e grandiloquent name
"Heroes of America" and had extended its operations into Tennessee and
North Carolina.

In the course of the year further evidence was collected which satisfied
the secret service of the existence of a mysterious and nameless society
which had ramifications throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. A
detective who joined this "Peace Society," as it was called, for
the purpose of betraying its secrets, had marvelous tales to tell of
confidential information given to him by members, of how Missionary
Ridge had been lost and Vicksburg had surrendered through the
machinations of this society. *

* What classes were represented in these organizations it is
difficult if not impossible to determine. They seem to have
been involved in the singular "peace movement" which is yet
to be considered. This fact gives a possible clue to the
problem of their membership. A suspiciously large number of
the "peace" men were original anti-secessionists, and though
many, perhaps most, of these who opposed secession became
loyal servants of the Confederacy, historians may have
jumped too quickly to the assumption that the sincerity of
all of these men was above reproach.

In spite of its repugnance to the suspension of the writ of habeas
corpus, Congress was so impressed by the gravity of the situation that
early in 1864 it passed another act "to suspend the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus in certain cases." This was not quite the same
as that sweeping act of 1862 which had set the Mercury irrevocably in
opposition. Though this act of 1864 gave the President the power to
order the arrest of any person suspected of treasonable practices, and
though it released military officers from all obligation to obey the
order of any civil court to surrender a prisoner charged with treason,
the new legislation carefully defined a list of cases in which alone
this power could be lawfully used. This was the last act of the sort
passed by the Confederate Congress, and when it expired by limitation
ninety days after the next meeting of Congress it was not renewed.

With regard to the administration of the army, Congress can hardly be
said to have met the President more than half way. The age of military
service was lowered to seventeen and was raised to fifty. But the
President was not given--though he had asked for it--general control
over exemptions. Certain groups, suc