The Dispute over Slavery, Secession, and the Civil War 149Conscription Act on March 3 , by which all men between the ages of
twenty and forty-fi ve were subject to a draft. However, it exempted
those who paid a commutation fee of $ 300 or hired a substitute to en-
list for three years. Opposition to this law exploded in the draft riots in
New York City in mid-July 1863 , violence that actually masked a race
riot.
The Confederates also resorted to a draft. On April 16 , 1862 , they
passed a Conscription Act that applied to all white men between the
ages of twenty and thirty-five. Certain occupations were exempted,
and substitutes were permitted. But the manpower problem in the
South became more acute as the war continued year after year.
Although Confederate forces won a stunning victory over a Union
army that was twice their size at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May
1863 , the war began to shift toward an ultimate Union victory. At
Chancellorsville, Lee lost over 10 , 000 troops killed and wounded. This
loss, which he could ill afford, included “Stonewall” Jackson, who was
shot by his own men on May 2.
General Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg, Mississippi, in July,
thereby slicing the Confederacy in two and bringing the entire Missis-
sippi River region under Union control. Lee’s second attempt at invad-
ing the North was turned back at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by
numerically superior Union troops under the command of Major Gen-
eral George G. Meade. However, Meade allowed Lee to escape into
Virginia without attacking him. Some 50 , 000 men were killed or
wounded at Gettysburg, and on November 17 , 1863 , the cemetery at the
battlefield was dedicated, in a ceremony in which the main speaker was
Edward Everett. But it was the brief comments by Abraham Lincoln
that are still remembered. We cannot dedicate or consecrate or hallow
this ground, he said. The brave men, living and dead, did that far bet-
ter than we can ever attempt. Rather it is for us to be “dedicated to the
great task remaining before us,” that we here resolve that “these dead
shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a
new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
A new birth of freedom! That is precisely what the war produced,
and Lincoln found the noble language to convey that miraculous vi-
sion.