Lee recognized dwindling resources and concluded that success required offensive action. Lee, with the support of Jefferson Davis, hoped that aggressive military tactics would repel the Union forces that were devastating Southern soil and end the war before the home front collapsed. However, his plan to "take the war North, take the war out of Virginia...[and], hopefully, into Maryland" would require more soldiers (scourge). But with the destruction and loss of land, especially that devoted to industry and agriculture, efficiency on the home front was more important than ever. About 61.5 percent of Confederate soldiers lived as farmers or farm laborers. Some of these men had to remain on the home front to preserve a certain stability. However, in 1864, Lee could not "see how [the Confederacy could] escape the natural military consequences of the numerical superiority of the enemy" unless "no man was excused from the service" (gin, 252). With an army whose “ranks [were] weakening” and “losses [were] not compensated by recruits,” the strength of the front would diminish without additional recruits (gin, 150). Unfortunately for the Confederacy, there were too few men to support both the home front and the front.