The first call for troops was made on the 15th of April, 1861, by Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, requiring the Governor to detach from the State militia 225 officers and 4,458 men, to compose six regiments. The order, "to detach," supposed the previous existence of an efficient, organized militia force, properly officered and equipped, capable of being called at once into active service. Such was not the case. In the long sway of peace, the people had neglected the "mimic show of war;" few companies were organized; fewer still were drilled and supplied with arms. Plowshares instead of swords, pruning-hooks instead of spears or bayonets, was the order from Lake Michigan to the Great River.

Adjutant-General Fuller, in his Report for 1861-2, gives the situation :

"From papers turned over to me by my predecessor, I find but twenty-five bonds for the return of arms issued to militia companies in 1857-8-9 and '60, and during that time but thirty-seven certificates of the election of company officers. It will furthermore appear from the report of the Quartermaster-General, who, until about the first of April, 1862, had charge of the Ordnance Department, there were but three hundred and sixty-two United States altered muskets, one hundred and five Harper's Ferry and Deniger's rifles, one hundred and thirty-three musketoons and two hundred and ninety-seven horse pistols in the arsenal. A few hundred unserviceable arms and accoutrements were scattered through the State, principally in possession of the militia companies. In fact, there were no available, efficient, armed and organized militia in the State, and it is doubted whether there were thirty companies with any regular organization. It is true there were in our principal cities and towns several independent militia companies whose occasional meetings for drill were held more for exercise and amusement than from any sense of duty to the State. Many of these formed the nucleus of splendid companies, which came promptly forward, and who have rendered excellent service to their State and country."

The day the Governor received the call of the War Department, he issued a proclamation for a special session of the Legislature to meet on the 23d of April. As part of the history of the beginning of the war some extracts from the message are appended:

THE OCCASION.

"The Constitution authorizes me on extraordinary occasions to convene the Legislature in special sessions. Certainly no occasion could have arisen more extraordinary than the one which is now presented to us. A plan conceived and cherished by some able but misguided statesman of the Southern States for many years past,

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founded upon an inadmissible and destructive interpretation of our national constitution, considered until very recently as merely visionary, has been partially carried into practical execution by ambitious and restless leaders, to the great peril of our noble Union, of our Democratic institutions and of our public and private prosperity.

"The popular discontent, consequent inevitably upon a warmly-contested Presi dential election, which heretofore has always soon subsided amongst a people having the profoundest respect for their self-imposed laws, and bowing respectfully before the majesty of the popular will, constitutionally expressed; this discontent was in this instance artfully seized upon, and before there was time for the angry passions to subside, one State after another was precipitated out of the Union by a machinery, wanting in most instances, the sanction of the people in the seceding States.

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"No previous effort was made by the disloyal States to procure redress for sup posed grievances. Impelled by bold and sagacious leaders, disunionists at heart, they spurned in advance all proffers of compromise. The property of the Union, its forts and arsenals, costing the people of all the States enormous sums of money, were seized with a strong hand. Our noble flag, which had protected the now seceding portions of the Confederacy within its ample folds in their infancy, and which is the pride of every true and loyal American heart, and which had become respected and revered throughout the world as the symbol of democracy and liberty, was insulted and trampled in the dust. "A conference of Commissioners, at the instance of the Commonwealth of Virginia, was held at the Capital, attended by nearly all the border States and all the free States, with but one or two exceptions. Propositions of a highly conciliatory character were adopted by a majority of the free States represented in said conference; but before Congress had even time to consider them, they were denounced by leading men in the border States, and by almost every one of their members of Congress, as unsatisfactory and inadmissible, though they met the approval of the best patriots and of the mass of the people in the border States. The seceded States treated them with the utmost contempt. That, under such circumstances, and when no practical object could be obtained, the representatives of the free States declined to adopt them, is no matter of surprise.

"A proposition, first made by the Legislature of Kentucky, for the call of a National Constitutional Convention, as provided in the Constitution, for the redress of all grievances, undoubtedly the best and surest mode of settling all difficulties, was responded to by Illinois, and by many other free States, and such a convention was definitely recommended by the present administration on its advent to the government. Enough had been done by the border and free States to satisfy every rational mind that the South would have nothing to fear from any measures to be passed by Congress, or by any of the State Legislatures.

"Public sentiment was everywhere, in the free States, for peace and compromise. No better proof could be required, that the conspiracy, which has now assumed such formidable dimensions, and which is threatening the destruction of the fairest

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fabric of human wisdom and human liberty, is of long standing, and is wholly independent of the election of a particular person to the Presidential office, than the manner in which the seceded States have acted toward their loyal brethren of the South and North since they have entered upon their criminal enterprise. We must do them, however, the justice to say, that all their public documents, and all the speeches of their controlling leaders, candidly admit that the Presidential election has not been the cause for their action, and that they were impelled by far different motives. * “The spirit of a free and brave people is aroused at last. Upon the first call of the constitutional government they are rushing to arms. Fully justified in the eyes of the world and in the light of history, they have resolved to save the government of our fathers, to preserve the Union so dear by a thousand memories and promising so much of happiness to them and their children, and to bear aloft the flag which for eighty-five years has gladdened the hearts of the struggling free on every continent, island and sea under the whole heavens. Our own noble State, as of yore, has responded in a voice of thunder. The entire mass is alive to the crisis. If, in Mexico, our Hardin and Shields, and Bissell and Baker, and their gallant comrades, were found closest to their colors, and in the thickest of the fight, and shed imperishable luster upon the fame and glory of Illinois, now that the struggle is for our very Nationality, and for the Stars and Stripes, her every son will be a soldier and bare his breast to the storm of battle.

