Gene Green
Sergeant
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2016
- Location
- Dixie
It was stipulated that any person drafted might provide afor one thing, there were not that many plantations that had twenty slaves or more.
substitute to serve in his stead, or that by the payment of a flat sum
not to exceed $300 he would be exempt from the operation of that
draft. The necessity for more than one draft was not foreseen by
Congress, and the interpretation of this clause caused considerable
bitterness resulting in its repeal in 1864. These two provisions fur
nished an argument hard to answer for those who charged that the
conscription law was designed to exempt the well to do and shift
the burden of service on those classes of the population who could
neither afford to hire a substitute nor pay the commutation fee.
Very soon after actual drafting began it became apparent that a class of
professional substitutes was springing up whose chief aim was to collect the
substitute fee,and who had no intention of actually serving in the Army.
In a report to the Secretary of War, Colonel Fry
disclosed that in those districts
for which statistics were available, 30 percent of the
men examined were excused for physical disability;
another 30 percent were exempted for
other reasons; and 40 percent were held to service.
Of these, about one-half paid the
$300 commutation fee; and only 20 percent
of all those examined either hired
a substitute or served in person.
Despite the fact that Congress repealed the obnoxious commutation clause in 1864 and the law was so interpreted as to permit a man threatened with being drafted to hire a substitute before he was drafted,the operation of the law contributed a relatively small number of men to the armed forces. Beginning with the call of 17 October 1863, which embraced the draft commenced on 1 July, 1,173,522 men were called into service before the end of the war. Of this number, 170,039 were furnished by the draft.
Insofar as the drafted men almost without exception were sent to the old regiments as replacements, the operation of the conscription law was beneficial and agreed with the purpose for which it was enacted. But it did not go far enough—it did not provide manpower in anything like the numbers necessary to maintain the field organizations at effective strength. It was the Volunteer system which furnished the bulk of the replacements during the final 2 years of the war.
https://history.army.mil/html/books/104/104-9/CMH_Pub_104-9.pdf