978-1-933251-25-7
1-933251-25-5
$24.95 paperback
6 x 9
272 pages
Parkway Publishers |
America
’s first nationwide compulsory military service law was enacted by the
Confederacy in 1862. Compulsory military service, known as
conscription, quickly became the most hated law in North Carolina and the
rest of the South. They Went into the Fight Cheering! explores the
issue of conscription and describes its day-to-day operation, the people
who were charged with its enforcement, the impact of conscription on
civilians, and how conscription affected the course of the war.
They Went into the Fight Cheering! skillfully intertwines the lives
and letters of North Carolinians with the Confederacy’s progressively
desperate measures intended to sustain its armies. Conscription generated
intense political and social conflict throughout the South. Confederate
leaders such as Robert E. Lee, Zebulon Baird Vance, and Braxton Bragg were
drawn into the controversy, often on opposite sides. They Went Into the
Fight Cheering! fills a void in North Carolina and Confederate history
with well documented, yet sympathetic, treatment of men and women who were
caught up in the great American tragedy.
about the author
Walter Hilderman III is a retired policeman who is an avid Civil War
re-enactor. He has been very active in the Sons of Confederate Veterans,
but opposes the current national organization’s attempts to politicize
the group. He lives in Eutaw Springs, SC, but has deep roots in North
Carolina. |
