mass army, it began a graduated income tax, both monetary and in-kind, fifty years before the U.S. Government did. The graduated income tax spanned from one percent for monetary incomes under $500 to 15 percent for those over $1,500; in addition, a 10-percent tax was levied on all profit from sale of foodstuffs, clothing and iron, and all agriculture and livestock were taxed at 10 percent of everything grown or slaughtered. Congress authorized $500 million in bonds in an effort to stem inflation. But, in a wartime economy, inflation went from 300 percent for a gold dollar to 2,000 percent from January 1863 to January 1864, an inflation rate of over 600 percent in one year. The inflation rate discouraged investment in bonds, and only $21 million was retired from circulation. Fourth Session of the First Congress Following an intersession during the military campaign season, the Fourth Session of the First Congress met from December 7, 1863 to February 17, 1864. The Union achieved control of the Mississippi River with the fall of Vicksburg, the capture of Fort Hudson, Louisiana, along with victories at Fort Smith and Little Rock, Arkansas. Union advances in eastern Tennessee were signaled by the fall of Knoxville and Chattanooga. At the end of the First Confederate Congress, it controlled just over a half of its congressional districts, while Federals occupied two-fifths and almost one-tenth were disrupted by military conflict. President Davis had urged immediate measures to increase the Confederacy's effective manpower as Congress reconvened on December 7, but it did not act until its adjournment on February 17, 1864. It expanded the draft ages from 18-40 to 17-50. It substantially cut exemption classifications, and authorized the use of free blacks and slaves as cooks, teamsters, laborers and nurses. By the close of the First Congress, the army had about 500,000 men enrolled, but only half of them were present for duty. The other 250,000 were lost to shirking, disloyalty and poor policing of deserters. There was widespread abuse of the system of class exemptions, including teachers, apothecaries, newly minted artisans with scant business, and small state government employees hired at less than subsistence wages. For a price, doctors diagnosed “rheumatism” and “low back” pain. The net result by June 1864 was a present-for-duty strength in all Confederate armies totaling not more than 200,000, about 100,000 fewer than the year before. While every state supreme court