[Civil War]

The Draft! The Draft!! Get Insured Against the Draft, and If Drafted Have a Substitute on Hand to Go for You [caption title]

Chicago: [ca. 1863]. [2]pp., printed on the same side of a quarto sheet and folded, sheet size 8.25 x 11 inches. Original mailing folds, light foxing. With original transmittal envelope addressed to A. Kingsbury in Cassopolis, Michigan. Very good. Item #4283

An ephemeral advertising flyer touting insurance against the military draft during the Civil War, by ensuring the procurement of a substitute if drafted. Particularly in 1863, the Union began drafting citizens into the military forces in an attempt to raise troop levels so high they would be insurmountable ton the Confederacy. The latest call at the time the present work was printed called for 300,000 new soldiers. If a person was drafted, and said draftee was influential or wealthy and could find a willing volunteer, he could pay that volunteer to enlist in his place. This was called a Substitute Volunteer Enlistment. The present work was issued by the Chicago Draft Insurance Company, who positioned themselves as middlemen or head hunters, promising to find their clients substitutes if they were drafted. The cost for this service is written into the second page as $200, with the “First Installment of $35.00 in cash already paid in and deposited in the bank” by the company. We could locate no other copies of this rare piece of Civil War ephemera.

Price: $550.00