At every advance of Grant's lines a new alarm was manifested in
Richmond, the first proof of which was always a fresh rigor in enforcing
the conscription laws and the arbitrary orders of the frightened
authorities. After the capture of Fort Harrison, north of the James,
squads of guards were sent into the streets with directions to arrest
every able-bodied man they met. It is said that the medical boards were
ordered to exempt no one capable of bearing arms for ten days. Human
nature will not endure such a strain as this, and desertion grew too
common to punish.
As disaster increased, the Confederate government steadily lost ground
in the confidence and respect of the Southern people. Mr. Davis and his
councilors were doing their best, but they no longer got any credit for
it. From every part of the Confederacy came complaints of what was done,
demands for what was impossible to do. Some of the States were in a
condition near to counter-revolution. A slow paralysis was benumbing the
limbs of the insurrection, and even at the heart its vitality was
plainly declining. The Confederate Congress, which had hitherto been the
mere register of the President's will, now turned upon him. On January
19 it passed a resolution making Lee general-in-chief of the army. This
Mr.
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