150 years ago this month a newspaper up in Wayne County, New York complained about how it understood the federal government was implementing President Lincoln’s December 1864 call for 300,000 more soldiers. The new quotas would be based on the number of service years men had signed up for in prior calls. The paper saw this as changing the rules on the fly and unfairly penalizing localities that had responded promptly to previous calls.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1865:
Quotas Under the New Call.
The quotas of the different districts under the new call vary so much that people do not understand the figuring by which they are established. For instance the district of our district, embracing the counties of Cayuga, Seneca and Wayne, is 3,396; Allegany, Chemung and Steuben 2,903. – Erie, 4,406; Onondaga and Cortland, 2,788; Then again, Oneida is called on to furnish only 275; Broome, Schuyler, Tioga, and Tompkins 546; and Genese [sic], Niagara and Wyoming, none!
Under the late call, it appears that credits are given for the number of years’ service for which the recruits were enlisted. So the localities which furnished their quotas of say 3,000 men for three years, are credited with 9,000 year’s service, while the district which furnished the same number of one year’s men, is credited with only 3,000 year’s service, and each are credited with filling their quota. The practical effect of this is that those localities which set to work promptly to supply the men called for and put them into the field for the term of service required, and during the the time allowed them by the terms of the call, are now informed that they have thrown their money away, and are far worse off than counties which dallied along until the rush was over, and then having the field wholly to themselves, obtained three years men for less money. Had it been understood that this mode of credits was to be adopted, the counties of Cayuga, Seneca and Wayne, would not have thrown away three millions of money on one year’s men, for they could have filled their quota with three years’ men although it would have taken much more time. The whole thing is an unmitigated fraud upon the people, for if such credits were to be given, it was the bounded duty of the war department to let the people know how many years service each man enlisted under the call would be expected to perform. That no such thing was promulgated, and people were led to believe that one year men was all the government wanted – in fact we were assured by men high in authority that the war would be brought to an end before their term of enlistment. But the wronged and deluded people must make the best of this, as they have of a great many other outrages upon their rights committed by this administration. – Lyons Press.
There’s a good chance the Lyons Press is listed as the Lyons NY Wayne Democratic Press 1856-1873.
This article seems to be more evidence for James M. McPherson’s statement that Union conscription “was not conscription at all, but a clumsy carrot and stick device to stimulate volunteering. The stick was the threat of being drafted and the carrot was a bounty for volunteering[1].” – apparently not just for individuals. Despite the price tag localities seemed to want to avoid a draft. There would seem to be something of this in the following column from the January 1, 1865 issue of The New-York Times. “New-York vs. the Draft” seems to have included upping the bounties ti $1,000 and appreciating that naval enlistments counted toward filling the quota.
New York Times 1-1-1865
- [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 605.↩
