 |
| Burnside's riflemen. |
 |
| Wm. A. Buckingham. |
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[403]
Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, whose labors throughout the war were unceasing and of vast importance, responded to the President's call for troops by issuing a proclamation on the same day, urging the citizens of the State to volunteer their services in aid of the Government.
The banks offered all the money necessary to equip the regiment of men required by the circular letter of the Secretary of War.
So enthusiastic were the people, that the Governor, in a message to the Legislature on the 1st of May, averred that forty-one volunteer companies had already been accepted.
The prediction that there would be a divided North--that blood would flow in New England, in the event of an attempt of the National Government to enforce the laws against Southern insurgents,1 was most signally falsified.
New York, as we shall observe presently, responded nobly to the call; and the neighboring inhabitants of New Jersey were so full of enthusiasm, that they became
impatient of the seeming lukewarmness and tardiness of Governor Olden and others in authority.
The Governor was so startled by the demonstrations of patriotism around him, that he ordered Company A of the City Battalion of Trenton, the capital of the State, to watch the Arsenal, and see that the people did not run away with the arms.
Two days after the President's call, he issued a formal proclamation, calling for the quota of New Jersey to assemble at the State capital.
The Trenton banks tendered a loan to the State of twenty-five thousand dollars; and the authorities of the city of Newark appropriated one hundred thousand dollars for the maintenance of the families of volunteers, and five thousand dollars for the equipment of the soldiers.
The Legislature met on the 30th of April, in extraordinary session, when Major-General Theodore Runyon was appointed commander of the New Jersey forces, and the movements of troops toward Washington began.
Pennsylvania, like Massachusetts, had been watchful and making preparations for the crisis.
Her militia force was about three hundred and fifty thousand.
The resources of the State had been pledged by the Legislature, in January, to the support of the
1 See note 1, page 215.
Scanned printed text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.