Abraham Lincoln had two reasons for volunteering as a soldier in the Black Hawk War. He had lost his job as a store clerk and he ____
You answered "was pressed into service," which is not correct. The British had a policy of kidnapping men to serve in their military, particularly, the navy. This policy, called "pressing" men into service, was considered particularly odious by the American colonists and was not adopted by the United States government or any of the state governments. Conscription, that is, the draft was established during the Civil War by the Enrollment Act of 1863 and caused riots in major cities. With the draft, men could at least say goodbye to their families and their whereabouts would be known, which was not the case for men pressed into service.