This is a small printed trade card, 3.5” x 2.25”, printed in black on white card stock and in very good condition.

“Capt. W. F. DEWEY & Co.,
WAR CLAIM AND SUBSTITUTE AGENTS.
War Claims collected and Substitutes furnished at the very lowest rates.
Office, No. 49 Pine Street,
(Between Third and Fourth Streets, in the “DAILY PRESS” Building,)
SAINT LOUIS, MO.
Mechanics and laboring men who desire Substitutes, call on us.”

The card dates to the Civil War, most likely 1864 to 1865. It documents one of the most controversial practices of the war: buying your way out of the draft. Under the federal Enrollment Act of March 1863, a drafted man could avoid service in two ways. He could pay a $300 “commutation” fee, or he could hire a substitute to serve in his place. In July 1864, Congress ended commutation for most draftees, which made substitutes the main legal way out. Prices for substitutes rose sharply, and a brokerage industry grew up to supply them. Brokers like Dewey were widely seen as war profiteers, even though the business was legal.

The bottom line of the card is especially telling: “Mechanics and laboring men who desire Substitutes, call on us.” At $300 or more, a year’s wages for a laborer, substitution was mostly a privilege of the wealthy. That gave rise to the bitter phrase “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” Dewey’s promise of the “very lowest rates” aimed directly at working men who might otherwise have been priced out. The other half of the business, “war claims,” meant helping soldiers, veterans, widows, and families collect money owed by the government. That included enlistment bounties, back pay, pensions, and payment for property taken or destroyed by the army. Claims agents filed the paperwork for a fee or a percentage. This was a big business in Missouri, a Union border state torn by guerrilla warfare, where many civilians lost horses, crops, and property to troops on both sides.

I can’t confirm details about “Capt. W. F. Dewey” himself from memory. The military title suggests he may have been a former officer, a common credential for claims agents, who wanted to look trustworthy to government offices.

“Capt. W.F. Dewey” could be William F. Dewey originally of Ottawa, IL. He enlisted on 1/1/1862 as a 1st Lieutenant in Company "C" of the 53rd Illinois Infantry. He was promoted to Captain on 11/15/1862 (but not Mustered), and dismissed on 8/15/1863. [jet] [ph:L]

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