April 19, 1861. |
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here in Indianapolis, and your own.” --“Where is the law defining the duties of the Adjutant-General?” --“There is no law on the subject — nothing pertaining to military organization.” --“Well, then,” said Wallace, “your immediate business is the raising of six regiments.” --“That is it,” said the Governor.--“Have you objections to giving me one of them after they are raised?”
inquired Wallace.--“None at all; you shall have one of them,” was the answer.
This brief conversation gives an idea of the absolute want of preparation for war on the part of Indiana when the rebellion broke out — a State that afterward sent about two hundred thousand troops to the field.
It occurred on Tuesday morning succeeding the attack on Fort Sumter, and on the following Friday night
Wallace reported to the Governor the sixty companies for the six regiments, complete, and in “Camp Morton,” adjoining Indianapolis.
He reported, in addition, more than eighty surplus companies, organized and ready to move.
With the report he sent in his resignation, and a request for permission to go out and organize his own regiment.
It was given, and within the next twenty-four hours he reported the “Eleventh Regiment Indiana Volunteers” (Zouaves), which did admirable service in Western Virginia a few weeks later, as organized, armed, and ready for marching orders.1 Within four days after the President's call was promulgated from Washington, more than ten thousand Indianians were in camp.
So Indiana, one of the younger States of the Union, also prepared for the struggle.
Illinois, under the vigorous leadership of Governor Yates, was early upon the war-path.
At the beginning of April, Yates saw the clouds of most alarming difficulty surely gathering, while many others perceived nothing but a serene sky. On the 12th he issued a call for an extraordinary session of the Legislature on the 23d.
On receiving the President's call for troops on the 15th, he issued a stirring appeal to the people, and in less than twenty-four hours afterward, four thousand men reported themselves ready and anxious for service.
The quota of the. State (six thousand) was more than filled by the 20th; and, pursuant to the request of the General Government, Yates sent two thousand of these State troops to possess and hold Cairo, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, a point of great strategic importance at that time, as we shall observe presently.
The Legislature of Illinois met at Springfield on the 23d, and two days afterward it was addressed by the distinguished United States Senator, Stephen A. Douglas, the rival of Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency of the Republic.
When Treason lifted its arm to strike, Mr. Douglas instantly offered himself as a shield for his country.
He abandoned all party allegiance,
1 Wallace's regiment was a fair type of the Indiana Volunteers who composed her quota. It was an assemblage of mechanics, farmers, lawyers, doctors, and clergymen. They were all young and full of life, and ambitious, quick, shrewd, and enterprising. The regiment adopted the Zouave costume of Colonel Wallace's Crawfordsville Company. The color was steel gray, with a narrow binding of red on their jackets and the top of a small cap. The shirt was of dark blue flannel. The Zouaves, from whom they derived their name, were a body of Algerine soldiers, whom the French incorporated into their army after the conquest of Algeria. They were a wild, reckless set of men, in picturesque costume, and marked for their perfect discipline and particularly active tactics. The native Zouaves finally disappeared from the French army, but their costume and tactics were preserved. When French Zouave regiments performed eminent service in the Crimea, and gained immense popularity, Wallace and Ellsworth introduced the costume and system of maneuvers into this country, and at the beginning of the civil war large numbers of the volunteers assumed their garb and name.
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