Description
Henry C. Chapman's form 31. Form 31 was issued to individuals who provided a substitute (usually for a cash payment) to serve in his place in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Houlton, as well as many other communities, paid for substitutes for its young men out of fear that if all the young men of a town went off to war they could all be killed and there would be no future for the town. This was not an idle fear, Civil War era army units were organized by communities. In a pitched battle, most of a community's young men could be wiped out.
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