steners noted two sentences which formed an
admission that the situation was grave: "A million men, it is estimated,
are now standing in hostile array and waging war along a frontier
of thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been
conducted, and although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the
moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful."

Behind these carefully guarded words lay serious alarm, not only with
regard to the operations at the front but as to the composition of
the army. It had been raised under various laws and its portions were
subject to conflicting classifications; it was partly a group of state
armies, partly a single Confederate army. None of its members had
enlisted for long terms. Many enlistments would expire early in 1862.
The fears of the Confederate Administration with regard to this matter,
together with its alarm about the events at the front, were expressed by
Davis in a frank message to the Southern Congress, three days later. "I
have hoped," said he, "for several days to receive official reports
in relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke Island and the fall of Fort
Donelson. They have not yet reached Me.... The hope is still
entertained that our reported losses at Fort Donelson have been greatly
exaggerated...." He went on to condemn the policy of enlistments for
short terms, "against which," said he, "I have steadily contended"; and
he enlarged upon the danger that even patriotic men, who intended to
reenlist, might go home to put their affairs in order and that thus, at
a critical moment, the army might be seriously reduced. The accompanying
report of the Confederate Secretary of War showed a total in the army of
340,250 men. This was an inadequate force with which to meet the great
hosts which were being organized against it in the North. To permit the
slightest reduction of the army at that moment seemed to the Southern
President suicidal.

But Davis waited some time longer before proposing to the Confederate
Congress the adoption of conscription. Meanwhile, the details of
two great reverses, the loss of Roanoke Island and the loss of Fort
Donelson, became generally known. Apprehension gathered strength.
Newspapers began to discuss conscription as something inevitable.
At last, on March 28, 1862, Davis sent a message to the Confederate
Congress advising the conscription of all white males between the ages
of eighteen and thirty-five. For