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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

The 1863 Draft for Upper Dauphin County

| May 1, 2011

In July of 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation ordering a draft to raise five hundred thousand men for the Union army. It was the first compulsory draft in American history.  The draft was intended to encourage enlistment, but in many cases it had the opposite effect.  Federal troops had to be called out in […]