MILITARY RECORDS
LISTS OF MEN SUBJECT TO CIVIL WAR DRAFT AUGUST 1862
Contributed by Elaine Rathmann
By early 1862 the Union Army had suffered tremendous losses, so it became necessary to recruit more men. However, a problem arose when those who did enlist joined new regiments and companies being formed instead of filling the vacancies in the old ones, such as the 16th or the 8th Iowa, which had suffered heavy losses at Shiloh.
Unfortunately, Gov. Kirkwood's call for volunteers in July 1862 didn't get the needed results because many men were working on their farms getting ready for harvest. Also, after Shiloh and Corinth, and the events in the East, it became obvious that it wasn't going to be a short war and the war was much worse that anyone had anticipated. Some of that initial patriotic fervor was weakened, and the country wasn't as naive as it had been.
Ultimately, Lincoln decided on a draft and passed it into law in August, 1862. The actual drafting of the men was the responsibility of the states, which usually used a lottery system. When the government issued a call for more troops, each state would be given a quota to fill based on its population. The number of volunteers would be subtracted from the quota and the difference would be drafted.
In this era, being drafted was considered humiliating. The prevailing attitude was that able-bodied men should want to fight for their country, and only cowards would not enlist. In August of 1862, shortly after the draft law was passed, the Daily Gazette published a list of the names of hundreds of men who were eligible draftees, perhaps in an attempt to embarrass some of them into enlisting. This list is alphabetized and grouped according to Ward.
First Ward Second Ward Third Ward Fourth Ward Fifth Ward Sixth Ward Davenport Township
outside CityAdditional Draftees NOTES FROM ELAINE:
Someone asked me a number of good questions regarding the Gazette's Civil War conscription eligibility list. I decided to post the answers to the list in case others might have similar questions.
I don't believe many newspapers published the names of eligible draftees, as a rule. At the point that this list was published, the union was still trying to avoid the very unpopular conscription by encouraging men to enlist. All able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 were eligible. No exemptions were made due to family size or ages of family members. I assume the Gazette probably took from the 1860 census, a list of all those men who fell in the age category of 18 to 45.
Counties were assigned quotas of needed men. If a county could provide that quota (as determined by legislature) through enlistment, they did not have to draft men, or would only have to draft the difference. Many thought this quota system, and conscription in general was unfair, prompting several large "Draft" riots throughout the country.
Counties offered bounties as rewards to men who enlisted. This practice was not devoid of problems. Men would hop from county to county, signing up and collecting the bounty money, and then skip out and head for the next county and another bounty. From what I've seen, Scott's bounties were very good compared to many others in the country. I'll be posting more articles addressing these issues.
Various state rules exempted those afflicted with heart and lung disease, hemorrhoids or chronic diarrhea, hernia, 'loss or imperfect vision of the right eye'--presumably the rifle-sighting eye --loss of the front teeth and molars, or 'loss of more than one finger of the right or more than two fingers of the left hand.'
Regarding deferments, if one was wealthy, or could somehow scrape up $300, he could legally buy his way out. If one could find a substitute to fight in his place, that was also allowed. All kinds of problems arose from these practices. Most folks could not come up with $300 and therefore, the Civil War was considered by many to be a "poor man's war." Although mental and physical disabilities could cause exemption, the substitutes were often discovered to be physically or mentally deficient, or many times they signed up and quickly "skedaddled."
Men with occupations such as teachers, judges, telegraph operators, railroad engineers, skilled munitions workers in public arsenals and certain other government employees were exempt. Members of certain religious factions, such as Mennonites and
Quakers, were exempt at first, but later on Congress passed a law that men of those faiths had to serve in non-combative roles, such as in hospitals, supply depots, etc.
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