On June 5, 1917, millions of young men flooded registration centers across New York City and the wider United States as the nation enacted its first wartime draft since the Civil War. Facing entry into World War I, the federal government was tasked with rapidly building an army capable of turning the tide on the bloody battlefields of Europe.
To prevent the violent anti-draft riots that had plagued the Civil War era, President Woodrow Wilson creatively designated the registration day as a national “holiday” and a festival of voluntary patriotism. The public relations strategy worked beautifully, resulting in over 9.5 million citizens peacefully signing the draft ledgers in under twenty-four hours. This massive bureaucratic triumph laid the groundwork for the historic American Expeditionary Forces.
