Scenes from Civil War New York: Orison J. Blunt

ECW is pleased to welcome back Jonathan W. White and Timothy Justin Orr, authors of New York City in the Civil War (Arcadia, 2025) with another scene from Civil War New York. Part of a series.

In September 1863, the New York County Board of Supervisors formed the County Volunteer Substitute and Relief Committee (later called the New York County Volunteer Committee) headed by Orison J. Blunt. Seldom remembered today, Blunt proved to be one of New York City’s most indefatigable recruiting agents, responsible for maintaining the flow of manpower during the last two years of the war. Blunt’s committee vitally aided recruiting efforts by raising expensive bounties to offset the draft. Further, his committee paid commutation fees to drafted men who could not afford it and it protected substitutes from exploitation by bounty brokers. Blunt’s efforts earned him incredible popularity and bipartisan support, so such so that he ran for mayor (unsuccessfully) in 1863; however, Blunt was hated by the U.S. Provost Marshal’s office. Blunt repeatedly reduced New York City’s quota by discovering uncredited manpower shortly before each new draft day, frustrating the War Department’s desire to conscript heavily from the city.

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Today’s scene relates to “Mobilizing for War,” Chapter Three in Jonathan and Tim’s book New York City in the Civil War, part of the Images of America Series from Arcadia Press.