Methods
Being a bounty jumper was more profitable in the North. A month after the Battle of Fort Sumter the United State Congress passed a law allowing for bounties up to $300. The Confederate government did likewise, starting at $50 and then later in the war increased the bounty to $100. As the US dollar was worth more than the Confederate dollar ever was, regardless of the $200 disparity, the Northern government had greater luck with bounties, and was more likely to have to deal with bounty jumpers. With state and local governments also adding to bounties, the total could amount to $1000, a considerable amount. As the typical Northern private was paid $13 a month, the bonuses were considerable.
Typically, the bounty jumper would desert their unit before arriving on the front lines, traveling to a new area to gain another bounty. One bounty jumper collected at least 32 bounties.
Read more about this topic: Bounty Jumper
Famous quotes containing the word methods:
“With a generous endowment of motherhood provided by legislation, with all laws against voluntary motherhood and education in its methods repealed, with the feminist ideal of education accepted in home and school, and with all special barriers removed in every field of human activity, there is no reason why woman should not become almost a human thing. It will be time enough then to consider whether she has a soul.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“The reading public is intellectually adolescent at best, and it is obvious that what is called “significant literature” will only be sold to this public by exactly the same methods as are used to sell it toothpaste, cathartics and automobiles.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“The philosopher is in advance of his age even in the outward form of his life. He is not fed, sheltered, clothed, warmed, like his contemporaries. How can a man be a philosopher and not maintain his vital heat by better methods than other men?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)