On October 1st, 1864, President Abe Lincoln met with John Summerfield Staples and paid him $500 to essentially stand in for Lincoln in the military draft.

Most people when they talk about Staples focus on the fact that he was a brave, 19-year-old kid who did a heroic act by becoming the Presidents “representative recruit.” But I’d like to focus on the weird fact that Lincoln decided to pay this kid five hundo to go to war for no real reason.

I’m like, 75% sure this is a pic of Staples

The “representative recruit” system was established later during the Civil War after volunteer numbers drastically decreased. Essentially all males were required to enroll in a form of conscription, and then each congressional district had to put forth a quota of new, fresh troops.

However, rich families did not want to be involved in the fighting all…so they found a loophole. Well-off men could pay a “substitute” who would enlist to the army and fulfill that rich guys obligation.

Seems ethical!

Regardless, Lincoln participated in a similar system and chose Staples to enlist as his “representative recruit.”

I think it’s safe to assume that Lincoln interviewed a few candidates and chose his LEAST favorite guy to stand-in (seeing as how he was personally sending him to war and all). While shaking Staples hand, Lincoln supposedly said he hoped Staples “would be one of the fortunate ones.”

(Doesn’t really instill confidence in a 19 year old).

A historical marker outlining how Staples was tricked into joining the army

Anyway Staples had a pretty uneventful time in the Union Army, spending most of that time at a desk, and was able to leave after only one year.

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