Notice of eligibility to serve in the Civil War, 1862 Lancaster County, PA

Description

Description: light blue paper document, 4 ½” x 7”.
Two folds but no tears.
Typical appearance of age.
Preprinted form filled in with hand-written information.
This document was to register an individual for potential service under the Militia Act of 1862 (see below for more information about this Act).
The form reads (underlined items are hand-written):
Office of the United States Deputy Marshal for the County of
Lancaster
at
Lancaster City, PA
.
August
26
, 1862
To
Mr George Adams
Take notice that you have been enrolled as a citizen within the
Township
of
West Lampeter
In the said County, liable to Military Service. If you claim exemption from any
Cause, the claim will be received and determined by the Commissioner to be
Appointed for that purpose for this County, at such time and place as he shall
Specify, by hand-bills to be posted in said
Township
.
H K Stoner
Deputy Marshal
Background:
On July 2, President Lincoln called for 300,000 fresh troops, but he soon discovered that the realities of war had considerably diminished the fervor of Northern men to serve the Union. Despite the incentive of offering cash bonuses in advance of service, governors found meeting their recruitment quotas difficult. Federal authorities began to fret that a draft might be necessary.
With the Union war effort in the East rapidly deteriorating, the 37
th
Congress aggressively addressed the situation after it convened for its second session in July 1862.  President Lincoln signed the bill, commonly known as the "Militia Act of 1862," into law on July 17, 1862.
One provision of the Militia Act of 1862 that addressed the issue of providing the Union with more manpower opened the door for the implementation of compulsory service.
By August 1862, it was apparent that state governors were struggling to meet their established quotas for Lincoln's July 2, 1862 call for fresh volunteer troops. The president adroitly side-stepped the problem by implementing the powers authorized to him by the Militia Act. While Lincoln had no constitutional or Congressional authority to draft citizens into the federal military, the Militia Act granted him the power to utilize conscription to fill militia quotas.
On August 9, Stanton issued General Order Number 99, detailing how the conscription should be administered. Separate drafts were to be implemented at the state level, but the August 15, 1862 deadline prompted several governors to complain that they were not given enough time to develop the mechanisms to carry out the order. The War Department responded by authorizing numerous postponements. The first drafts did not occur until mid-September.
In the end, the threat of conscription proved more effective than the drafts themselves. Of the total of 600,000 men Lincoln requested in July and August, roughly 508,000 eventually volunteered, necessitating the drafting of only 90,000 men.
By 1863, the Lincoln Administration abandoned the unwieldy and largely ineffective state-administered drafts. In March, Congress enacted the Enrollment Act, which established a federal draft.
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