How many bought substitutes or commutation ?

[John Winn]

I'd like to know how many bought their way out of the draft but don't seem to be able to locate a reference that provides estimates or totals. A little Googling didn't bring up anything with numbers; just discussion about the draft rules, bounty jumping, and such which I already know.

Anybody got numbers at hand ?

 

[gary]

Good question and that would make for quite an original paper. Sorry, but I can't answer. I do know that the Confederates ceased accepting substitutes sometime in 1863.

 

[ErnieMac]

From wiki (no source cited): "Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription#American_Civil_War

 

[John Winn]

From wiki (no source cited): "Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription#American_Civil_War

Thanks. Somehow missed that.

I once asked about the number of volunteers vs draftees, thinking that later in the war draftees and substitutes must have outnumbered volunteers. Many responded with stats showing low numbers of draftees and concluded that volunteers were just as common later in the war as early on. If the quoted numbers are correct, it would tend to support my thoughts that true volunteers were getting scarce later in the war (although I'll concede that technically a substitute was a "volunteer").

I wonder if they are including those who paid commutation fees ? As I understand it, one could either pay directly (commute one's service) or hire a substitute. Keeping commutation fees at $300 helped keep prices paid to substitutes down. If the quoted numbers don't include such then it really was a different army after the draft got going than in the first two years of the war.

 

[ErnieMac]

Doing a little checking I found a publication titled Report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the first draft under the Selective-Service Act, 1917. (The publication is a free Google Book which I downloaded, but does not lend itself for copying). It included in Appendix J a summary of statistics from the Civil War draft. The following numbers come from that report. The number of volunteers before and after March, 1863 plus the number drafted equals the total number secured for fighting. The number of paid commutations plus the furnished substitutes plus the conscripts equals the number drafted. The paid commutations never served so the total number of Union soldiers servings was 86,724 less than the 2,690, 401 shown.

Number of men secured for fighting forces April, 1861 - April, 1865 = 2,690,401

Volunteers before March 3, 1863 (Conscription Act) = 1,358,470
Volunteers secured from March 17, 1863 - April, 1865 = 1,076,558
Number Drafted = 255,373

Number Paid Commutations = 86,724
Furnished Substitutes = 117,986
Conscripts = 50,663​

 

[John Winn]

Thank you Sergeant Ernie. That's exactly what I needed.

Ya'll know everything. Just gotta ask.

 

[M E Wolf]

John Winn,

That is what CWT is best at -- we (in general terms) have so many intelligent researchers and "history detectives" that someone will be able to provide information germane to the inquiry.

M. E. Wolf

 

[Stony]

According to the book "General Lee's Army" by Joseph T Glatthaar less that 1 percent of Lee's army hired a sub.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

I had a 3 x great uncle in east Tennessee who entered the Confederate Army as a substitute in Feb.1863. He was 54 years old. Had lost 2 sons in the Confederate Army and a third was in the Union Army. His payment was a deed to 67 acres of land. He was captured with many of the 60th Tennessee at Big Black, Miss. May 17, 1863. He died July 2, 1864 at Camp Morton, Indiana.