| Joseph D. Fay (1827-1891) was a judge in Eastchester during the Civil War, and was involved in the town government’s financial support of the war effort, which was paid for through the levy of additional property taxes and the issuance of special bonds. Among the uses of the funds was providing relief to the families of volunteers, ranging from $4 per month for a wife with no children, to $7 for a woman with five children, which came to an annual total of about $2,000. Judge Fay was assigned a section of the town and, in one month, certified the payment of $67 to the families of 13 soldiers. War weariness in 1864, caused partly by mounting casualties and the sense the Union army was not progressing, forced Eastchester to help pay for the war in different ways. The town paid enlistment bonuses--usually $250 to $350--to help meet the Eastchester quota for soldiers based on the President’s call for 500,000 troops. The Union draft law called for conscripts--paid substitutes--to make up the difference of the quota, beyond the number of enlistees. Judge Fay was part of a committee that investigated the cost of procuring substitutes from New York City for Eastchester draftees who did not want to serve. The town obtained 13 substitutes at $285 each and two substitutes at $300 each. The town also paid the commutation fee of $300 for five draftees, for whom no substitute could be found. |
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