Conscription in early 1865 was kind of a fluid thing. Here are three short pieces from the Seneca Falls, NY library big notebook of Civil War clippings that show 1) the quota for the 24th New york Congressional District didn’t seem to be as high as a Wayne County newspaper stated, but it would still cost plenty of greenbacks to avoid a draft. 2) Towns apparently had been showing a good deal of creativity in not only avoiding a draft but also in avoiding having local men fill the quota.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1865:
THE QUOTA OF THE DISTRICT. – The quota of the 24th Congressional District comprising the counties of Cayuga, Seneca and Wayne, under the last call for 300,000 is 1,700. It will cost the district at least a million of dollars to furnish that number of men.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1865:
OUT OF THE DRAFT. – We understand that the town of Covert is out of the draft, having filled its quota under the last call of the President. The men were recruited in the city of New York by the Supervisor of the town, J.R. Wheeler, Esq.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1865:
OUT OF THE DRAFT. – Our Waterloo neighbors are out of the draft, in consequence of furnishing three years’ recruits last fall under the call for 500,000 men. Burton’s niggers turn out to be a profitable investment after all.
I have no idea if or where Waterloo would have recruited the black men. Also, (I’m reading ahead again) – it looks like Waterloo was actually in the 1865 draft.
big supply in Gotham? (“Stereograph shows men reading signs in front of the New York Evening Post building, New York, New York.” between 1861 and 1865 – Library of Congress)
