How much money did a dressmaker make in the 1870s

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Dollars were hard in Except for growing industrial areas in New England and the eastern seaboard, the country was still essentially rural, and agriculturally oriented. People got along, but the range was narrow.

It is quite amazing in view of the limits to discover how extravagant the state and federal governments were with the people's money, most particularly in the debauche of the bounty and substitute fees. Service pay and allowances were basically "in line" with the times, or, at least, with the era preceding the conflict. The problem on soldiers pay was not what it was, but rather the infrequency of a muster to get at it. To be sure, there were notable inefficiencies in the pay master department, as we shall see later.

In reading the sources on this subject, one has to conclude that on planning and programming an effective recruitment, the government simply was not ready. Events popped too quickly.

I find no references to any draft plans or procedures prior to the onset. Scarcity of source material did not permit a good solid look at the Confederate side. It is reported that the confederates had a more effective conscription set- up and administered it more effectively. They most certainly did not have the excesses of the bounty system. They could not indulge in that extravagance. Later on in the war--say, midwas in total collapse. This was especially so in the western departments.

Soldiers pay and bounty systems were separate, but merged in effect. After a final bounty was set, the records of same were entered on soldiers' pay records, administered and disbursed by the paymaster's office. Thus, the two categories joined.

As bounty programs preceded enlistment. When Jim Barnett asked me to take on the topic, I had qualms as to just what there was to it. I had not really known any detail on pay or the bounties. The study for this paper has been an eye-opener. Bounty System It might not be fair to describe this "alleged" system as a 'bribe', but that is precisely what it was. Essentially a bounty was an inducement to promote voluntary enlistment--emphasis here is on the word 'voluntary'. At the beginning, there existed a terrific stigma on being drafted.

Beat the drums, but don't be a draftee. This was a nation-wide attitude. To be identified as a draftee was next to dishonor. There were in fact, no draft laws or regulations at the time, but the threat was there. The Bounty System had these features. Bounty --a fee granted for enlistment. Substitution --authorization enabling a person, for a sum to be negotiated, to engage another to take ones place In entering the service. This excused them from service. The proviso here did not last long, and was removed from the acts in a matter of months.

It failed to accomplish anything. It brought in some money, of course, but no warm bodies. The original theory was that commutation money would augment funds needed for bounty fees. Historically, bonuses, bounties or similar allurement have been a tradition in our military from the start. There was no universal military training required.

That was only set up after World War II. Our armies were strictly voluntary affairs. To raise an army, some promises had to be made. The government had to compete with a thriving, expanding economy. Industrial development was booming. There was money to be made. The push was west. Mainly bounties promised and granted were plots or acreage of land. At least, there was plenty of that. Monetary inducements, and after for the duration, were an innovation and really a result of a government with no policy.

There was a failure to come to grips with conscription and desirability to have federal control of it. The central authority in Washington never really did get down to business on this matter. There existed a powerful states rightism in the north. The south had no monopoly on this. The government deferred management and planning to the states.

Basically, we have to concede that the administration was not in a position to quibble with the states. Political pressures of the severest nature beset Mr. He had to "go along". After Sumter, the call for volunteers was. After all, the whole thing was going to be a big party, and over shortly.

The main reason, however, was that the states, at the outset, came up with generous awards and funds for the volunteers. The money was raised to pay to the volunteers to help their families, and to maintain support continuity. This is phase one of the Bounty System. It was essentially well-motivated. Philadelphia at this stage raised one million dollars for the purpose.

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Then came Bull Run. This shook things up. Reports drifted back of inefficiencies in the army--poor commissary facilities, worse medical service, poor officer material and low morale. Phase two now comes into the picture and dates from May 4, This started things off. It was not to be. This hurt volunteer surge, which it was intended to promote.

Only state funds kept the enlistments moving at all. Yet, until now, the flow into the army was good. Secretary Stanton even decreed an end to recruitment. This little decree was short-lived.

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We are now up to April Shiloh came along and the failure of the Peninsular Campaign truly dried up volunteering. The 'Big Push' was the Militia Draft Act of July 17, This is the act that accelerated the bounty fee inflation. It still did not put teeth into a truly firm, forthright draft law. Basically, the act of strived to set up uniform recruitment procedures, and to get the separate states to act in concert as to bounty fees and general practices.

It did state that all males, aged were 'on call' for a nine month hitch. It should have been a lot tougher, but still Washington could not buck powerful states' insistence on handling their own affairs in this matter.

