Confederate States Congress
The United States and Confederate States are now preparing for a long, drawn out war. Both are rapidly recruiting soldiers, seeking to gain a numerical advantage for the battles that lie ahead.
In the South, the Confederate Conscription Act (military draft) is increasingly enforced, including the closing of some loopholes. Able-bodied white men, limited in number, are a premium. The Confederate States Congress is in session in the national capital of Richmond, and the issue of Conscription is an overriding concern.Today, the Congress hears yet another plea for exemption from the Conscription Act.
Mr. Sparrow, of Louisiana, presented a memorial from the Faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, asking exemption for students, of whom there would not be over a hundred. Referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
This amounts to a last ditch effort to continue seminary operations (in Greenville, South Carolina) for the coming school year. The seminary is already shuttered, having done so in May in the face of financial constraints and most students having left to serve in the Confederate Army. Some hope to yet reverse course, but the plea before the Confederate Congress is to no avail. Exemptions are not granted, and the school remains closed throughout the remainder of the war.
Source: “Confederate States Congress, Monday, August 25, 1862,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, August 26, 1862 (link); image of Confederate Congress (link)
