McLean County, Illinois - Chapter 10: Civil and Spanish-American Wars, 1924

EVENTS LEADING UP TO CIVIL WAR - PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN McLEAN COUNTY - ANSWER TO FIRST CALL OF PRESIDENT - FIRST COMPANY - OTHER COMPANIES AND REGIMENTS IN SERVICE - RELIEF WORK - SOLDIER'S MONUMENT - SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.

Little can we conceive at this day and generation of the bitterness of the political campaign which preceded the presidential election of 1860, in which there were four candidates, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckenridge and John Bell. Lincoln and Douglas were both from the state of Illinois, Breckenridge from Kentucky and Bell from Tennessee. Lincoln had been nominated by the then comparatively young Republican party; Douglas was the candidate of the northern Democrats, while Bell and Breckenridge were put up by the southern Democrats. Breckenridge was the candidate of the secession wing of his party - the element which believed the slave states of the south should withdraw from the Union and form a Confederacy or nation of their own.

Political sentiment in McLean County was unanimously against the idea that part of the states might secede peaceably from the Union. The Republican and Democratic parties alike were pledged not to interfere with slavery in the states where it was already established, but the Republicans also wanted to vote slavery out of any new states admitted. Speculation before the election of 1860 was to the effect that either Lincoln would be elected by getting the necessary 180 electoral votes, or else that no candidate would have a majority and the election would be thrown into the house; no one thought that Douglas would win. It is interesting to recall the vote in McLean County in that historic election.

Lincoln received 3,547, Douglas 2,567, Bell 58, and Breckenridge 7. Lincoln received 172,161 votes in the state of Illinois, Douglas 160,215, Bell 4,913, and Breckenridge 2,404.

After Lincoln's election, and before his inauguration, plans were going forward in the south for the withdrawal of the slave states and the forming of a new Confederacy. Between December and March, the following states had formally seceded: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. These six states held a meeting in February, 1861, and formed the Southern Confederacy. A few months later, and after war had actually broken out, the states of Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia, joined them.

Public sentiment in the country was in a turmoil when Lincoln took office, on March 4, 1861. No one knew what would happen next. During Buchanan's term, after Lincoln's election, the men from the south in Congress and elsewhere, had conspired to weaken the arms of the government in every way, so that the military and naval establishment was broken down when Lincoln stepped in. A peace convention had been called, but it came to nothing, and things were still in this state of uncertainty, when on April 12, 1861, the United States flag on Fort Sumter was fired upon, and after a brief resistance the garrison surrendered.

In spite of the lack of telephones, radio messages and with only crude telegraphic facilities, the news of the precipitation of the country into war came like a flash to McLean County. On April 15, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers to serve three months. The response in McLean County was instant. It would be hard to describe the scenes enacted in Bloomington and in every other town of the county.

On the next night after the President's proclamation, the 16th, a public meeting was held at Phoenix Hall, and a muster roll of a military company was made up. It was rapidly signed, and on the 18th, only three days after the President's call, a company of 113 young men left Bloomington for Springfield under command of Captain Harvey, a veteran of the Mexican War.

The scene at the departure of this first company of volunteers from Bloomington was memorable; would that we had a moving picture of it. The entire population gathered at the old C. & A depot north of Chestnut Street, to bid good-bye to the boys who were going, as many thought, to certain death. Such scenes were repeated many times in the succeeding four years as company after company went off to war, but the later scenes lacked some of the novelty and dramatic interest which attached to the first. The company went to Cairo, where they saw no actual warfare, but many of them suffered from sickness and lack of sanitary conditions in camp. At the end of their three months' service practically all of them returned home in July. But the company re-enlisted for three years under the President's second call, and became Company K of the Eighth Illinois. Captain Harvey, who continued as company commander under the reorganization, lost his life in battle at Shiloh, April 6, 1862. The lieutenant was Joseph G. Howell, who had been in charge of the model school in Normal and resigned to enter the army. He was killed at Fort Donnelson in February, 1862. Howell and Harvey were highly honored and long held in memory in McLean County as the first officers that fell in battle in the Civil War. A great public funeral was held here for Lieutenant Howell, whose body was brought back for burial. A marble tablet in the halls at Normal commemorate his service.

Five other companies of three months' men were offered in the weeks immediately after Company K departed. The state could accept but one such company. During May and June recruiting continued at gigantic strides. It was seen that the war would not end in thirty days, and that three-year enlistments would be necessary. When the latter call came, each congressional district in Illinois was asked to furnish a regiment.

But how to feed and equip them? The general government could not do it; its resources were overtaxed. So far as McLean County is concerned, the board of supervisors came to the rescue. This body had been organized only three years, having first been formed in 1857. Just a week after the departure of Captain Harvey's company for the front, the board met. Two days later it passed a resolution framed by the chairman of the committee, Owen T. Reeves, to vote $10,000 "to defray the necessary expense of enrolling, equipping and provisioning such persons as had volunteered or may volunteer in defense of their country." There was only $2,000 in the treasury, but a committee was appointed to borrow the money for this first appropriation.

