The Conscription Act: Concerning a Need for Troops
Despite the fact that the Union ultimately won the Battle of Gettysburg, sending Lee and his Confederate Army back into the South, tensions still were very high in New York City. Much of this was because of the rapidly approaching enforcement of the National Conscription Act, which was passed in that March. Even with the influx of African American troops, the Union army still needed more soldiers, and as war fever declined and the war dragged on, so decreased the amount of volunteers wishing to join the army, not to mention the ever increasing number of soldiers that were either dead or had deserted.
The Conscription Act, in an attempt to get more troops, made all unmarried men between the ages of twenty to forty five inclusive, and all married men younger than thirty five susceptible to a draft lottery. However, this act was further complicated by allowing for drafted men to pay off a substitute to take their place into the army, or simply exempt themselves from service by paying the government an expensive fee of three hundred dollars, which was about the average annual salary for an unskilled laborer. Thus, it was only the very wealthy who were able to escape the draft, and the working class began to complain about the unfairness of the Civil War becoming a poor man's war.
The Conscription Act, in an attempt to get more troops, made all unmarried men between the ages of twenty to forty five inclusive, and all married men younger than thirty five susceptible to a draft lottery. However, this act was further complicated by allowing for drafted men to pay off a substitute to take their place into the army, or simply exempt themselves from service by paying the government an expensive fee of three hundred dollars, which was about the average annual salary for an unskilled laborer. Thus, it was only the very wealthy who were able to escape the draft, and the working class began to complain about the unfairness of the Civil War becoming a poor man's war.