![]() In 1864, Jefferson Davis publicly admitted that two-thirds of the army was absent.ĮL: From a military standpoint, the impact of opposition to the war on the Confederate Army seems immense. By 1863, half the Confederate Army has deserted. The natural effect was that people who didn’t own many slaves, and particularly for the 75 percent of whites that didn’t own any slaves, tried to avoid service. One element of this conscription act was that men who owned 20 or more slaves would be exempt. You found that in the North as well but much more in the South.įrom early in the war desertion was so rampant that by the first winter of the war the Confederates are scratching their heads thinking, “how are we going to get men into the army?” By spring 1862 they decided to force men into the army, and they instituted the first national draft in US history. ![]() But what the war brought to a head particularly in the South was that the war was “a rich man’s war” that wasn’t worth fighting. That’s not to say racism wasn’t prevalent in the South, as well as the North. A lot of other people did, and this issue hasn’t received much attention. Professor David Williams: Newton Knight was not the only one who opposed the Confederate government during the Civil War. This is something you have dedicated considerable attention to in your professional life. ![]() Van Newkirk of The Atlantic called the film Free State of Jones “quasi-historical” because it portrayed the class struggle during the American Civil War. First, thank you for sitting down with us for this interview. Last month, the WSWS reviewed his 2008 book Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War. ![]() ![]() The World Socialist Web Site recently interviewed Professor David Williams, a historian of the American Civil War who currently teaches at Valdosta State University in Georgia. ![]()
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