12. The conscript army of 1917
When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, the immediate goal of the US Army was to raise an initial force of one million men. Despite the public perception of a burst of patriotism, reflected in the song Over There, in the early days of the war few Yanks were coming. In the first six weeks following the American declaration of war fewer than 75,000 came forward to volunteer for service in the trenches of France. President Wilson was forced to implement a draft to meet American manning goals, and Congress responded with the Selective Service Act of 1917. Wisely, the drafters of the Act studied those of the Civil War, in an attempt to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors.
Under the Selective Service Act males between the ages of 21 and 30 were required to register with local draft boards. Substitutes and commutations were expressly addressed by the Act, which prohibited both practices as well as the voluntary substitutes, such as one brother offering to fill in for the other. For the first time in American history conscription was a qualified success. About 2 million draftees were provided to the military, part of the 4.8 million men who served in the uniformed services during the First World War, and desertion and draft dodging rates were both lower than in the Civil War. The troops which actually saw combat were about half draftees and half volunteers.