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Indiana Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 10507, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46852-0507

Index to Draft Enrollment List for Monroe County, Indiana (1862)

Submitted by Randi Richardson

On August 4, 1862, the United State Secretary of War issued orders for 300,000 men to serve for nine months and provided for a draft from the militia if the quota was not met. At that time, the order for 300,000 men issued on July 2, 1862, was yet pending. Indiana’s quota under each call, assigned on the basis of population, was 22,250 men, making 42,500 men altogether.

Under the call of August 4, every able-bodied, white male citizen over the age of 18 and under the age of 45 was required to enroll in the militia. In Monroe County, this was done township by township. A record of the enrollment is available on microfilm at the Indiana State Archives.

The names of those men who were to be excused or exempted from the draft went before a review board and, if a man was in fact, exempted, the information was so noted along with the reason for the exemption. Most exemptions were due to disabilities and, quite often, the draft enrollment is the only record of that disability.

The enrollment also noted the names of men who were already serving in the military including those who may have died while in the service. In the event of a death, several sources were checked in order to ascertain, if possible, the date and place of death and burial. Those sources included: Veteran’s Grave Registration (VGR), available from the Indiana State Archives in Indianapolis; the Indiana Adjutant General’s (AG) Report, a multi-volume set of books available in various libraries; and Monroe County cemetery indices (MCI). When found, the information was included in the Remarks column of this database. In a few cases, the Adjutant General’s report revealed names of those who died in 1862 that were not noted in the enrollment records. These names were included in the database as well.

As is the case with many old, handwritten records, the information was often difficult to read. Additionally, some of the names seemed to be a variation of a more common spelling. If that was the case, and it seemed certain that the more traditional spelling was the correct spelling, the more traditional spelling was used in the compilation of the database in order to facilitate the location of a name. But if there was some question, the data was entered as it was shown, occasionally noted as illegible, and occasionally shown together with a spelling variant thought to be the common spelling.

The draft took place on October 6, 1862.