Town Expenses

Town Expenses for War Purposes, Fairfield County. A Report of the Joint Standing Committee on Finance Relating to Town Expenses for War Purposes, to the General Assembly, May Session, 1865.

Financing the War

A Civil War scene (not Greenwich). Photograph Collection.

To raise a sufficient number of volunteers, the towns devised a bounty (or bonus) system. Raising money to pay the bounties proved to be a burden for Greenwich. In July 1864 the Town Meeting authorized a $45,000 loan on credit to defray the expenses of raising volunteers to fill the town's quota. By August the loan had been delayed, and the Military Committee had difficulties getting volunteers without cash on hand. To meet the quota, $450 was offered to any man liable to be drafted or who volunteered for three years or furnished a substitute, and $300 for each one-year volunteer. In total Greenwich paid $56,303.65 to its volunteers and substitutes, $225 to families of volunteers, and spent an additional $1,859 on other war expenses.