John Summerfield Staples (1845-1888)
Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In 1864, President Lincoln named this young Stroudsburg man as his "representative recruit" for the Union Army in the Civil War. The U.S. War Department had appealed to citizens ineligible for the draft to furnish recruits, and Lincoln chose to set an example. After a White House meeting with the President on October 1, 1864, Staples served at Arlington, Virginia-one of fewer than 1300 representative recruits enrolled.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
By 1864 the Union relied on the draft to fill its armies, and even citizens exempt from service were urged to furnish substitute recruits. President Lincoln chose to lead by example, naming young John Summerfield Staples of Stroudsburg as his personal "representative recruit." After meeting the President at the White House on October 1, 1864, Staples served at Arlington, Virginia—one of fewer than 1,300 such symbolic enlistees.
Why it matters
Staples's unusual service put a human face on the Civil War's controversial draft system and on Lincoln's effort to share, at least symbolically, in the sacrifice he asked of the nation.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1864 the Civil War had ground into its fourth exhausting year, and the Union's greatest challenge was no longer only winning battles—it was filling the ranks. Enormous casualties had drained the volunteer enthusiasm of the war's early days, and in 1863 Congress had turned to a national draft to keep the armies supplied with men.
The draft was deeply controversial. It allowed certain exemptions and, notoriously, let a drafted man avoid service by paying a fee or providing a substitute to go in his place—arrangements that struck many Americans as letting the well-off buy their way out of a poor man's war. Resentment over conscription ran hot enough to spark riots.
Into that fraught atmosphere came a quieter idea: that citizens who were not themselves subject to the draft might still furnish a recruit, sending a man to serve as a gesture of shared sacrifice. It is that idea, and one Stroudsburg family's part in it, that this marker preserves.
People & events
John Summerfield Staples was a young man from Stroudsburg, in the Pocono country of Monroe County, who lived from 1845 to 1888. In 1864 he became something almost no one else in the country could claim to be: President Abraham Lincoln's personal 'representative recruit.'
The War Department had appealed to citizens who were ineligible for the draft to furnish recruits anyway, and Lincoln—who as president was hardly going to be conscripted—chose to answer that appeal himself, setting an example for the nation. He selected Staples to serve in his name. On October 1, 1864, the young man met the President at the White House, a moment that turned an ordinary Pennsylvania recruit into a small but genuine part of Lincoln's public leadership.
Staples went on to serve at Arlington, Virginia. He was, the marker notes, one of fewer than thirteen hundred representative recruits enrolled across the whole country—a rare distinction that tied a Stroudsburg family directly to the President of the United States.
Its place in the American story
Staples's story matters because it puts a human face on one of the Civil War's most divisive institutions. The draft, with its substitutes and exemptions, raised a painful question about who bears the burden of a nation's wars. By personally furnishing a recruit, Lincoln was making a pointed answer: even those exempt from service should share, at least symbolically, in the sacrifice being asked of ordinary families.
That gesture was politics in the best sense—leadership by example at a moment when public morale and the legitimacy of conscription were both under strain. A president who sent a man in his own name was telling the country that the war's costs should be shouldered together.
The episode also reminds us how the vast national drama of the Civil War reached down into small towns. A conflict decided at Gettysburg and Petersburg also touched Stroudsburg, through a young man whose name is remembered because a President chose it.
If you visit
This marker stands in Stroudsburg, a walkable town in the Pocono Mountains, and it honors a hometown connection to Abraham Lincoln that most passersby would never guess. Take a moment to appreciate the improbability of it: a young man from these hills who shook the President's hand in the White House and then went off to serve in his stead.
Read the marker and let it resize the Civil War in your mind. So much of that history is told through generals and great battles; here it comes down to one recruit, one October meeting, and one family's brush with the presidency.
Stroudsburg makes an easy, rewarding stop on a drive through eastern Pennsylvania. Pair this marker with a stroll through the historic town, and carry with you the small, surprising fact that a corner of the Poconos once stood in, quite literally, for the President of the United States.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John Summerfield Staples
- · Abraham Lincoln
Themes & tags
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