Hello everybody! I'm going to begin posting a list compiled by the Daily Gazette of several hundred names of men who lived in Davenport in 1862. If you don't have ancestors in Davenport during this time, you can just delete the postings. The subject line for these posts will be "CW Draft." The reason for the Gazette's publication of the list follows. The Union Army had suffered tremendous losses by early 1862 so it became necessary to recruit more men. However, a problem arose when those who did enlist joined new regiments and companies being formed instead of filling the vacancies in the old ones, such as the 16th or the 8th Iowa, which had suffered heavy losses at Shiloh. Unfortunately, Gov. Kirkwood's call for volunteers in July 1862 didn't get the needed results because many men were working on their farms getting ready for harvest. Also, after Shiloh and Corinth, and the events in the East, it became obvious that it wasn't going to be a short war and the war was much worse that anyone had anticipated. Some of that initial patriotic fervor was weakened, and the country wasn't as naive as it had been. Ultimately, Lincoln decided on a draft and passed it into law in March, 1863.The actual drafting of the men was the responsibility of the states, which usually used a lottery system. When the government issued a call for more troops, each state would be given a quota to fill based on its population. The number of volunteers would be subtracted from the quota and the difference would be drafted. In this era, being drafted was considered humiliating. The prevailing attitude was that able-bodied men should want to fight for their country, and only cowards would not enlist. In August of 1862, before the draft law was passed, the Daily Gazette published a list of the names of hundreds of men who were eligible draftees, perhaps in an attempt to embarrass some of them into enlisting. This list is alphabetized and grouped according to Ward. Elaine Rathmann ACC Scott Co, IAGenWeb Project List Adm: *IA-CIVIL-WAR *IA-DANES