President Abraham Lincoln Orders Implementation of the New York Draft Call, Less than One Year After the Draft Riots in that State

A search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to turn up even one other example of this document

After the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, enthusiasm for enlisting in military service swept through both the North and South. In remarkable speed two large volunteer armies were created. Except for a tiny number of professional soldiers, all expected to be in service for a brief term. Not just soldiers but the public and political leaders had fooled themselves about the war’s likely duration. However, the patriotic hope on each side that the war would be over in a matter of weeks or months was dashed in the first battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. By late 1862, no sensible person believed that an early end to the bloody strife was possible, and the knowledgeable expected peace to be far off in the future. Facing a protracted war, maintaining a sufficiently sizable army became the greatest problem facing both Union leader Abraham Lincoln and Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.

In 1862, rather than institute a draft, President Lincoln requested 300,000 more men and assigned each state a quota. The states could meet their quota in any manner they saw fit. Most states offered cash incentives, known as bounties, to gain recruits. Depending on where one enlisted, the combination of local, state, and federal bounties could exceed $1,000. But the 1862 policy also did not recruit enough troops.

As the war dragged on with no end in sight, the inflow of volunteers was drying up, and the Union needed to keep the ranks filled. The U.S. Congress resorted to the first draft in the country’s history in March 1863. All able-bodied men between ages 20 and 45 were required to be enrolled and available for military service. Draftees were chosen by lottery. Once conscripted, a man could avoid service for that particular round of the draft either by paying a $300 commutation fee or by hiring a substitute to take his place. As in the South, this raised accusations that the war had become “a rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight.” Nevertheless, in both North and South, statistics indicate that wealthy men were represented in the service in at least the same proportion as they were in the general population.

A lot of blood was spilled in 1863, with the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga, among others. By year’s end, President Lincoln and the Union leadership realized that more men were needed for the army, and urgently. On February 1, 1864, Lincoln called for 500,000 men to serve for three years or for the duration of the war. Then on March 15 he supplemented this with a call for 250,000 more. There would be another draft call in December 1864, but it was never completed due to the impending end of the war.

The March 1864 draft call stated: “Washington, March 15, 1864. In order to supply the force required to be drafted for the Navy, and to provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in addition to the 500,000 men called for Feb. 1, 1864, the call is hereby made, and a draft ordered for Two Hundred Thousand men for the military service – Army, Navy and Marine corps of the United States. The proportional quotas for the different wards, towns, townships, precincts or election districts, or counties, will be made known through the Provost Marshall General’s bureau, and account will be taken of the credits and deficiencies of former quotas.

The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time, up to which the numbers required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be raised by voluntary enlistment; and drafts will be made in each ward of a city, town, etc. which shall not have filled the quota assigned to it within the time designated for the number required to fill said quota. The draft will be commenced as soon after the 15th of April as practicable…” It took little more than a week for everything to be in place.

The mechanics of the draft were that each state and district within a state were assigned quotas, and the President would order that each state’s draft numbers and districts be implemented. This was the actual order for the draft. Then each individual district would receive from the President details of its requirements in a circular letter. One sees these individual district circular letters on the market every now and then. But what one never sees is the order to implement the draft for a state assigning the districts and number of troops being called forth. In fact, a search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to turn up another example, nor have we seen one before.

Document signed, as President, Washington, April 23, 1864, being Lincoln’s implementation order for New York. “I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to the apportionment of the quota of troops to be furnished by the State of New York, from its several districts, dated and this day signed by me, and for so doing this shall be his warrant.”

An extremely rare if not unique document showing Lincoln raising troops on the macro level of a state.