Monday, May 18, 2020

Lincoln’s Call for 300,000 Troops, December 19, 1864

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A PROCLAMATION.

(Calling for 300,000 volunteers.)

Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of the United States may, “at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for any number of men, as volunteers, for the respective terms of one, two, and three years, for military service,” and “that in case the quota, or any part thereof, of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any county not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately order a draft for one year to fill such quota, or any part thereof which may be unfilled;”

And whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of Congress on the call for five hundred thousand men, made July 18th, 1864, the number of men to be obtained under that call was reduced to two hundred and eighty thousand;

And whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered it impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops under said call;

And whereas, from the foregoing causes, but two hundred and forty thousand men have been put into the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, 1864, leaving a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty thousand (260,000):

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency, and to provide for casualties in the military and naval service of the United States, do issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) volunteers, to serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the States, districts, and sub-districts, under this call, will be assigned by the War Department, through the Bureau of the Provost-Marshal-General of the United States; and, “in case the quota, or any part thereof, of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any county not so subdivided, shall not be filled” before the fifteenth day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, then a draft shall be made to fill such quota, or any part thereof, under this call, which may be unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865.*

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

[L. S.]

By the President:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,                 
Secretary of State.
_______________

* Under this call the quotas and credits were as follows, the first number indicating the quota and the second the number of men furnished: Maine, 8,389; 6,926. New Hampshire, 2,072; 1,304. Vermont, 1,832; 1,550. Massachusetts, 1,306; 3,929. Rhode Island, 1,459; 1,563. Connecticut (no quota); 1,325. New York, 61,076; 34,183. New Jersey, 11,695; 11,268. Pennsylvania, 46,437; 30,817. Delaware, 938; 411. Maryland, 9,142; 4,941. District of Columbia, 2,222; 822. West Virginia, 4,431; 2,537. Kentucky, 10,481; 7,603. Ohio, 26,027; 24,567. Michigan, 10,026; 7,842. Indiana, 22,582; 23,214. Illinois, 32,902; 28,318. Missouri, 13,984; 4,207. Wisconsin, 12,356; 9,921. Iowa (no quota); 854. Minnesota, 3,636; 2,769. Kansas, 1,222; 881. Making a grand total of 211,752 men furnished. Of these there were for one year, 151,363; two years, 5,110; three years, 54,967; four years, 312.


SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 4 (Serial No. 125), p. 1002-3

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