He came forward and was introduced, and made a speech appealing to the patriotism of the meeting.Īfter the speaking was over volunteers were called for to form a company. Washburne, with whom I was not acquainted at that time, came in after the meeting had been organized, and expressed, I understood afterwards, a little surprise that Galena could not furnish a presiding officer for such an occasion without taking a stranger. Rawlins, an elector on the Douglas ticket. Howard, the post-master and a Breckinridge Democrat at theNovember election the fall before, and John A. There was probably no one in the house, however, who felt like making any other. Speeches were in order, but it is doubtful whether it would have been safe just then to make other than patriotic ones. With much embarrassment and some prompting I made out to announce the object of the meeting. Although a comparative stranger I was called upon to preside the sole reason, possibly, was that I had been in the army and had seen service. In the evening the court-house was packed. Business ceased entirely all was excitement for a time there were no party distinctions all were Union men, determined to avenge the insult to the national flag. There was not a state in the North of a million of inhabitants that would not have furnished the entire number faster than arms could have been supplied to them, if it had been necessary.Īs soon as the news of the call for volunteers reached Galena, posters were stuck up calling for a meeting of the citizens at the court-house in the evening. If the shot fired at Fort Sumter "was heard around the world," the call of the President for 75,000 men was heard throughout the Northern States.
The call was for 75,000 volunteers for ninety days' service. Upon the firing on Sumter President Lincoln issued his first call for troops and soon after a proclamation convening Congress in extra session. We did not admit the fact that they were aliens, but all the same, they debarred themselves of the right to expect better treatment than people of any other foreign state who make war upon an independent nation. The Confederates proclaimed themselves aliens, and thereby debarred themselves of all right to claim protection under the Constitution of the United States. On the 11th of April Fort Sumter, a National fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, was fired upon by the Southerners and a few days after was captured. The secession of one State after another followed, until eleven had gone out. The 4th of March, 1861, came, and Abraham Lincoln was sworn to maintain the Union against all its enemies. Outbreak Of The Rebellion - Presiding At A Union Meeting - Mustering Officer Of State Troops - Lyon At Camp Jackson - Services Tendered To The Government.
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