a.
The reopening of enlistment came on the top of the huge disappointment at
McClellan's failure in the peninsula. There was a creditable response to
the call which was then made for volunteers. But the disappointment of
the war continued throughout 1862; the second Bull Run; the inconclusive
sequel to Antietam; Fredericksburg; and, side by side with these events,
the long-drawn failure of Buell's and Rosecrans' operations. The spirit
of voluntary service seems to have revived vigorously enough wherever and
whenever the danger of Southern invasion became pressing, but under this
protracted depressing influence it no longer rose to the task of subduing
the South. It must be added that wages in civil employment were very
high. Lincoln, it is evident, felt this apparent failure of patriotism
sadly, but in calm retrospect it cannot seem surprising.

In the latter part of 1862 attempts were made to use the powers of
compulsion which the several States possessed, under the antiquated laws
as to militia which existed in all of them, in order to supplement
recruiting. The number of men raised for short periods in this way is so
small that the description of the Northern armies at this time as purely
volunteer armies hardly needs qualification. It would probably be worth
no one's while to investigate the makeshift system with which the
Government, very properly, then tried to help itself out; for it speedily
and completely failed. The Conscription Act, which became law on March
3, 1863, set up for the first time an organisation for recruiting which
covered the whole country but was under the complete control of the
Federal Government. It was placed under an officer of great ability,
General J. B. Fry, formerly chief of staff to Buell, and now entitled
Provost-Marshal-General. It was his business, through provost-marshals
in a number of districts, each divisible into sub-districts as
convenience might require, to enroll all male citizens between twenty and
forty-five. He was to assign a quota, in other words a stated proportion
of the number of troops for which the Government might at any time call,
to each district, having regard to the number of previous enlistments
from each district. The management of voluntary enlistment was placed in
his hands, in order that the two methods of recruiting might be worked in
harmony. The system as a whole was quite distinct from any such system
of universal service as might have b