h as ministers, editors, physicians,
were in the main exempted; one overseer was exempted on each plantation
where there were fifteen slaves, provided he gave bond to sell to the
Government at official prices each year one hundred pounds of either
beef or bacon for each slave employed and provided he would sell all his
surplus produce either to the Government or to the families of soldiers.
Certain civil servants of the Confederacy were also exempted as well as
those whom the governors of States should "certify to be necessary for
the proper administration of the State Government." The President
was authorized to detail for nonmilitary service any members of
the Confederate forces "when in his judgment, justice, equity, and
necessity, require such details."

This statute retained two features that had already given rise to much
friction, and that were destined to be the cause of much more. It was
still within the power of state governors to impede conscription
very seriously. By certifying that a man was necessary to the civil
administration of a State, a Governor could place him beyond the legal
reach of the conscripting officers. This provision was a concession to
those who looked on Davis's request for authority over exemption as the
first step toward absolutism. On the other hand the statute allowed
the President a free hand in the scarcely less important matter of
"details." Among the imperative problems of the Confederacy, where the
whole male population was needed in the public service, was the most
economical separation of the two groups, the fighters and the producers.
On the one hand there was the constant demand for recruits to fill up
the wasted armies; on the other, the need for workers to keep the shops
going and to secure the harvest. The two interests were never fully
coordinated. Under the act of 1864, no farmer, mechanic, tradesman,
between the ages of seventeen and fifty, if fit for military service,
could remain at his work except as a "detail" under orders of the
President: he might be called to the colors at a moment's notice. We
shall see, presently, how the revoking of details, toward the end
of what may truly be called the terrible year, was one of the major
incidents of Confederate history.

Together with the new conscription act, the President approved on
February 17, 1864, a reenactment of the tax in kind, with some slight
concessions to the convenience of the farmers. The President's appeal