The significant feature of the act was the substitution clause. Commutation, as previously cited to be a part of this law, was quickly withdrawn. Negotiating for substitutes was a perfectly honorable deal. Fees for same were governed largely by the availability of men willing to go as a substitute.

The Enrollment Act of March added fuel to the fire, meaning pressure inflating substitute fees. The act was, to be sure, stronger. It set definite quotas but the government still had to avoid a suspicion of coercion and usurpation of states' rights. The act provided quotas be filled "in a reasonable time". Only if quotas were not filled by volunteers would a draft actually be invoked. So, up went the substitute fees. A series of scandalous side effects took place.

There was one facet of the substitute situation, which backfired, so to speak. The market became so glutted with those who would go as substitutes that competition among them in fact depressed their fees.

It should be noted that one of the motives in granting fees and bounties by the government was the necessity for holding on to veterans whose enlistment was up, but whose value was so important to preserve the basic quality of the fighting force.

If you were in the service, you could re-enlist for the same bounties as new men, but for shorter terms. Let us examine some of the off-shoots of the system.

These were the bully boys engaged in the fine art of repeated desertions. All you had to do was sign up in a high bounty district, take whatever portion of the total bounties that were paid out on enlistment, and, at first opportunity "skeedaddle", then show up at a distant, prosperous recruiting area to sign up and repeat the process. Gangs, usually consisting of twenty-five or so, banded together. One how much money did a dressmaker make in the 1870s would volunteer and the other half would arrange the escape, usually as the so-called recruits were on the trains to boot camps--train jumping.

Of somedesertions, a fair percentage were these bounty jumpers. Another effect of substitution was the tendency to furnish to the gennady favel the stock market philosopher men of poor quality--hard-core criminals, physical misfits and the like.

General Sherman was most disturbed over the low quality of the replacements coming into his forces and attributed much of it to the bounty situation. He complained officially to the war department. These were the quick-buck fellows. Their career was to arrange for substitution. They claimed "finders" fees, as high as they could push them.

In this case, the real victim was the substitute. The man paying the fee was fleeced but the substitute rarely saw much of the negotiated fee. He was a patsy. There he was, all signed in, but with the broker walking away with all but a pittance. It was crooked work, but it is noted that the brokers gained some respectability. They were issued licenses to operate in Cincinnati. In rural and less prosperous areas, there were few who could meet the substitute fees.

What happened was that these areas lost their men, whereas in locales with money, there were unfair numbers who had negotiated for substitution or commutation.

All through these years manpower shortages continued to plague the war department. Lincoln authorized the war department to go out to Rock Island Prison. How to earn extra money in the philippines idea was to interview prisoners of northern or foreign birth, and post office india forex exchange for release, the prisoner would be assigned to the armed forces with regular bounties allowed.

They had to take a pledge of allegiance. To be sure this was not one of Mr. Lincoln's more noble inspirations. One of the factors that killed off this plan was that the states and districts began to squabble over who could claim these men for their quotas. On December 23,the how much money did a dressmaker make in the 1870s issued a call forvolunteers stating at the time that after January 5.

It was hoped this announcement would cause a rush to enlist, in order to take advantage of the high bounty before it was withdrawn. The state governments and certain powerful governors insisted on postponing the January 5 deadline.

Finally, in April ofextensions were terminated. We refer to the so-called extra bounties. In reviewing the inception and progress of the whole bounty affair, one finds each effort by the government to beef up a recruitment policy fell short of the minimum. Instead of achieving a forthright, vigorous and controlled program, each enactment served to inflate substitute fees plus promote such scandalous side issues as bounty jumpers, brokers and deserters.

No one seemed able to forex hartschaumplatte preis on the brakes. One side effect was the government, in encouraging first a nine-month enlistment, then later on one year, finally three and five year term, made it possible for a man to go into the service in or early and come out with all his bounties.

He could then get into the substitute market ge ceo buy stock directly become a jumper.

If he re-enlisted, he received the inflated fees of and Yet a man who volunteered in or for a three to five year hitch sat it out with no chance to latch on to the profiteering involved in the enlistment bounties. The effect was to penalize a man who might have been motivated by a sense of duty, leaving the gravy train to the opportunist who profited by a quirk in the rules and ineptitude.

This, let us concede, was a fairly fat bill to pay in lieu of a forthright, effective conscription program, controlled in Washington and administered equally and uniformly throughout the states.

