• The military draft has a rich history"USMC Iwo Jima War Memorial at Night, World War II, Veteran Soldiers, American Flag" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: BL1961 (Beverly) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Early America

• Following the Revolutionary War, President George Washington proposed legislation that would require men to register for military service, but it was rejected by Congress.
  
  

Civil War -- South

• In April 1862, the Confederacy passed a conscription law requiring all white males between the ages of 18 and 35 to serve three years in the military. However, exemptions and substitutes were allowed, which contributed to some men failing to comply. The draft age was expanded to include men aged 17 to 50, and eventually adjusted to include slaves.
  
  

Civil War -- North

• In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was granted permission by Congress to require men between the ages of 20 and 45 to register for the draft. After a number of riots in the North, the law was amended to allow buyouts.
  
  

1917

• In 1917, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which required men between the ages of 21 and 30 register. In 1920, the draft was discontinued.
  
  

1940

• The draft was reinstated with President Franklin Roosevelt's creation of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which required all men aged 21 to 35 to register for the military draft. The age was later lowered to 18. The act expired in 1947 but was reinstated a year later. From 1948 to 1973, hundreds of thousands of men were drafted to fight in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
  
  

1973

• In 1973, the draft was ended. Though the current military is a volunteer force, men between the ages of 18 and 26 must register with the Selective Service.