Missouri, Kentucky and northwest Virginia were occupied by Union forces and used as staging areas for further advances into Confederate territory. After the Battle of Shiloh, Union forces moved into the Tennessee Valley reaching into Alabama. Amphibious operations by the Union saw gains along the Atlantic Coast furthering the Union Blockade at Fernandia and St. Augustine, Florida, New Berne, North Carolina, and Fort Pulaski at Savannah, Georgia. The elections of November 1861 gave every indication that the political accommodation between president and Congress would continue. The Battle of First Manassas and Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign bolstered confidence in the administration, and no major disasters had occurred. But during the spring of 1862 the pace of war quickened, and Union operations began in the West and along the coasts, resulting in Confederate territorial losses. It became evident that legislation could not be equitably applied in the lost territory and among the occupied population, and that additional burdens would fall on fewer Confederates. While administration support was strongest in the First Session of the First Congress, strategic efforts at counterattack into Kentucky and Maryland failed, and a war of attrition developed, leading many to criticize the administration for its war policy. Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia was an early supporter of Jefferson Davis's who turned severe critic, enough so that Lincoln recommended not arresting Hunter after the surrender at Appomattox. On the other hand, members representing districts already overrun and those actively contested by Union advances became stalwart administration supporters, advancing more aggressive measures. These assured Davis a solid Congressional base in the middle of the war, numbering 11 of the 28 senators, and 27 of the 122 Representatives. Mobilization After awaiting formal initiative from the Confederate Congress since December 1861 for the first national draft on the North American continent, Davis finally proposed military conscription of all men between 18 and 35 without deferring to the states for a policy unauthorized in the Confederate Constitution. The conscription bill was staffed by Robert E. Lee, and the draft was then forwarded to Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin. It was introduced into the Senate by Louis T. Wigfall of Texas, a fire-eating secessionist and one of the few states' rights leaders to support conscription. Enacted on April 16, the statute empowered the president to conscript directly, for three years or the duration, all men between ages 18 and 35 not