The Militia Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 597, enacted July 17, 1862) was an Act of the 37th United States Congress, during the American Civil War, that authorized a militia draft within a state when the state could not meet its quota with volunteers. The Act, for the first time, also allowed African-Americans to serve in the militias as soldiers and war laborers. The act was controversial. It was praised by many abolitionists as a first step toward equality, because it stipulated that black recruits could be soldiers or manual laborers. However, the Act enacted discrimination in pay and other areas. It provided that most black soldiers were to receive $10 a month, with a $3 reduction for clothing, which was almost half as was received by white soldiers who received $13.

The state-administered system set up by the Act failed in practice and in 1863 Congress passed the Enrollment Act, the first genuine national conscription law. The 1863 law required the enrollment of every male citizen and those immigrants who had filed for citizenship between ages 20 and 45 and making them liable for conscription.