23. Johnny Reb was more likely to be a draftee early in the war
The first official government conscription of troops occurred in the Confederacy in April 1862. By then it was clear to the Confederate government that there was an insufficient level of volunteers available to defend the fledgling nation and allow it to survive. The Confederate draft later exempted men who owned twenty or more slaves, and wealthy slave owners divided their slaves among sons and other relatives and friends, protecting them from the draft. The burden of conscription thus fell overwhelmingly on the less wealthy, and the draft was thoroughly resented among the poor, particularly in the Appalachian regions of the South.
