Hayes Lowe
Confederate military law.
Fri Feb 2 16:05:49 2001


"You're an attorney; where should we look for the text of CSA military laws?"

Good question, and one that I have not found the answer to, yet. I have been on the lookout for the answer to this question, however.

Everytime I go to a different law library, I check to see if they have any Confederate or State of Alabama law books from this era. So far, no luck. The library may have U.S. law books back to the creation of the country, but no CSA or CSA era books from the States. I'm beginning to wonder if they were ever printed. They had to be!

Paper was in shortage by the end of the war, but this would have been considered a priority by lawmakers (we all know how lawmakers consider what they are doing the most important thing in the world!). And, there was no paper shortage at the beginning of the war.

I'd be willing to bet that all the minutes of the Confederate Congress are at NARA somewhere. On the otherhand, I've yet to find any evidence that would indicate military records were burned when Richmond fell...but there was a huge pile of papers that were burned then. Maybe these were the Congressional papers! That still doesn't explain why there are no State of Alabama legislative act books from this period.

Maybe I'll get more serious about looking into this...you know how I love these Confederate mysteries!

• Confederate Congress online — Alan J. Pitts, Fri Feb 2 22:46
• Confederate laws and Alabama laws — Hayes Lowe, Sat Feb 3 09:11
• Conscription Law Alabama in 1862 — Amanda Baltz, Wed Feb 28 12:20
• Conscription — Miles Krisman, Mon Mar 5 20:43
• You're on the right trail; keep going n/m — Alan Pitts, Sun Feb 4 22:41
• Case law. — Hayes Lowe, Fri Feb 2 16:41