Recruiting in Franklin County, Ohio: July-August 1862
On Saturday, 19 July 1862, the Daily Ohio State Journal , Columbus, Ohio, published an article entitled “Report on Recruiting”. The article was a detailed set of instructions for establishing and conducting recruiting stations in Franklin County, Ohio. Its author, Captain Riley, had been tasked by the Franklin County Military Committee to provide a memorandum of standard operating procedures for orderly recruitment in Franklin County. This recruiting drive was a response to President Lincoln’s 2 July 1862 call for 300,000 volunteers. National defense policy, derived from the experiences of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, 1846, established a small standing army but gave the President power to call for volunteers. How those volunteers would be recruited was the responsibility of individual states. The process used by Franklin County, Ohio, is summarized below from Captain Riley’s memorandum of instruction. First, Captain Riley’s memorandum instructed that there will be a recr