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COMMUNICATIONS To the Editor of Civil War History: In the June, 1966, issue of Civil War History I noticed a review by Eugene C. Murdock of a book by Memory F. Mitchell, entided Legal Aspects of ^??a?µ??? and Exemption in North Carolina, 1861-1865 (University of North Carolina Press, 1965). I inspected a copy because I was startled by the reviewer's comment that "while no fresh interpretations are to be found in this book, there is an awesome recital of judicial opinions showing beyond doubt that North Carolina proved a major obstacle to a successful prosecution of the Confederate war effort." Although the purport is obscure and the reviewer says "the style is not as lucid or crisp as it might be" and "some of the technical language and procedure should have been simplified," the text appears to deal more with the seamy than the happy side of the state's conduct during the Civil War and draws from the reviewer another observation to the effect that the North Carolina Supreme Court "helped break up the Confederate army." The charge that North Carolina was a major obstacle to Confederate success is a grotesque slander, whether it comes from the author, the reviewer, or both. Though I have had no reason to extol the state's war effort except in a search for truth and a desire to refute a calumny that has long persisted in superficial Civil War literature, I am satisfied that far from being "a major obstacle to a successful prosecution of the Confederate war effort," North Carolina did in fact contribute as much and perhaps more to the southern cause than any other state. The exemption figures often used to indicate that Governor Zeb Vance kept too many men out of the army are notoriously unreliable and must be viewed also with the knowledge that this dynamic man operated or fostered those numerous industrial and commercial activities that were the heartbeat of the Confederate war effort. He required personnel for essential work in textiles, steel, heavy ordnance, naval construction, salt production, blockade running and a host of enterprises not undertaken with like vigor in most other states. North Carolina even then supplied more conscripts to the Confederacy than did any sister commonwealth. The recognized number was 21,348, which was one-fourth the total of all Confederate conscripts. Vance placed the conscripts at 18,585, still far ahead of any other state. In any appraisal of North Carolina's efforts the broad picture should be inspected and not merely a few court decisions by Chief Justice Ricb387 388civil war history mond P. Pearson. The truth is, they were usually meaty, well-reasoned decisions. They had about as much to do with breaking up the Confederate army its Bumside or Pope. Why would not a governor protest or judge demur after conscription agents would invade the state, seize elderly citizens above the conscription age, one upwards of sixty, chain them like galley slaves, and drive them afoot the 120 miles to Atlanta? In this and other instances Vance cried in vain to President Davis for redress. The state, according to Vance's calculation, supplied a larger per cent of available manpower, volunteers and conscripts, than any other state. How can one find a "major obstacle" to Confederate success in that? North Carolina was bled white of her young manhood, then sent her boys, "the seed com," into one of Hobert Hoke's brigades, every member of which was under eighteen years of age. Considering that the state, according to a new roster count, put about 185,000 into the ranks, the exemption figures commonly cited seem small indeed. The number of exemptions of state officers usually attributed to Vance was 14,675—a figure reduced later to 5,589. This book uses a larger figure of 25,000 for the governor's exemptions. The state had an estimated 60,000 employees and it is not surprising that 14,675 essential workers, or even 25,000, would fall in the conscription age group of eighteen to forty-five and then fifty years. Anyone should recognize that some types of skilled work were more essential than front-line combat...

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