Theodore Roosevelt Sr. $300 Man
In 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War TR's father didn't volunteer to fight for the union. The draft was introduced in 1863 and it was at that point Theodore Roosevelt Sr. decided to become a $300 man.
Rather than be drafted you could pay $300 to hire a substitute to fight in your place. TR’s father paid $1,000.
Abram Graf a 36 year old German immigrant right off the boat would be the substitute who would fight for Roosevelt Sr. Graf got $38 in the deal. The balance went to the broker.
Graf wound up in company D of the 7th NY Infantry. There's a statue to the 7th in Central Park off West Drive. It was done by John Quincy Adams Ward who also did the statue of Washington at Federal Hall. The regiment was originally mustered into service on April 23, 1861. Below is a copy of Graf''s name appearing on a muster roll of the 7th NY Regiment.
Graf was captured at Chancellorsville in May 1863. He would later die in 1864 at City Point outside Petersburg. Below is the regimental record of his death.
Theodore Sr. always said he never wanted to fire on his wife’s family who had volunteered to join the Confederacy. In his wife’s family James Dunwoody Bulloch was a Confederate purchasing agent in Europe and his half-brother Irvine Stephens Bulloch 1898 was serving in the Confederate Navy. Legend has it Irvine fired the last shot on the CSA Alabama, as it was sunk by the U.S. Kearsarge outside Cherbourg, France on June 19, 1864. He was captained by Raphael Semmes. On the shore the sinking was captured by the French modernist artist Édouard Manet Martha also had a half-brother Daniel Elliott who at 35 on died August 3, 1862 in Chatham Georgia of pulmonary disease.
All in all two brothers were out of the country and one had died months before the union passed conscription. It would have been impossible for him to shoot anyone in his wife’s family. Mary Todd Lincoln had 4 brothers who fought for the Confederacy.
