Friday, March 20th

Today we talked about a number of Civil War topics that affected the lives of soldiers and the people during the war. The first being the draft. The Civil War was the first time in America that a draft was used as Congress at Lincoln's urging passed the Enrollment Act in 1863. Under this Act, men aged 20 to 40 were eligible to be drafted. One could get out of the draft, however, by: 1) agreeing to pay $300; 2) finding a substitute to serve in your place; 3) having a doctor sign a medical deferment. These stipulations allowed many wealthy citizens to get out of the draft but not poorer citizens. Over time this meant the fighting force was much poorer than those that stayed home. This Act led to draft riots as people protested the draft. The most notorious of these riots occurred in New York City.

Another topic discussed was how prisoners of war were handled during the Civil War and the horrible Confederate POW camp at Andersonville. At the beginning of the war POWs were exchanged after a few battles when the amount of POWs grew to where it became difficult for each side to keep them. When the Union decided to enlist black troops the CSA responded with the decision to kill and black troops that were captured and also kill any white officers in command of black troops. Lincoln then decided to halt POW exchanges rationalizing that the North with more people would benefit by not exchanging the POWs. This led to the camps overflowing and conditions in the these camps being deplorable. Andersonville in Georgia was by far the worst. You should read handout #24 which is excerpts from a diary of the Union soldier at Andersonville. You should answer the questions that follow the diary entries.

Lastly we discussed how the Civil War affected women, blacks and the economy of each side. You should read p. 364-368 in your text book and complete handout #25. Make sure you add to this handout: economy, battlefield medicine and food to the bottom of the handout. After researching the info you should complete a four line verse/poem that reflects what you have learned from this section in the book.