Volunteers continued to pour into Bloomington, and five other companies were formed captained by Pullen, Hely, Friccui and Ewing. The committee of the board of supervisors had to find places to shelter

This example of McLean County appropriating money to equip and feed the recruits, was followed by many other counties of the state. The sum of $10,000 was appropriated each succeeding year of the war by the board for this purpose, and the records show that during the war the board voted $411,124 for uniforming and equipping volunteers and tor aid to their families.

The McLean County Historical Society in 1899 published a large volume under the heading of "War Record of McLean County," which the board of supervisors assisted in financing in order to preserve to posterity the proud record made by the county in the earlier wars, including the Civil and the Spanish wars.

Through the generosity of the county, the number of enlisted men here was kept far in advance of the calls by the government for quotas from this county. Therefore, in order to get into action sooner, some of the young men accepted service as part of Missouri regiments, the quotas from that state being hard to fill on account of part of the population being secessionist in sympathy. Capt. Giles A. Smith led a company from McLean County which became Company D and E of the Eighth Missouri, in June, 1861. Captain Smith became colonel of this regiment, and later in the war was promoted to brigadier-general and then major-general. The Eighth Missouri made a fine record in the war, and no small part of it belongs to the men of McLean County. A fine oil painting of Capt. Giles A. Smith is the property of the McLean County Historical Society, having been donated by a daughter in Switzerland many years afterward.

The first year of the war, contingents of recruits from McLean County were accepted for service in the Seventh, Ninth, Thirteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Illinois Regiments. Company E of the Fourteenth contained thirty McLean County men. This regiment was commanded by Gen. John M. Palmer, afterward governor. A full company, under Capt. J. 0. Pullen, went into the Twentieth Illinois. R. N. Evans of this company became a major. Capt. Jonathan

H. Rowell enlisted in May, 18.61, in Company G, Seventeenth Illinois, and was made captain in May, 1862, "for meritorious service at the battle of Pittsburgh Landing-." Company B of the Twenty-fourth Illinois was made up of 75 Germans from McLean County, under Captain Heinrichs, Julius Frisch lieutenant. The Twenty-fourth was Colonel Hecker's German regiment, which saw service in a dozen battles and lost many brave men.

As early as July, 1861, a company of cavalry was organized in this county from young men who were expert horsemen. This was under Capt. John McNulta, who afterward became Colonel of the Ninety-fourth Illinois Infantry. The cavalry company became Company A, First Illinois Cavalry, and was sent to Lexington, Mo., to join other forces. Here the Federal force was surprised Sept. 20, 1861, by Gen. Sterling Price, commanding the Confederates, and after a sharp fight was obliged to surrender. The prisoners were paroled home and most of them re-enlisted. Hon. Harvey Hogg, member of the Legislature, became an officer of another cavalry regiment, being made lieutenant-colonel of the Second Illinois Cavalry. He was killed at Bolivar, Tenn., Aug. 30, 1862. About 170 McLean County men joined the Third Illinois Cavalry, half of them in 1861 and the others as recruits in later years. Company I, captained first by John Niccolls and later by S. F. Doloff, was more largely of McLean County men. The Third Cavalry, under Col. Eugene Carr, a West Point graduate, marched through Missouri and Arkansas and took part in the siege of Vicksburg.

The Fourth Illinois Cavalry had 70 men from this county on its rolls. Col. William McCullough, who went into the war with only one arm and one eye, was commander of this regiment, being admitted on special order of President Lincoln. He served heroically and was killed in battle Dec. 5, 1862. Capt. John M. Longstreth of Leroy was commander of Company L of the Fourth Cavalry. The regiment was at Fort Donnelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and other engagements. Company C of the Fifth Cavalry was another contingent made up of McLean County men in large part, organized in the fall of 1861. It was captained in succession by William P. Withers, Francis A. Wheelock and C. W. Wheelock, the latter two from McLean. This company went out ninety strong and was joined by thirty recruits later. Many of the enlisted men came from other parts of the county, although they were mostly credited to Bloomington. All of the cavalrymen except those in the First, and most of the infantrymen after the Twenty-fifth, enlisted under President Lincoln's call for 300,000 men on July 22, 1861. This call revived the wave of patriotism which had first swept the country in April, and hundreds rushed to enlist. The battle of Bull Run had sobered the country from its first wild outburst, but its determination was just as deep to uphold the President. Enlistment had been robbed of its novelty and romance after the first three months.

