Circa1865

The bloody carnage of 1862, capped by the north’s bloody Fredericksburg defeat in late December of that year, brought voluntary enlistments to an end. But rather than ending the war between Americans, Lincoln’s Republican party resorted to a conscription law in March of 1863 to fill their depleted ranks This was in practice a “whip” to gain those attracted by the generous bounty monies from federal, State, county and towns to satisfy Lincoln’s quotas. Recent immigrants, especially unskilled laborers, were a prime target of bounty monies or substitution.

Bounty Money in Buffalo

“I was born on the 16^th day of November 1843 in the province of Brandenburg, district of Potsdam, Kreis (county) Prenzlau in the Uckermark. I emigrated with my parents (Phillip and Auguste Albertine Schultze Milleville) to this country in the year 1847, landing in Buffalo on the 4^th of July 1847. My parents settled in the town of Wheatfield, Niagara County, in a German community called Neu Bergholz.

I lived at home until the age of 16, and then apprenticed to tailor Friedrich Parchart for three years for room and board. All the cash money I had during the three years was 75 cents which I received from a political candidate for delivering a letter.

In April 1862 I went to the city of Buffalo and got a job with tailor Adam Sipple on Main Street. I worked for $6 a month and board; after 6 months I asked for more pay, he let me go. Then I got work at nearby Fort Erie, Canada, at $8 a month with board for about 4 or 5 months. Then I got a job again in Buffalo, but my boss was a drunkard. He would work all day Sunday, and Sunday night he would go to a saloon and often not come home until Tuesday morning while his family suffered. Then I got a job at 32 Main Street with tailor Jacob Metzger.

There I stayed until the 20^th day of January 1864 when I enlisted in Company I, 2^nd New York Mounted Rifles. For enlisting I got $300 government bounty, $75 State bounty, and $110 County Bounty. Of the government bounty we got $50 every six months – the State and County money we received immediately.

As recruits we were taken to Fort Porter on the banks of the Niagara River. After a few days a fellow enlistee asked to borrow my overcoat to go into town for tobacco but forgot to come back. I guess he was a Bounty jumper. We then needed a pass to go into the city, but the boys would arrange with the guards to walk in opposite directions in order to slip through.

In early June 1864 we had our first battle at Petersburg, Virginia. The Rebels were following us and attacked in the rear. They then went around our left flank. We lost 13 men out of our company; some of the boys threw away everything and ran. The next day the Rebs had us bottled up and we barely slipped out.”

(Excerpt, Civil War Diary of Herman Henry Milleville: Historical Society of North German Settlements in WNY, Winter 2025 Issue. Eugene W. Camann Collection)

Gen. Robert E. Lee authorized leaflets sent to his adversaries encouraging desertions to his lines, parole and safe passage northward – thus preventing the soldier from being conscripted at home. Forced to draft unwilling northern men which produced riots, Lincoln found that greenback bounty money lured many but created another problem in the form of paid substitutes and bounty-jumping.

Gen. Grant admitted in late 1864 of receiving perhaps one effective soldier out of five sent, and among whom existed many bounty-jumpers seeking another opportunity to desert and reenlist in another State for its bounty.

Deserters and Bounty Jumpers

“A scrutiny of Union desertion by States reveals the largest actual numbers from New York with 44,913; from Pennsylvania with 24,050; from Ohio with 18,354; from New Jersey with the startling figure of 8,468; and from little Rhode Island with 1,384 to its credit.

The figures for several of the Border States prove interesting: notably, Maryland which produced 5,328 deserters; Tennessee which furnished 3,690; Kentucky which yielded 7,227; and Arkansas, which contributed 2,245. Likewise, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa, where there was considerable disaffection with the war, rank relatively high in desertions in proportion to their population.

Usually, the recorded statements of specific instances of desertion, whether in Union of Confederate reports, show the slipping away of individuals or of small groups, varying from five to sixteen or twenty. At Pittsburgh, complaint was made that more than 300 men from two Pennsylvania regiments had absented themselves since their muster; from an Illinois regiment at Cairo, Illinois more than 700 men had deserted; 347 soldiers succeeded in making their escape from another Illinois regiment places at Memphis.

There were also cases of considerable bodies of soldiers departing. One conspicuous case savored of open mutiny as some 400 draftees departed from the forts around Washington on the 29^th of August 1864. They continued in a body with arms until they had secured civilian clothes, and then scattered in all directions.

A Confederate officer reported in January 1863 that he had gathered from the army opposing him some 2,000 deserters, with many others were seeking an opportunity to surrender in order to be paroled.”

(Desertions During the Civil War. Ella Lonn. University of Nebraska Press, 1998, pg. 152-153. (original American Historical Association, 1928)