Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of printed lists (on rag paper) of men enrolled, and therefore liable to military duty, residing in the 14th Enrollment District of the State, apparently comprising Albany and Schoharie counties. The lists provide the names of all men between the ages of twenty and forty-five who were subject to the draft authorized by an act of Congress entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces" approved March 3, 1863 and later amended on February 24, 1864.

The lists consist of two parts: the lists of names, and a prefatory statement at the top of each list. The statement requests that the names of persons inadvertently omitted from the list be reported to the local enrolling officer or the Board of Enrollment. In addition, the statement informs enrollees that in order to have their names stricken from the list they must appear before the Board of Enrollment and prove to that body they are not eligible due to "alienage, non-residence, unsuitableness of age, or manifest permanent physical disability." The lists pertaining to Albany provide not only the enrollee's name but his street address as well.

Filed with the enrollment lists is one very oversized list that contains the "names of all drafted men from the 14th District of New York who have failed to report under the draft of September 28, 1863...in accordance with instructions from the Provost Marshall." These men were considered deserters and a reward of thirty dollars was offered for their capture. The list is divided into thirty-six sub-districts. In addition to each deserter's name the list provides age, marital status, occupation, nativity, place of enrollment, and date drafted.