richmond got more desperate for troops, the draft was extended
to middle-aged men as well. The law, like the North’s law, was biased
against poorer Southerners in favor of the elite. Wealthy planters
and landowners were exempt from the draft, as were overseers and
anyone else whose job was vital to maintaining control over the
slaves. As a result, the army was filled with farmers and landless
whites, many of them disgruntled. Blacks were excluded from military
service.
Confederate Diplomacy
One of the Confederacy’s most pressing goals during the
war was to secure international recognition from Europe and
enter a military alliance with Britain. International
recognition would legitimize the Confederacy and justify its cause.
An alliance with Britain would break the Union blockade of Southern
ports and supply the Confederacy with arms and badly needed manufactured
goods.
British Assistance
At the war’s outset, Confederate policymakers banked on
recognition and an alliance because they believed Britain was very
dependent on Southern cotton. Planters in the Confederacy
provided 75 percent
of the cotton that British textile manufacturers consumed.
Indeed, Britain allowed Southern ships to use its ports
and even built Confederate warships, such as the Alabama,
which sank more than sixty Union ships on the high seas. British
shipbuilders also agreed to build two ironclad warships with Laird
rams, which the Confederates could use to pierce the hulls
of enemy ships.
British Detachment
Unfortunately for the South, however, Davis was never
able to parlay this British assistance into a formal recognition
or alliance. First, the Confederate government had overestimated
Britain’s cotton dependence. Although most of Britain’s cotton came
from the South, it became clear that British textile manufacturers
had bought from the South only because it was cheaper. As a result,
though the Union blockade of Southern ports temporarily
hurt the British textile industry, the industry bounced back quickly
after switching to cotton suppliers from Egypt and India.