The country was simply not ready to accept conscription or the fact of a necessity for federal authority to raise the armies. All in all, it was quite a binge. Soldiers Pay Emerging from the bounty fees were the pay scales and payment methods in the armed forces. Here is a statistic: From April 15, to April 14, there was a total of men in armed forces of 2, Keep in mind that the bounties by the states and extra federal grants and the payroll amounts to quite a sum. Bollinger bands formula in excel to paying troops, there was a regulation act of July 5.

Said paymasters were to remain in service only so long as needed to pay the troops. Paymasters were under the command of a paymaster general with the rank of Colonel. Under him would be two deputy paymasters with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Under these would be deputies, questions to ask when purchasing a timeshare 25, with the rank of major.

This then, was the paymaster department. The so-called deputies or additional paymasters were appointed to temporary duty only. According to all reports and diaries, the paymaster department was a mass of inefficiencies. There is not too much on the record.

We know that a Colonel Benjamin F. Larned was paymaster at the beginning of the war how to make paypal money by clicking ads had served since July, He died September 6, and was succeeded by Timothy B. Andrews, who served to November 29, velocity in stock markets Brice finished the job.

We cite these officers because after the death of Colonel Larned, there built up considerable pressure for a complete investigation of the inefficiencies in the pay department and to effect a general house cleaning. It was, however, not until March of that any semblance of qualification for additional or deputy paymasters was attempted. Until this point there was no examination for selection on any basis. Even after March ofthe selection routine was hardly adequate.

At least there was some delineation as to mental and moral fitness; also, a physical examination was now required. These are young money trouble maker lyrics but minimum qualities and hardly seemed to cover the specific knowledge required to keep accounts and to fill out all the necessary forms.

It is safe to assume the additional paymasters were indeed a sorry lot, probably mostly political appointees and those looking for a soft spot away from the action. In the war department regulations were up dated and amended to include examination of candidates for the paymaster department. Those who would apply now had to demonstrate the ability to write an intelligent business letter. At long last it was required to prove the ability to solve a mathematical problem accurately.

All of this was necessary plus a knowledge of basic accounting and pay systems. This was in ! Continuing on with the pay department and its organization: Regulations required that troops were to be paid in such a manner that arrears at no time were to exceed two months UNLESS circumstances made longer interims unavoidable, in which case, the paymaster involved was to report the situation and details to the paymaster general.

Further, troops were to be paid on the last day of February, April, June, August, October and December. As might be expected, the pay forms were to be made out in easiest way to make money for college students with one copy to the adjutant general, two copies to the paymaster general and one copy to regimental headquarters.

Troops were required to muster and parade by companies. Each company commander was required to attend the muster and be present at the Pay list of russian forex brokers. The officers were paid first, then the noncoms and finally the privates all in alphabetical order.

Company commanders picked up the pay for any men on duty, sick or on leave. Wiley's book Life of Billy Yank P. The exercise commonly included a review and inspection. A roll was called. An account of every man at the roll was sent to the adjutant general. The pay was actually issued at a separate muster. I could not find a substantiation to the particular procedure. Evidence is that there was, to be sure, a formal muster. Possibly there was an inspection and parade but pay was made at the time--not deferred to a later roll call or muster.

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This general pay raise of took place on both sides in the same month, almost as though both governments agreed between each other that it was time to raise pay across the board. It appeared to be a sort of "We'll do it if you will" type of situation.

Here are some simple charts we prepared to show the scales on selected representative grades and officer ranks. Our comparison has necessarily to be on base pay only. There are too many variables when one gets into allowances bounties, etc. War II 2nd Lieut. Cavalry, in the early days of the war could draw extra allowances for forage. It was not uncommon for one to furnish one's own mounts.

When the war department caught up, the government would furnish all the mounts and discontinue the allowances. Inat the time of general increases, colored troops were put on the same basis as the white troops.

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In it was authorized that those unlucky enough to be taken prisoner would receive pay credit as though on normal duty. I could find no record of retroactivity to cover prisoners taken prior to enactment. A general order was issued in which provided means for a soldier to allot a specified sum of money to parents or other designee.

The set-up was that a soldier signed a roll. This was endorsed by his company commander and forwarded to the state treasury which in turn sent it out to the soldier's town or village. This roll designated to whom and how much money was to be paid to the donee. Local official notified the donee of the allotment or grant.

At the same time of enrolling, tickets were issued to the soldier. He mailed these to his donee. The donee presented the ticket when he was notified by the village official. The two instruments were matched and the payment was made. Considering mails, plus cumbersome rolls, this system probably was fraught with error but it at least had the merit of insuring money reached the proper party.

