had established military and home-front manpower coordination for the duration. Third Session of the First Congress The Third Session of the First Congress ran from January 12 until May 1, 1863. The battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville stymied Union attempts to advance in the eastern theater, but it achieved victories along the Mississippi at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Fort Hindeman, Arkansas. In 1863, Lee's Confederate strike into Pennsylvania was turned back at Gettysburg, and Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky was ended at Perryville. Mobilization At the opening of the Third Session of the First Congress on December 7, 1862, opposition to the substitution provision of the April 16 conscription act was substantial. The cost of substitutes had been brokered from $100 initially up to as much as $5,000 per enlistee. Many objected to the provision as “class legislation”. The substitutes themselves were generally unsatisfactory soldiers, over 40 years of age and from undisciplined backgrounds. Some substitutes “bounty jumped”, deserting only to collect another substitute bonus. Within the army the remaining substitutes were mostly unpatriotic, shiftless and held in contempt. At the extension of the draft to men between ages 35 and 45 in the previous session, those who had been substitutes subsequently were found in most state courts to be liable to service in their own name, nullifying the earlier enlistment substitution without violation of contract; some state courts did not. A Senate bill to nationalize substitution policy failed in the House, perhaps due to upcoming elections in November. Secretary of War James A. Seddon reported that over 10,000 men not in the army held fraudulent substitute papers to avoid conscription. The bill passed in December prohibited any further use of substitutes, and, in January, draft evaders with fraudulent substitute papers were subject to conscription and their substitute would be required to remain in service. State courts upheld both laws. While the army was not materially augmented, an important cause of dissatisfaction in the ranks was removed. In the conscription law as initially passed, there was an exemption for an owner or overseer of twenty or more slaves. Most newspapers subsequently condemned the provision as the worst sort of class legislation. The state legislatures of North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas petitioned Congress to repeal or amend the provision. On January 12, 1863, Jefferson Davis advised Congress that some amendment was required allowing for policing the slave population without preferential treatment