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After two years of fighting, volunteer enlistments into the Union army were dwindling. On March 3, 1863, the first conscription act, the Enrollment Act of 1863, made all men between the ages of twenty and forty-five liable for military service. It was this act of Congress that led to three days of rioting and civil unrest involving approximately 50,000 people and causing untold damage to the city.
Signed just over a week after the New York Draft Riots were put down, Lincoln called for an additional number of men to be conscripted for service. In August 1863, Major General A. Dix began to fear that riots would break out again. The situation was so critical that President Lincoln signed a proclamation to be used by Dix "in case of any necessity arising from the employment of military force to overcome unlawful combinations against the authority of the General Government in executing the Act of Congress to enroll and call out the National force."
This August 1863 Draft Notice informed a soldier he was to be "legally drafted in the service of the United States for the period of the three years, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress, 'for Enrolling and Calling out the National Forces, and for other purposes,' approved March 3, 1863..." Signed by the provost marshal. The documents are accompanied by an engraved portrait of Lincoln by Johnson, Wilson, & Company.
November 10 Manuscripts of the American Revolutionary War and Civil War Signature® Auction
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