What were the most common reasons why draft-age men were not conscripted for the Union Army?
Upvote:0
The main reason was that North have four times more white men than South (plus, almost 200 African-american soldiers served in northern army).
With rate of volunteers about 50% (theoretical figure), northern army would be four times bigger than southern.
So it is why South eventually needed 100% conscription, after the first year of war, to get Southern army at least half the size of northern.
North could afford wait for two years, and have predominantly volunteer army till the end of the war, with draft provided only in the states not meeting their recruitment quote.
Total share of drafted and substitutes in Northern army was 6-8%. For Southern, share of conscripts or compelled to be recruited by conscription law, estimated at least 30%. In fact, almost nobody who joined Southern army after passing conscription law (spring 1862) could be considered as volunteer.
Upvote:2
Your premise is wrong. The statement, "Based on this question and an answer, it appears that although almost all southern white men of draft age were in the military during the Civil War." is untrue. The relevant "evidence" from the question is:
"In my geneology research, I can assume with some certainty that if a white southern family had sons born between 1835 and 1846 there is a pretty good chance that all of them will have served in the Confederate armed forces."
This is not reliable evidence, some offhand comment about "geneology research". In fact, the supposed genealogist, does not even know how to spell genealogy.
Secondly, the purported factoid, that "all" southern white males between the ages of 14 and 30 fought in the Civil War defies logic. For reasons of logistics, geography and finance alone, such a thing is impossible. Also, from an economic standpoint, to even fight a war you need to be growing food, weaving cloth, blacksmithing and doing many other economic activities to support the soldiers. Not to mention, many men will be infirm, have disabilities, or for other reasons be unsuitable or unwilling to fight.
Just as one example, the members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) living in the south refused to fight in the war, and they were just one of many such refusers.
Upvote:5
There were two main draft exemptions for men in the North. The first was that a man could hire or designate a substitute (e.g. a brother or cousin). The second was that a man could pay $300 (somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 in today's money) to "opt out." In essence, one could buy one's way out of the draft.
There was also a partial "exemption" for married men; they had a lower draft priority than single men.
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