There was a song composed during the war, entitled the “Raw Recruit,” sung to the tune of “Abraham’s Daughter,” which I am wholly unable to recall, but a snatch of the first verse, or its parody, ran about as follows:—
I’m a raw recruit, with a bran’-new suit,
Nine hundred dollars bounty,
And I’ve come down from Darbytown
To fight for Oxford County.
The name of the town and county were varied to suit the circumstances.
In 1863 a draft was ordered to fill the ranks of the army, as volunteers did not come forward rapidly enough to meet the exigencies of the service. Men of means, if drafted, hired a substitute, as allowed by law, to go in their stead, when patriotism failed to set them in motion. Many of these substitutes did good service, while others became deserters immediately after enlisting. Conscription was never more unpopular than when enforced upon American citizens at this time.
Here is a suggestive extract from a rhyme of that period, entitled
THE SUBSTITUTE.
A friend stepped up to me one day;