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Conscription was used by both the Union and Confederacy.

 

Conscription was used by both the Union and Confederacy. In the Spring of 1962, the Confederate Congress passed the first conscription and exemption acts in American history.  All men between eighteen and thirty-five years of age were eligible for three years' service.  Substitutes were allowed and certain types of professionals and factory workers were exempted.  However, these exemptions were abused so neither enlistment nor conscription filled the ranks sufficiently for the Confederate army.  By the Fall of 1862, Lee's army was outnumbered, undernourished and ill-equipped, prompting his retreat to the south bank of the Potomac.  There the army found enough forage and subsistence.<ref>Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command. Indiana University Press, 1988. Pp 119-121.</ref>