Their Story
Jack Chandler was born in Taylor County Kentucky, and was a slave. He was 18 years old when he enlisted[1] as a substitute for George C. Eadis on 06/27/1864 at Lebanon, Kentucky, roughly 18 miles from the Taylor County Seat of Campbellsville. He had been a farmer. He was transferred to Company K of the 108th U.S. Colored Infantry July 11 at Louisville.[2]
Many men avoided military service by simply taking advantage of the Enrollment Act of 1863 allowing draftees to pay $300 to a substitute who served for them. This amount, a healthy sum in 1864, is about $5,174.50 in today’s dollars.[3] John D. Rockefeller was one such man who paid someone to serve for him.
If a man who was drafted had a slave he could send the slave in his place, or he could buy a slave from another to go in his place. This is how Jack Chandler came to enlist.
The Enrollment Act, enacted by the Thirty-Seventh Congress in response to the need to swell the ranks of the Union Army, subjected all males between the ages of twenty and forty-five to the draft. Men who were mentally or physically impaired, the only son of a widow, the son of infirm parents, or a widower with dependent children were exempt. The act divided the United States into enrollment districts along the lines of congressional districts. Col. James Barnet Fry, the new Provost Marshal General, had the vexing and troublesome duty to enforce this unpopular law until the war’s end in 1865, when his bureau went out of business.
The 108th Infantry Regiment was organized at Louisville, Kentucky, June 20, 1864. The Regiment served garrison and guard duty at various points in Kentucky until September 1864. The Regiment provided guard duty at Rock Island, Illinois, September 1864 to May 1865. The regiment was then transferred to Vicksburg, Mississippi. They were mustered out March 21, 1866.
However, Private Chandler died of disease[4] at Rock Island Prison Barracks Post Hospital April 19, 1865.[5] The Register of Death of Volunteer Colored Troops 1861-1865 lists the cause of death as inflammation of the brain.[6] Death from disease was common at Rock Island and in April 1865 alone many others died from disease such as measles, smallpox, typhoid fever, and remittent fever. Men also died from pneumonia, chronic diarrhea, and other conditions.
Eugene C. Murdock, Patriotism Limited, 1862-1865: The Civil War Draft and the Bounty System 1967; and Eugene C. Murdock, One Million Men: The Civil War Draft in the North 1971.
George Templeton Strong, The Diary of George Templeton Strong, ed. Allen Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (1952), p. 479, and Pages 731, and 732.
Edwin Reiter, The Road to Freedom: A History of the 108th Infantry Regiment (USCT) Kindle Direct Publishing, 2015.
Fold3, Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served the United States Colored Troops: 56th-138th USCT Infantry, 1864-1866. Visited 02/17/2022
Jack Chandler (1846-1865) – Find a Grave Memorial
Page 4 Civil War Service Records (CMSR) – Union – Colored Troops 56th-138th Infantry – Fold3
Page 17 Civil War Service Records (CMSR) – Union – Colored Troops 56th-138th Infantry – Fold3
U.S., Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865 – Ancestry.com
Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments | National Archives
Jack Chandler’s memorial page – Honor Veterans Legacies at VLM (va.gov)
[1] Jack Chandler (1846-1865) – Find a Grave Memorial
[2] Page 4 Civil War Service Records (CMSR) – Union – Colored Troops 56th-138th Infantry – Fold3
[3] Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments | National Archives
[4] Page 17 Civil War Service Records (CMSR) – Union – Colored Troops 56th-138th Infantry – Fold3
[5] Jack Chandler (1846-1865) – Find a Grave Memorial
[6] U.S., Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865 – Ancestry.com