MILITARY RECORDS
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ON CIVIL WAR DRAFT
Transcribed by Sue Broadbooks, July 27, 2024
Davenport Daily Gazette
Davenport, Iowa
Wed, Aug 06, 1862
Page 1DRAFTING EXCITEMENT - The all absorbing topic of conversation, the object of every man's thoughts yesterday, was the order of the President of the United States, made public here yesterday morning, calling for a draft of 300,000 militia for nine months; and providing for drafting on the call previously issued, if it be not complied with by the 15th inst. Everywhere groups were gathered discussing the new phase of matters; in stores and offices the ordinary business gave place to the more absorbing subject; farmers bringing in their produce, stopped to talk the matter over with their city friends. Two men meeting couldn't talk a minute without sounding each other out the question. Of course, the order was variously commented on by different - parties; but the general tone was that of decided approval. 'Glad of it,’ ‘'Ought to have been done at first,' 'It'll hurry up the business,' expressed the approval with which the people regarded the measure. And there was less of pleading ailments and weaknesses and physical deformities than might be expected, or was made a year ago, when we had a rumor of a similar step. Of course; the recruiting offices were affected; and all day individuals were coming in, and making diligent inquiries about bounties, pay, &c. A large number of recruits was obtained, and it is probable Torrey's and Davenport's companies, and perhaps others, will be full in a few days.
At Iowa City, we are informed, one hundred persons enlisted during the day, and at Muscatine forty. Other towns were no doubt similarly affected; and the prospect is fair for obtaining the entire quota of the first 300,000 from this State without drafting.
BY TELEGRAPH.
(Reported expressly for the Gazette.)
THE WAR NEWS.
IMPORTANT from WASHINGTON.
A DRAFT ORDERED.
300,000 Additional Men. Ordered.
Reported Evacuation of Richmond.
Alexandria, Mo., taken by Rebels.
Orange C. I., Va., Taken.
McClellan Sends a large Force across the River
The following order has just been issued by the War Department.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4Ordered, First - That a draft of 300,000 militia be immediately called into the ser- vice of the United States, to serve for nine months, unless sooner discharged.
The Secretary of War will assign the quotas to the States and establish regulations for the draft.
Second, That if any State' shall not by the 15th of August furnish its quota of the additional 300,000 volunteers authorized by law, the deficiency of volunteers in that State will also be made up by special draft from the militia. The Secretary of War will establish regulations for this purpose.
Third, regulations will be prepared by the War Department and presented to the President with the object of securing the promotion of officers of the army and volunteers for meritorious and distinguished services, and preventing the nomination or appointment in the military service of incompetent or unworthy officers.
Regulations will also provide for ridding the service of such incompetent persons as now hold commissions.
By the President.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Sec'y of War.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ FOREIGNERS LIABLE TO DRAFT. - Some cowards are seeking to avoid the defence of the Government they are living under by the plea that they are foreigners and not American citizens. These cases are expressly provided by law, and the militia law of the State expressly says: "Permanent residents are to be regarded as citizens for all purposes of this act.”
LAWS ON THE SUBJECT OF ENROLLMENT & DRAFTING.
Extracts from the Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and the State Laws.CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.
Clauses 16 and 17 of section 8, of the Constitution, provide as follows:
Congress shall have the power to pro- vide for calling forth the militia to exe- cute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.
ENROLLMENT OF THE MILITIA AND NOTICE TO CITIZENS.
The act of Congress of May 8, 1792, section 1, provides for the enrolling of the militia and notice to citizens, as follows:
Each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and un- der the age of forty-five years (except as hereinafter excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia, by the captain or commanding officer of the company within whose bounds such citizen shall reside, and that within twelve months after the passing of this act. And it shall, at all times hereafter, be the duty of such captain or commanding officer of a company to enroll every such citizen, as aforesaid, and also those who shall, from time to time, arrive at the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as before excepted) shall come to reside within his bounds; and shall, without delay, notify such citizen of the said enrollment, by a proper commissioned officer of the company, by whom such notice may be proved.
PENSIONS.
The same act, section 9, makes the following provision concerning pensions:
If any person, whether officer or soldier, belonging to the militia of any State, and called into service of the United States, be wounded or disabled while in actual service, he shall be taken care of and provided for at the public expense.
PRESIDENT TO CALL OUT THE MILITIA. - Sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the act of February 28, 1795, provides as follows:-SEC. 2. Whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed in any State, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshal in this act, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such State or of any other State or States, as may be necessary to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed; and the use of the militia so to be called forth may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days (new law nine months) after the commencement of the then next session of Congress.
NOTICE TO INSURGENTS. - SEC. 3. Whenever it may be neccessary, in the judgment of the President, to use the military force hereby directed to be called forth, by proclamation,command such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within a limited time.
TIME OF SERVICE - SEC. 4 The militia employed in the service of the United States shall be subject to the same rules and articles of war as the troops of the United States. And no officer, non-commissioned officer or private of the militia shall be compelled to serve more than threǝ months (new law nine months) after his arrival at the place of rendezvous, in any one year; nor more than in due rotation with every other able bodied man of the same rank in the battalion to which he belongs.
PENALTIES.
SEC. 5. Every officer, non-commissioned officer or private of the militia, who shall fail to obey the orders of the President of the United States, in any of the cases before recited, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one years pay, and not less than one month's pay, to be de- termined and adjudged by a court-matial. And such officer shall, moreover, be liable to be cashiered by sentence of a court-martial, and be incapacitated from holding a commission in the militia for a term not exceeding twelve months, at the discretion of said court-martial. And such non-commissioned officers and privates shall be liable to be imprisoned by a life sentence, on failure of payment of the fines adjudged against them, for one calender month for every five dollars of such fine.
ACT OF CONGRESS, JULY 17TH, 1862.
The following is the act of July 17, 1862, which empowers the President to call out the militia of the States, designates the manner in which the same shall be done, and the time of service:
Be it enacted, &c., That whenever the President of the United States shall call forth the militia of the States, to be employed in the service of the United States, he may specify in his call the period for which such service will be required, not exceeding nine months; and the militia so called shall be mustered in and continue to serve for and during the time so specified, unless sooner discharged by command of the President. If by reason of defects in existing laws, or in the execution of them in the several States, or any of them, it shall be found necessary to provide for enrolling the militia and otherwise putting this act into execuʊon, the President is authorized in such cases to make all necessary rules and regulations; and the enrollment of the militia shall in all cases include all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and shall be apportioned among the States according to representative population.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the militia, when so called into service, shail be organized in the mode pre- scribed by law for volunteers,
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the President be and he is hereby authorized, in addition to the volunteer forces which he is now authorised by law to raise, to accept the services of any number of volunteers, not exceeding one hundred thousand, as infantry, for a period of nine months, unless sooner discharged. And every soldier who shall enlist under the provisions of this section shall receive his first month's pay and $25 as bounty, upon the mastering of his company or regiment into the service of the United States. And all provisions of law relating to volunteers enlisted in the service of the United States for three years, or during the war, except in relation to bounty, shall be, and the same are extended to, and are hereby declared to embrace the volunteers to be raised under the provisions of this section.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of filling up the regiments of infantry now in the United States service, the President be and he is hereby authorized to accept the services of volunteers in such numbers as may be presented for that purpose, for twelve months, if not sooner discharged. And such volunteers, when mustered into the service, shall be in all respects upon a footing with similar troops in the United States service, except as to service bounty, which shall be $50, one-half of which to be paid upon their joining their regiments, and the other half at the expiration of their enlistment.
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