Lee recognized the dwindling supply of resources and concluded that success required offensive action. Lee, with the support of Jefferson Davis, hoped that aggressive military tactics would repel Union forces ravaging Southern soil and end the war before the home front collapsed. However, his plan to “bring the war to the North, take the war out of Virginia…[and], hopefully, get into Maryland” would require more soldiers (degradation). But with the destruction and loss of land, particularly that used for industry and agriculture, efficiency on the home front was more important than ever. About 61.5% of Confederate soldiers lived as farmers or farm laborers. Some of these men needed to remain on the home front to preserve some stability. However, in 1864, Lee could not “see how [the Confederacy could] escape the natural military consequences of the enemy's numerical superiority” unless “no man should be exempted from service” (gin, 252). With an army whose “ranks [were] weakening” and “losses [were] not made up for by recruits,” the strength of the battlefront would decline without additional recruits (gin, 150). Unfortunately for the Confederacy, too few men existed to support both the home and military fronts