2 - Call To Duty: The Common Soldier - 1861

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War · Apr 9, 2018 · 39m

About this episode:

Perhaps, the last time Americans volunteered en masse was in the days and weeks immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet, as my father and many of his generation found, many more men were needed to wage a two-front war and, so, there was conscription. In the American Civil War, conscription was, also, eventually, resorted to - first by the Confederacy in April of 1862 and, eleven months later, by the Federal Government. Yet, the overwhelming majority of those who fought in both Northern and Southern armies were there because they chose to be. Indeed…