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Buffalo and its rich history provided M. Stephen Pendleton, associate professor of economics and finance, with the subject of the research he completed during his fall 2007 sabbatical.

Pendleton, whose broad research interests include economic history and public policy analysis, focused on the Western New York home front during the Civil War. “The raw material has barely been scratched,” said Pendleton, who worked with archival material at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society library, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library’s Buffalo Collection and Rare Book Room, the University at Buffalo’s Health Sciences Library, and Buffalo State’s E. H. Butler Library.

“We Are Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand Strong (Or Somewhere Thereabouts): Buffalo and the 1862 Militia Draft” details Western New York’s efforts to meet the Union’s need for more troops, which had become critical by spring 1862.

In July 1862, President Lincoln called for 300,000 three-year volunteers for the Union Army. A month later, he called for 300,000 nine-month volunteers. If recruitment goals for the latter quota were not met, the federal government ordered the states to draft eligible men. To meet this demand, New York required each state senatorial district to meet a quota. On a local level, the quota was broken down to the smallest political geographical unit, the ward. Fundraisers were held to augment the bounty offered to new recruits in an effort to meet the quotas and to avoid the need to implement the draft.

Many people had expected the War between the States to be over quickly. Recruitment became increasingly difficult as citizens realized that a protracted struggle was likely. Men who agreed to enlist were offered bounties by the federal and state governments. However, on July 18, 1862, the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser newspaper lamented the relatively low number of enlistees despite a bounty of $90, which included a month’s advance pay of $13. The paper also criticized the city’s recruitment efforts.

Pendleton’s research explored the reaction of the city’s immigrants to recruitment efforts. Wiedrich’s Battery was made up largely of German Americans; the 155th New York Volunteer Infantry was made up of Irish immigrants.

“When the 155th left Buffalo,” said Pendleton, “there was no band, no ceremony. The local Catholic paper expressed anger at this slight toward a regiment made up of Irish Catholics.” Accounts differ regarding the reason for the lukewarm sendoff.

As 1862 wore on, recruitment efforts continued, but the results did not attain the goals established by the quotas. The threatened draft was postponed repeatedly. However, the problems encountered in setting up state-run drafts persuaded Congress to pass the Enrollment Act of March 1863, which established a federally run national draft.

Pendleton’s work adds to a growing literature on the political, social, and economic history of the local Civil War home front, continuing the development of a narrative and analytic history of Buffalo advanced by David Gerber in The Making of an American Pluralism.Pendleton has delivered several presentations based on this research, including a presentation at the 29th Conference on New York State History in June 2008 and another at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago in April 2009.

Pendleton also completed research for an article about the development of Buffalo’s public health policy and related urban infrastructure, which is currently under review.

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