"Now as we know there were some Confederate Governors, who bucked against the Conscription act, and who refused to send their men out of state."
Doyle,
That is what I am saying for the most part. There were times in terms of strategy and tactics that the central goverment needed the state troops kind of like we are doing today. At its inception, there was a lot of excitment by the people of those states to be involved in the resistance. As time went by, I would say starting about the first of 1862, give or take some time, the southern army started having problems with what some might call desertions, what I would call deciding ones priorities based on ones heart. I mean by that, some of the men in the army started leaving the army (going AWOl) to return home to provide for their families. I think they were thinking just as we would, God, Family, Country. In that order. I would guess that most of the soldiers were small farmers at that time and they left the small farm with the wife in charge and she was struggling. Or perhaps he had a job in the town or city and there his wife was trying to provide for herself and their children and struggling so he did what most of us would do, he went home to provide as best he could. As time wentbythere were more and more being forced by circumstanse to do the same thing. To start with,the army was not over populated and this just put more pressure on the army. I would think that is why they had to start the draft. There was no need to have a draft in the spring of 1861, but as time went by it became more and more important to survival of the army and the existance of the Confederate States. I know that they had problems with basic essential suppies through out the conflit, but in my mind, one of the big problems was the staffing of line troops. And as time went by, it became more and more critical.
I don't want to make this to long, but for instance, General Lee just before Appomatix. Grant kept moving to the side while leaving troops in place where he had been. As Lee countered his move, he had to stretch his troops out. The more Grant moved the more troops he brought in from his reserves while Lee had no troops in reserve. It go so bad that by the time Grant had moved about 270 degrees of a 360 degree encirlement, poor Lee had no more men. If you look at that action, you will notice that General Lee finally approached Grant about terms near Appomatix Courthous. He had no more troops to stretch out and he knew it and if he did not stop he would not be able to resist any more. In my opinion. If you recall, Lee wrote Davis that unless he had troops he could only hold for so long. Lack of reserves.
FC