The agricultural products were diminished every year during the war. Its
demands diminished the number of cultivators, and their labors were more
extensively devoted to grain-crops. The amount of the cotton-crop was
greatly reduced, and numbers of bales were destroyed when in danger of
falling into the hands of the enemy.
The manufacturing industry became more extensive than ever before, and
in many branches more highly developed. The results in the ordnance
department of the Government, stated elsewhere in these pages, serve as
an illustration of the achievements in many branches of industry.
During the first year of the war the authority granted to the President
to call for volunteers in the army for a short period was sufficient to
secure all the military force which we could fit out and use
advantageously. As it became evident that the contest would be long and
severe, better measures of preparation were enacted. I was authorized to
call out and place in the military service for three years, unless the
war should sooner end, all white men residents of the Confederate States
between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years, and to continue
those already in the field until three years from the date of their
enlistment. But those under eighteen years and over thirty-five were
required to remain ninety days. The existing organization of companies,
regiments, etc., was preserved, but the former were filled up to the
number of one hundred and twenty-five men.
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