“The attack upon Fort Sumter produced a most startling transformation on the Northern mind, and awakened a sleeping giant, and served to show, as no other event in all the history of the past ever did, the deep-seated fervor and affection with which our whole people regard our glorious Union. Party distinctions vanished as a mist, in a single night, as if by magic; and parties and party platforms were swept as a morning dream from the minds of men; and now men of all parties, by thousands, are begging for places in the ranks. The blood of twenty millions of freemen boils, with cauldron heat, to replace our national flag upon the very walls whence it was insulted and by traitor hands pulled down. Every village and hamlet resounds with beat of drum and clangor of arms. Three hundred thousand men wait the click of the wires for marching orders, and all the giant energies of the Northwest are at the command of the government. Those who have supposed that the people of the free States will not fight for the integrity of the Union, and that they will suffer another government to be carved out of the boundaries of this Union, have hugged a fatal delusion to their bosoms, for our people will wade through seas of blood before they will see a single star or a solitary stripe erased from the glorious flag of our Union.

ASSISTANCE RENDERED.

The Governor thus refers to aid rendered him by gentlemen of adverse political sentiments, and by the citizens of various portions of the State:

“The services already rendered me, in my effort to organize troops, provide

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means, arms and provisions, by distinguished members of the party, hitherto opposed to me in political sentiments, are beyond all praise, and are by me, in behalf of the State, most cheerfully acknowledged. There are now more companies received than are needed under the Presidential call, and almost unlimited numbers have formed and are forming, awaiting further orders. A single inland county (La Salle) tenders nine full companies, and our principal city (Chicago) has responded with contributions of men and money worthy of her fame for public spirit and patriotic devotion. Nearly a million of money has been offered to the State, as a loan, by our patriotic capitalists and other private citizens, to pay the expenses connected with the raising of our State troops and temporarily providing for them."

NEEDED LEGISLATION.

In this sudden emergency, when the call was made by the National Government, I found myself greatly embarrassed, by what still remains on our statute book, as a militia law, and by the entire want of organization of our military force. A great portion of this law has grown entirely obsolete, and cannot be carried out, and moreover is in conflict with the instructions of the war department, which latter are based on the various military laws of the United States now in force. But as far as possible, I have made an effort to keep within the provisions of our law. "I have to call your attention most emphatically to the enactment of a practicable militia law, as recommended in my Inaugural Address, which should recognize the principle of volunteering as one of its most prominent features. It ought to be plain and intelligible as well as concise and comprehensive. It ought to provide for many emergencies and future contingencies, and not for the present moment alone. I trust that our conflict will not be a protracted one; but if it unfortunately should be, we may well expect that what is now done by enthusiasm, and in the first effervescence of popular excitement, may hereafter have to be done by a stern sense of duty, to be regulated by an equally stern law. Trials may come, which can only be met by endurance and patient performance of prescribed duty.

"I deem the passage of a well digested militia law the more necessary, as it seems to me, that the present levy of troops, which will soon pass under the control of the General Government, is insufficient to protect our State against threatened invasion, and such commotions as frequently follow in the train of war: I would recommend to keep an active militia force, consisting of infantry, cavalry and artillery, for some time to come, at least; also a reserve force for protection against dangers of any kind, and for the purpose of readily complying from time to time, with the requisitions of the General Government.

"It is for you, representatives of the people, if you coincide with my views in this respect, to pass the proper laws to accomplish the objects recommended to your most earnest consideration.

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"I recommend the appropriation by the Legislature of a sum not exceeding three millions of dollars, so much of which only is to be expended as the public exigences may require; and I would further recommend that the law be passed authoriz

ing the Governor to accept the services of ten regiments, in addition to those already called out by the general government.

'Though the Constitution has very properly restricted the contracting of a public debt in all ordinary cases, it has, with commendable foresight, provided for cases of emergency such as the present, in allowing loans to be made 'for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the State in war,' I invite you to a prompt action on this all important subject, and feel no hesitation that you will come forward with a zeal and alacrity, in providing ample means for the present emergency, corresponding to the devotion of our people to their sacred honor and their glorious flag.

"It has come to my knowledge that there are several thousand stand of arms scattered over the State, which are, however, not of the most approved construction, and need to be exchanged for others, or to be provided with the more modern appliance, to make them serviceable. I have already instituted means to have these collected at the State Armory at the Capital, and what disposition shall be made of them is respectfully submitted to your consideration.

"Other measures may be necessary by you for the purpose of lending efficient assistance to the General Government in preserving the Union, enforcing the laws, and protecting the rights and property of the people, which I must leave to your judgment and wisdom. As one of such measures, however, I recommend the propriety of passing a law restraining the telegraph in our State from receiving and transmitting any messages, the object of which shall be to encourage a violation of the laws in this State or the United States, and to refuse all messages in cipher, except when they are sent by the State or national authorities, or citizens known to be loyal.

“And now, as we love our common country, in all its parts, with all its blessings of climate and culture; its mountains, valleys and streams; as we cherish its history and the memory of the world's only Washington; as we love our free civilization, striking its roots deep down into those principles of truth and justice eternal as God; as we love our government so free, our institutions so noble, our boundaries so broad; as we love our grand old flag, 'sign of the free heart's only home,' that is cheered and hailed in every sea and haven of the world, let us resolve that we will preserve that Union and those institutions, and that there shall be no peace till the traitorous and bloodless palmetto shall be hurled from the battlements of Sumter, and the star-spangled banner in its stead wave defiantly in the face of traitors, with every star and every stripe flaming from all its ample folds."

On reception of the call, General Order No. 1 was issued from headquarters, requiring all commandants of divisions, brigades, regiments and companies, to hold themselves in readiness for actual service, and on the 15th, General Order No. 2 directed the immediate organization of the six regiments.

In reviewing the war, and looking back upon the formidable