Military Draft History

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The history of the military draft has been used several times by the United States. The draft was also called the, “Conscription”, where the draft selects individual’s men for mandatory military service. The first draft was attempted by President James Madison during the War of 1812, because Congress didn’t support the draft it failed during the first attempt. Since then, the draft has become an important part of American military history. The first draft was ordered by the U.S. government during the Civil War. Many of the drafted soldiers only made up of about 2 percent of Union forces. The Confederate States also instituted a draft. The U.S. government and the Confederate States allowed draftees to hire a substitute soldier to fight in their…show more content…
During that time there were only 73,000 soldiers who volunteered during the first six weeks of the World War I, that’s when Woodrow Wilson decided to call for a draft .The Selective Service Act of 1917 ended up drafting over 3,000,000 soldiers for the War. After the attempt of drafts during World War I, that’s when the United States entered into World War II. In 1940, a bill was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt and created calling the Selective Service and Training Act making it the first peacetime draft of 1940. The Selective Service and Training Act, meant that all men between the ages of 21 and 45 were required to register with the Selective Service System before October 16th .Because the Act, had only been passed ten days before it was set into place. There was lottery system that was used to determine which males that registered and who the Selective Service System would draft. If they were picked, the men would be required to serve in the military for at least one year. By the end of the war, the range of age changed and was extended to all men between the ages of 18 and 64. There were a total of ten million men that were conscripted into military service during the…show more content…
Male immigrants ages 18 and 25 living in the United States are also required to register with the Selective Service. When President Jimmy Carter renewed the Selective Service in 1980, Congress decided not to require women to register, because women could not serve in combat.Woman are exempted from registering if you are a woman or if you have been born a female and had a sex change. A male that is in a mental hospital or prison do not have to register while they are committed until 30 days after they are released. Males that already served in the Military don’t have to register. During the draft, there would be a lottery system to pick which man that would have priority for the draft and serve a year in the draft. The meaning of answering the questions above about the draft is because it tells a story about the war and why certain people were chosen to fight in Wars. The answers give meaning to the history of how the draft even began to the point of why certain man needed to register with the Selective Service

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