10. The Civil War Military Draft Act was implemented to ensure the states met their enlistment quotas.
In March 1863 Congress established the draft in the United States, when it passed a law which made it mandatory for male citizens between the ages of 20 and 45 to register for the draft. Immigrants within the age limits were also required to register if they had applied for citizenship, or else when they did apply. Quotas, which had previously been supplied by the states under the control of the individual governors, were shifted to Congressional districts, and enforced by federal agents. The law was instantly controversial, opposed by many Democrats in Congress and by legal scholars. It also allowed draftees to provide substitutes if they were called up.
The draft boards also offered the commutation of a draftee who could not provide a substitute by allowing him to pay a fee of $300. The fee was established by the draft boards in part to control the prices which could be charged by substitutes. The Union draft officials quickly encountered difficulties similar to those plaguing their Southern brethren. Opposition to the draft was intense and most strongly protested by immigrants in the larger cities, none more so than in New York City, where riots broke out in 1863, less than two weeks after the Union victory at Gettysburg. Troops from the Union Army there were shifted away from pursuit of the retreating Confederate Army to help quell the riots.