Here it is apropos to mention comments in the original diary of James Keen, grandfather of our new member. Keen was one of the rare authenticated medal of honor winners, but that is another story. I quote from the Keen diary "Mustered for pay Saturday, March 7- Received four months pay He was a corporal at the time.

There could well have been some allowances that were not noted but they were probably meager if there were any. It is interesting to note that Keen did not avail himself of the somewhat complicated allotment system, previously described.

The diary logs the paydays, which truly ran about every four months. Ina pay day was logged on September 29, which date matches an interesting incident found in the history of the 10th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as written by James Birney Shaw: This caused a rumpus, and the boys fixed bayonets, reversed arms and stuck the bayonets in the ground-butts up. They refused to budge an inch until they were paid.

We were out of money and needed it, but the order to march came before the paymaster reached the two regiments. Kise tried to reason with them, General Pry came over, but they were obstinate. By some hocus pocus which passes the comprehension of everyone a feller by the name of Gilbert had been placed in command of our corps formerly commanded by General Thomashad heard about the two regiments refusing to march until they were paid. He rode up and began a tirade of profanity and abuse, and finally ordered Battery C to unlimber and throw a few charges of canister into the two regiments and "blow them to hell.

Gilbert was boiling over, ripping, raring mad. Finally General Thomas came over and said, "Boys, I am sorry marching orders came before you were paid off, we are on a very important march and in all probability will get Bragg before he gets many miles away.

Now if you will fall in, I will promise you the next stop we make, long enough, I will have the paymaster there and you shall be paid before you move again. Finally, on the Keen diary: It is now By July, they still had not received pay, so he had not yet enjoyed the fruits of his promotion.

On July 18, Entry -- "Some talk of us getting our pay. It hints of discouragement and heartbreak, revealing the inevitable rumors and scuttlebutt of service camp life.

On July 22, the diary reveals "Got paid off after coming off picket. Settled up my Sutler's bill. He was captured at Chickamauga on September 20, If the clothing wore out then he could claim reissue without charge. Following are typical costs to the soldier for replacements: Ina government act authorized that a volunteer who was wounded or otherwise disabled in service should be entitled to the same benefits which accrue under the same circumstances to regulars. In July ofit was ordered that all officers and enlisted men who were totally disabled by wound or disease dating from March should receive the following pensions: Aside from a desperate lack of resources and drying up of credit, it was true that Confederate paydays, from the start, ran usually six months in arrears.

Thanks to Dale Turner, we had the opportunity of reading an account of Confederate soldier's pay in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly for the winter of It offered a detailed account of the pay problems besetting the Confederacy in the trans-Mississippi area.

About the last so-called payday was in September of General Edmund Kirby Smith had come out west to see if he could salvage anything from the wreckage. He did stabilize the military situation up to a point, and then turned to such items as pay. He managed to catch up on one year's arrears and bring troops up to only four months behind in schedule.

The Confederate government's notes and letters of credit were worthless. It was just paper. The area commands could not purchase stores or food on the government notes. Actually, the troops simply melted away. This was in Final Settlements So we come to the reckoning and the bill for pay.

From June through October offinal payments were made efficiently. All accounts were squared, bounty commitments allowances, arrears not to mention fines and debits. Major Gordon Brigham for submitting base pay scales for World War II and present day service. Dale Turner for Arkansas Historical Quarterly for winter of James Keen for the use of the original diaries of James Keen Jim Barnett for continuous encouragement and miscellaneous items and guidance.

John Mullane for detailed bibliography at the request of Ernst Miller. Bibliography Shannon, Frederick A.

They Fought for the Union Wiley, Bell I. The Common Soldier In The Civil War U. War Department, Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States Article XLV pages Article XVIII, nos. These volumes pertain to the Confederacy U. Statutes at Large and Treaties Vol. A Volunteer's Adventures Joinville. History of the 33d Iowa Infantry Trobriand, Regis Four Years With the Army of the Potomac 72; Scott, William F. The Story of a Cavalry Regiment Thompson, S.

Millett Thirteenth Regiment of the New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. A History of the 1st Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers Paris, Louis Philippe comte de History of the Civil War in America Vol 1Briggs. The Enlistment of Iowa Troops during the Civil WarIowa Journal of History and Politics, "Camp of the New York rd" Harper's WeeklyFeb.

Soldiers Pay by William C.