8 Though the War Department recognized him as German rather than Dutch, Hendermann entered the Seventh New York Volunteer Infantry and survived the war. Strong," whose "Dutch Boy" was substitute Herman Henderman, a young man of twenty-two years. There close to the bottom of the page stands "G.T.
Age of rebellion duty series#
Presumably, the answer as to why Strong, Cleveland, and Rockefeller did not serve resides in one of the series created by the district.Īfter searching several registers and records relating to exempted men, George Templeton Strong's name was discovered in a list of substitutes accepted and enlisted in districts. Virtually all of the enrollment districts generated registers of enrolled men, lists of substitutes, and records relating to exemptions. Answers to such questions should reside with the records of the various districts. The consolidated lists show these men as having been enrolled but give no clue as to why they did not serve. Rockefeller resided in Ohio's Eighteenth District of Cleveland's Fourth Ward. 6 Grover Cleveland resided in the third subdistrict of the Thirtieth Congressional District of New York and was drafted in August 1863. George Templeton Strong, for example, lived in the Eighth Congressional District of New York, and from his Diary it is known that he was enrolled in August 1864 and that he paid for a substitute. In addition, it helps to know when the person was enrolled. A map of the city, usually used in conjunction with census files, will help determine the congressional district as well as the subdistrict encountered in urban demography. If the person lived in a major urban area, a city directory of the period is an effective way of discovering the person's place of residence. Many consolidated lists are not complete, a fact some researchers find frustrating because a draft enrollment is one of the few places an individual may be located if he does not have a service record.īefore using the consolidated lists, researchers should know the congressional district in which the individual lived. The lists do not include information about the men's families. Class two included "all other persons subject to do military duty." 5 Enrollees had their names placed on consolidated lists where their name, place of residence, age as of July 1, 1863, race, occupation, marital status, place of birth, and, perhaps, remarks were recorded. Class one grouped men between the ages of twenty and thirty-five years and unmarried men between thirty-five and forty-five.
Cleveland, Strong, Rockefeller, and all other eligible males were enrolled and grouped into one of two classes. Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau, 1863-1865, Record Group 110, are the principal records that relate to the 1863 draft. James Barnet Fry, the new provost marshal general, 3 had the vexing and troublesome duty to enforce this unpopular law until the war's end in 1865, when his bureau went out of business. The act divided the United States into enrollment districts along the lines of congressional districts. Men who were mentally or physically impaired, the only son of a widow, the son of infirm parents, or a widower with dependent children were exempt.
The Enrollment Act, enacted by the Thirty-seventh Congress in response to the need to swell the ranks of the Union army, subjected all males between the ages of twenty and forty-five to the draft. 1 This amount, presumably a healthy sum in 1863, did not long remain the norm, for George Templeton Strong, pluckier than many of his contemporaries, paid a "big 'Dutch' boy of about twenty" $1,100 to be his "alter ego" in 1864. These men, and many others, avoided military service by simply taking advantage of that section of the Enrollment Act of 1863 allowing draftees to pay $300 to a substitute who served for them. He did not experience the Civil War in uniform. Rockefeller, a Cleveland, Ohio, merchant, was also healthy and eligible to serve in the armed forces of the United States. His New York City law practice provided him a comfortable income. He, too, was healthy, of the appropriate age, and educated. George Templeton Strong, urbane, sometimes wise, and always opinionated, never served in the Union army. His Buffalo, New York, law practice provided him a comfortable living. He was healthy, of the appropriate age, and educated. Grover Cleveland, urbane, sometimes wise, and a future President of the United States, never served in the military during the Civil War. Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments
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