Consequently mechanics are very scarce, and manufactories much scarcer.

The limited quantity of products of mechanical skill needed by the people was mostly imported from the North or Europe.

Both these sources of supply were cutoff by the war, and the country was thrown upon its own slender manufacturing resources.

To force its mechanics into the army would therefore be suicidal.

The Army would gain a few thousand men, but its operations would be embarrassed, if not stopped altogether, by a want of supplies.