Читать книгу Mennonites in the World War - Jonas Smucker Hartzler - Страница 36

In the spring of 1862 the call came for every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty-five to take up arms. Again a number went into hiding. Some seventy of them, Mennonites and Dunkards, made an effort to escape to the northern states, but were captured and finally landed in the dreaded Libby Prison. Two of them escaped and reported the matter to the home Church. That was a time of prayer and supplication. Through some of the officers of the Confederate government who knew something about the Mennonites and their religious principles, a law was passed which gave them exemption. L. J. Heatwole says, "This bill provided that all people professing the peace doctrine as a part of their religion. .. .residing within the Confederate States would be exempt from military duty on conditions that each male member of such religious body who was subject to bear arms, should pay into the treasury the sum of five hundred dollars." This was paid, "and all the brethren liberated from their confinement." In 1864 the word came that the Confederate government had repealed her exemption laws, and that all able-bodied men between the ages of seventeen and sixty should at once report for service. Many went into hiding again and some made their way to the northern states.