Civil War Bounties

At the beginning of the Civil War, forces were gathered from those already in the military.  It wasn't long before many more men were needed.  The government issued quotas to the states, drafting only when necessary.  People felt very strongly about the issues involved in this war and many men joined for patriotic reasons alone.  Those who didn't join were not viewed very kindly in their communities.  Period newspapers even suggested that women should 'refuse the attentions of these stay-at-homes'.  

Beyond patriotism, the US and the Northern states depended on fiscal inducements to get men into the ranks.  Bounties were paid by the US government, state governments and many local governments.  These bounties varied but $100 was the standard government bounty.  While these bounties did attract recruits there were several negative results.  Some men got their bounty, deserted, re-enlisted in another unit and got more money.  (These bounties did not apply to the Navy or Marine Corps until July 1864.)

With the failure of the bounty system, the US Congress passed its Conscription Act on 3 March 1863 (the draft).  Both sides' conscription acts allowed for a number of exemptions for physical disabilities or vital occupations.  Also both allowed conscripts to pay a commutation tax to avoid service, $500 in the Confederacy and $300 in the Union.  This practice led to charges of its being a 'rich man's war and a poor man's fight'.  

Both sides also initially allowed conscripts to hire a substitute.  A bitterly resented feature of the law, substitution was declared illegal in the South in 1863, while in the North there sprang up a whole breed of professional substitute brokers who found substitutes, often deserters, runaways and drugged or unfit men, for a fee of course.  Substitution also allowed those who were unable to join at first, for one reason or another such as physical handicaps, to serve their cause.  Only about six percent of the 249,259 men whose names were drawn for conscription actually served in the Army.  (Although he wouldn't have been required to serve as his fell under 'vital occupations', Abraham Lincoln hired a substitute to serve in his name.)  The men who hired substitutions thought it a very patriotic thing to do, as they were helping out on the battle front and the home front at the same time.  

From the book The Civil War Source Book by Philip Katcher, 1992 (ISBN 0-8160-2823-0)