MILITARY APTITUDE — UNITED STATES. Go 



figure so fur tittaiiied, iiainely (J7G, that beiiiy the year of the outbreak of the Italian 

 war. 



It might be supposed that the promulgation of the enrollment-law during the war 

 of the rebellion in the United States, and the successive drafts for large quotas of men 

 which followed its enactment, must have afforded the requisite data for estimating- the 

 military aptitude of the nation. But the conditions of such a calculation would vary 

 too extensively from those under which the estimates of European nations have been 

 made for any just comparison to be possible. 



The American conscription included men of all ages from 18 to 45 years; and, 

 being the first occasion of its extensive application, citizens at these and at all inter- 

 mediate years were actually drafted. As a consequence, exemptions for disease were 

 in very much larger proportion than is likely to be found in an annual class of young 

 men of 19 or 20 years of age. In addition, it should be remembered that, from out the 

 available military population of the loyal States, a vast body of men had withdrawn 

 themselves as vohiutccrs in the earlier years of the war. It is indisputable that these 

 men should have been added to the calculation to secure a fair return of the rate in 

 question. The number who enlisted in this manner, of whom no account is to be found 

 in the records of the successive drafts, and who do not therefore appear in the statistics 

 of this work, was 1,358,470.^ Of the number of men examined, out of whom this goodly 

 host was selected, it is impossible to find any information. On the other hand, as no 

 limitation of stature of the drafted man was estjTblished by the law, the decision as to 

 whether a man was '' under size " being left to the judgment of the examining surgeon, 

 another factor in the process is wanting. . .' 



It has been shown that the quality which in Europe is termed military aptitude 

 is in eifect nothing more than a statement of the number in the thousand of young 

 men of 20 years of age who are found fit for the army. In a more comprehensive 

 sense, the military aptitude of a nation may be said to be the rate of availability as 

 derived //-owt all its citizens within the limits of military age. For such a showing, it is 

 in our power to make an approximative computation. 



The census of 1860 states the entire population of the United States and its Ter- 

 ritories at 31,443,321 persons of all ages and sexes." The mihtary population, or the 

 number of males between the ages of 18 and 45 years, is, by the same authority, 

 placed at 5,624,065.^ From this number must be first deducted the military popula- 

 tion of the States in rebellion, and, secondly, of those Territories that did not furnish 

 men for the Army. The increase of the military population for the year 18G0-'61, 

 after due deductions, is estimated at 123,400.'' For the succeeding four years, to the 

 close of the war namely, it would, of course, be proportionately greater ; but if the 

 decrease of immigration and the intentional exodus of many persons in order to escape 

 the draft be considered as equal to the excess, then it would be sufficiently con-ect to 



'Final report of the Piovost-Marshal-General, 8vo, Washington, 1866, p. 100. 

 = Cc«s»s/o)-18G0, p. 597. 

 ^ Ihid., p. xvii. 

 ""/?)»/., loc. cil. 



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