Who Fought for the North in the Civil War? Concord, Massachusetts, Enlistments

Rorabaugh, W. J.

doi:10.2307/1902983

Cited by 11 publications

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“…13 Some features of the Union Army recruitment system, such as furnishing substitutes and paying commutation in place of service, have been blamed for producing an unequal burden of military service and casualties across different social classes. This claim, often referred to as a "rich man's war and poor man's fight," has drawn a great deal of attention from social historians (Murdock 1964;Levine 1981;Rorabaugh 1986;Kemp 1990;Geary 1991). In addition to the argument that lower-class men were more likely to enlist, Vinovskis (1990) suggested that, even among soldiers, men from disadvantaged ratification of the role that a prominent planter, lawyer, or other individual had taken in recruiting a company or a regiment."…”

Section: Recruitment and Organization Of The Union Armymentioning

confidence: 99%

Military Positions and Post-Service Occupational Mobility of Union Army Veterans, 1861-1880

Lee

2006

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Although the Civil War has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, little is known about how different wartime experiences of soldiers influenced their civilian lives after the war. This paper examines how military rank and duty of Union Army soldiers while in service affected their post-service occupational mobility. Higher ranks and non-infantry duties appear to have provided more opportunities for developing skills, especially those required for white-collar jobs. Among the recruits who were unskilled workers at the time of enlistment, commissioned and non-commissioned officers were much more likely to move up to a white-collar job by 1880. Similarly, unskilled recruits who had served on white-collar military duties were more likely to enter a white-collar occupation by 1880. The higher occupational mobility of higher-ranking soldiers is likely to have resulted from disparate human capital accumulations offered by their military positions rather than from their superior abilities.

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Section: Recruitment and Organization Of The Union Armymentioning

confidence: 99%

Military Positions and Post-Service Occupational Mobility of Union Army Veterans, 1861-1880

Lee

2006

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“…A question of perennial interest to social historians is the degree to which mortality during the war varied across economic classes (Murdock 1964;Hess 1981;Lavine 1981;Riggs 1982;Rorabaugh 1986;Kemp 1990;Geary 1991). Starkly put, the question reduces to this: Was the Civil War a poor man's fight?…”

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confidence: 99%

Selective Assignment of Military Positions in the Union Army: Implications for the Impact of the Civil War

Lee¹

1999

Social Science History

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The Civil War was the bloodiest event in American history. For every 10,000 persons, 182 died during the war. Wartime mortality was especially severe for young men; about 8% of all white males between the ages 13 and 43 died (Vinovskis 1990). Among those who survived the war, many were disabled due to wartime injuries. According to the estimate of Claudia Goldin and Frank Lewis (1975), human losses account for 37% and 28% of the direct costs of the Civil War for the North and the South, respectively.A question of perennial interest to social historians is the degree to which mortality during the war varied across economic classes (Murdock 1964; Hess 1981; Lavine 1981; Riggs 1982; Rorabaugh 1986; Kemp 1990; Geary 1991). Starkly put, the question reduces to this: Was the Civil War a poor man’s fight? In a recent study, Maris Vinovskis (1990) suggested that the answer to the question is yes. Vinovskis found that recruits from disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to die or to be wounded than servicemen who had higher-ranking jobs or greater wealth, presumably because they were more susceptible to disease or were sent on more dangerous missions. However, he didn’t provide evidence of how the socioeconomic backgrounds of recruits affected their susceptibility to disease and military missions. Moreover, since his study was based on a relatively small sample composed of recruits who resided in a single town, it is unclear whether the results could be generalized for Union army recruits at large.

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Section: Recruitment and Organization Of The Union Armymentioning

confidence: 99%

Military positions and post-service occupational mobility of Union Army veterans, 1861–1880

Lee

2007

Explorations in Economic History

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Although the Civil War has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, little is known about how different wartime experiences of soldiers influenced their civilian lives after the war. This paper examines how military rank and duty of Union Army soldiers while in service affected their post-service occupational mobility. Higher ranks and non-infantry duties appear to have provided more opportunities for developing skills, especially those required for white-collar jobs. Among the recruits who were unskilled workers at the time of enlistment, commissioned and non-commissioned officers were much more likely to move up to a white-collar job by 1880. Similarly, unskilled recruits assigned to white-collar military duties were more likely to enter a white-collar occupation by 1880. The higher occupational mobility of higher-ranking soldiers is likely to have resulted from disparate human capital accumulations offered by their military positions rather than from their superior abilities.

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Who Fought for the North in the Civil War? Concord, Massachusetts, Enlistments

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Military Positions and Post-Service Occupational Mobility of Union Army Veterans, 1861-1880

Military Positions and Post-Service Occupational Mobility of Union Army Veterans, 1861-1880

Selective Assignment of Military Positions in the Union Army: Implications for the Impact of the Civil War

Military positions and post-service occupational mobility of Union Army veterans, 1861–1880

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