This article is the first installment of a multi-part series on the Civil War in Alabama.

As we proceed through the 150^th anniversary of the tragedy that was the American Civil War, historians have the opportunity to look back, in detail, at the yearly events that marked the war that changed the United States forever. What began in 1861, as a desperate battle for independence from what Southerners perceived as impending Northern domination, had begun to crumble by 1863, as a result of desertion of war-weary veterans from the army and a lack of support from the private sector. The people of the Confederacy simply had nothing left to give. Their resources were depleted to the point that every morsel of food meant life or death to the family at home. This was true in Alabama as it was elsewhere in the South. At the onset of the Civil War, young Alabamians were more than willing to answer the call of the Alabama governor when he asked for volunteers to fill 60 companies for 12-month terms. They gladly volunteered to protect their homes and property from what they believed was an imminent danger from the North. This sentiment was echoed in the columns of many Southern newspapers, both large and small, in circulation.

In the early stages of the war were emotional calls by state and federal officials backed by fiery newspaper editorials and managed to fill the ranks of the Confederate forces quickly. The exact number of Confederate soldiers in Alabama is hard to determine, definitively, although thousands answered the call. In many cases the original records of enlistments were lost or destroyed, and duplicates were never completed. There is information available through Confederate pensions, but that number most likely would not reflect an accurate enlistment record. There were on the roles regiments numbered one to 65, but the 52^nd and the 64^th were never organized. There were numerous cavalry units as well as a battalion of artillery transferred to the regular service, and 18 batteries attached to other units.

In Alabama, as in other Southern states, local pride had placed the number of troops furnished at a very high figure. Colonel W.H. Fowler, who was Superintendent of Army Records and worked mainly in the Army of Northern Virginia, estimated the total number of men from Alabama at about 120,000. Other state governmental officials placed the number as low as 60,000 and as high as 122,000. In the spring of 1862, the Confederate Congress passed the Enrollment Act, by which all white men between the ages of 18 and 35 were made liable to military service at the call of the President, and those already in service were retained. In the fall of 1862, the enrollment law was extended to include all white men from 35 to 45 years of age and all who lacked a few months being eighteen years of age. They were to be enrolled for three years, the oldest, if not needed, being left until the last. Before the close of 1863, Alabama had placed in the Confederate service most of the men that could be sent. The organization of new regiments by original enlistment practically ceased by the fall of 1862, and in 1863, only three new regiments were organized, two of which were composed of conscripts and men attracted by the cash payments offered.

It was after the reverses of 1863, that the enthusiasm of the people for the war perceptibly declined. For the first time, many felt that they perhaps could not win and that the horrors of war might be brought home to them by hostile invasion of their area. The dissatisfaction at the progress of the war culminated in the formation of numerous secret or semi-secret political organizations that became known collectively as the Peace Society.