DK - The American Civil War

C

onscription, also known as the

draft, was a key factor in making

the Civil War a people’s war, but

this did not make it any the less resented

on either side. In the South, growing

anger at the draft was compounded by

the hated “Twenty-Negro Law,” which

exempted owners and overseers of 20

or more slaves. The right of large

slave-owners to opt out of military

service infuriated many poorer whites,

who started to question their sacrifices

on behalf of rich men and their property.

President Jefferson Davis, General

Robert E. Lee, and others in the

Southern high command believed not

only that the draft was an unfortunate

necessity, but also that the exemption

clause was vital to maintain the

Confederate economy. Southern

women, often driven to the poverty

line by the absence of their men,

disagreed and rioted in several towns

and cities throughout 1862 and 1863.

The most famous of these disturbances

was the Richmond Bread Riot of March

1863, during which Jefferson Davis

somewhat ineffectually attempted to

mollify the mob by throwing money to

it from his coat pockets. Only the

arrival of troops stopped the mayhem.

Northern draft

In the North, the “militia draft” of 1862

was followed in March 1863 by the

Enrollment Act. Unlike the earlier piece

of legislation, this new measure was

formally organized at the national

rather than the state level. It mandated

that all Northern males between ages

20 and 45 were eligible for conscription.

People could, however, hire a substitute

by paying a $300 commutation fee and

so escape the current draft round.

The $300 exemption clause, like the

Confederate equivalent for large

slave-owners, created immense

dissatisfaction among the North’s

urban poor and led to rioting, notably

the infamous New York City Draft

Riots, which rocked the city for four

days in July 1863. Parts of the city were

burned to the ground, hundreds of free

blacks were killed, an orphanage for

black children was destroyed, and

Republican and abolitionist property

was looted and damaged before Federal

troops arrived fresh from the Battle of

Gettysburg. They imposed order at the

point of the bayonet.

Deserters and “bounty-jumpers”

As the war extended into its third year,

the Northern and Southern home

fronts grew ever more resistant to the

draft. Men conscripted into the army or

navy frequently deserted at the first

possible moment, especially toward the

end of the war. Worse, a black-market

enterprise, called “bounty-jumping,”

War-weary People

The Civil War was a “people’s war” fought between two democratic republics. This meant that public

morale was as important to the war efforts of both sides as the successes or failures of their armies.

As the long, bloody conflict dragged on into its third year, war weariness was taking a heavy toll.

THE UNION TIGHTENS ITS GRIP 1863

BEFORE

In March 1862, the Confederacy introduced

compulsory military service for all men

between the ages of 18 and 35. It was a

response to waning numbers of volunteers

and the impending disintegration of rebel

armies as the 1861 enlistment terms expired.

CONSCRIPTION AND RIOTS

In September 1862, the Southern draft was

further expanded to include men up to

age 45, and subsequent amendments

allowed even 16-year-olds to be drafted.

The measure was hated by most Confederate

citizens and viewed as an unnecessary

intrusion by the national government

on the rights of both states and individuals.

The Union government also passed a draft law

in late 1862—the so-called “militia draft.” This

obliged states to formally register all white men

between 18 and 45 as liable for military service

in state regiments and for up to nine months’

service in the Federal armed forces. The law was

wildly unpopular and incited rioting and

resistance across the North, prompting President

Abraham Lincoln to temporarily suspend habeas

corpus in certain areas of the Union.

developed in the North that took

advantage of state and Federal

incentives to encourage volunteers,

rather than draftees, to sign up.

According to the Enrollment Act, if a

particular district or city was able to

supply a certain number of volunteers,

it no longer had to enact the draft.

A number of communities offered

generous “bounties”—monetary

incentives—to entice volunteers and

thus, they hoped, to avoid the need for

conscription. A lively criminal practice

started, in which men signed up for a

particular district or regiment, received

the bounty, then “jumped” to another

geographic area, where they repeated

the process. Small fortunes were illicitly

amassed in this way, and many bounty-

jumpers were never caught.

Execution parade

Desperate to stem the tide of desertion, in August 1863

the Union high command ordered the public execution

by firing squad of five deserters from the Army of the

Potomac. Artist Edwin Forbes captured the scene.

“Sowing and Reaping”

In May 1863, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, a

Northern publication, included these two scathing

cartoons, showing Southern women “hounding their

men on to rebellion” (on the left) and then “feeling the

effects of rebellion and creating bread riots” (right).

Northerners who hired substitutes to fight

for them included many luminaries of

America’s postwar Gilded Age: John D.

Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan,

and Theodore Roosevelt Sr., father of future

President “Teddy” Roosevelt.