Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

In order to encourage enlistments and to compensate the soldiers who were invited to rally under the Federal flag, Congress passed a resolution offering each a bounty of one hundred dollars. It, moreover, appropriated the sum of one hundred and sixty-one million dollars for military expenses; and in order to secure the most powerful means of action to the government, it authorized the government during the recess of Congress to increase the amount voted for the support and equipment of the national troops to the enormous figure of five hundred million of dollars. We will mention hereafter, the financial measures adopted during the same session to meet the unexpected requirements of such an appropriation. The War Department was reorganized, and its personnel considerably increased.

The ordinary session of Congress was to open on the 2d of December, 1861. During the recess the legislative acts it had passed for the creation of volunteer armies were executed, enabling those armies, as we have shown elsewhere, to acquire the numerical strength, organization and necessary materiel for a great war. There were but two measures relating to the formation of new corps, initiated by the President himself before the meeting of Congress. The object of the first, under date of September 17th, was to assemble at Hatteras a regiment of volunteers recruited in North Carolina. It was hoped thereby to enlist under the Federal flag those citizens who had remained loyal to the constitution, notwithstanding the secession of their State. This first effort did not prove very successful, the number of Carolinians who sought refuge on the narrow downs of Hatteras being altogether insignificant. On the 7th of November, Mr. Lincoln likewise authorized the raising of Federal regiments in Missouri. As that State was divided between the two parties, and a large number of militia had already entered the service of the Union, several of these regiments were speedily formed.

In the mean while, the people of the North had eagerly responded to the call made upon them; and when Congress met, the government was able to announce that it had six hundred and eighty-two thousand nine hundred and seventy-one men in its service, six hundred and forty thousand six hundred and thirty-seven of whom were volunteers, twenty thousand three hundred and thirty-four