It was the mid-summer of 1861 that saw the organization of the Thirty-third Illinois, the "Normal Regiment," and of the Thirty-ninth, the famous "Yates Phalanx." Capt. John H. Burnham, who entered Company A of the Thirty-third, as a lieutenant, and was in 1862 promoted to the captaincy, in after years wrote a carefully prepared history of the regiment, from which some facts are gleaned. President Charles E. Hovey, of the Normal University, organized a military company among the students, hiring John W. White as drill master, who afterward became captain of Company K of the Eighth Missouri. The young company acquired uniforms and used sticks as guns, but constant drill gave them a respectable degree of proficiency in the manual of arms. They took the title "Normal Rifles." When Joseph G. Howell resigned from the principalship of the model school, Burnham took his place and taught eleven weeks, graduating in July. When the term ended, the company decided to enlist in the next call for troops. President Hovey later conceived the idea of a full regiment made up of Normal students and the teachers of the state. His suggestion met with instant response, and Hovey offered the regiment to Governor Yates, but the governor could not at once accept. Hovey started for Washington to offer the regiment to the government direct. He arrived the day before the battle of Bull Run, and hearing of the impending fight he went out in the direction. He ran right into the retreating Union troops, grabbed an abandoned rifle and acted as a soldier during the rest of the action. The next day after an audience with the Secretary of War, Hovey was given authority to organize a regiment in Illinois. Returning to Normal, he started quick action to complete the formation of the regiment of which he became colonel. The Normal Rifles became Company A of the new regiment, being mustered into service on August 21, with Leander H. Potter as captain. Company C was made up of a militia company that had been formed in Bloomington in May. E. R. Roe became a major and later a lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Hovey arose to the rank of brigadiergeneral in 1863, and was later brevetted major-general. E. J. Lewis, editor of the Pantagraph, joined the regiment, was made a captain May 20, 1863, and served through the Avar. Ira Moore of the Normal faculty was captain of Company G, which like C Company was made up largely of McLean County men.

The Thirty-third regiment saw much fighting. It took part in the famous charge on Vicksburg on May 22, 1863, and lost 75 men killed and wounded. It was in the actions at Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River bridge, Fort Esperanza, in Texas, Spanish Fort, Alabama, and other places. A total of 240 men from McLean County joined this regiment in 1861 and forty more at later dates.

Another famous McLean County regiment was the Thirty-ninth, the Yates Phalanx, so named in honor of Gov. Yates. Company B was organized in Bloomington in August and September, 1861. It was captained in succession by I. W. Wilmeth, David F. Sellers, George T. Heritage, John F. Alsup. Company F contained fifteen men under Capt. John McGrath; Company H, Capt. Chauncey Williams of Old Town, and later Capt. William Downs of Downs; Company I, Capt. Hiram M. Phillips, made up of Leroy men. There were men in these companies from Old Town, Downs, Leroy and Randolph. Company K, Capt. S. E. Meyers, formed with 25 men. In all, 200 men enlisted in the Thirty-ninth in 1861 and 100 men the next two years. It was veteranized in 1864.

From Camp Benton, Mo., its first rendezvous, the regiment was ordered to Williamsport, Md., to be armed and equipped, then crossed the Potomac river to guard the B. & O. railroad. It was attacked Jan. 3, 1862, by 15,000 rebels under Stonewall Jackson, and for several days carried on intermittent fighting with the enemy. Finally it recrossed the Potomac and took up position on the Maryland side. In March it took a hand in the brilliant fight at Winchester, and went down the Shenandoah valley and was afterward at Harrison's landing and the second battle of Malvern Hill. The regiment in 1863 was in North and South Carolina in active service, and was the first to mount the walls of Fort Wagner at its capture. At Newburn, N. C., Col. T. O. Osborn of this regiment was placed in command of the first brigade. Here a flag was presented to the regiment from Gov. Yates, and afterward was carried in all its engagements.

In January, 1864, the regiment left for the north on veteran furlough, being given a great send-off. Arriving in Chicago in the middle of January, it received a great ovation and recruited up from a strength of 450 men to 750. It then returned to Washington and was sent to Georgetown, Va., as part of the First Brigade, First division, Tenth army corps. It was in Gen. Butler's famous expedition up the James river in May, 1864, and when at one time was completely surrounded by the enemy, cut its way out with a loss of nearly 200 men. On the 2nd of June another fight was carried on at the same place, when Lieut. Albert W. Fellows was killed and Capt. Al. C. Sweetser lost a leg. From June 16 to 18 the regiment fought day and night against Longstreet's corps, losing 35 men, including Capt. 0. F. Rudd. On Aug. 15 this regiment charged the enemy works at Deep Run, losing 104 men. In October another charge on Darlington Road, seven miles from Richmond, 60 men of the 250 in the regiment fell. The regiment had lost its officers until there remained only one first and one second lieutenant and one adjutant. During the winter it was recruited and took part in the desperate fight at Fort Gregg, April 2, 1865. Its depleted forces scaled the ditch and the walls of the fort and captured the garrison after a deadly hand to hand conflict of a half hour. The regiment was presented with a magnificent brazen eagle for its color1 staff, and Col. Thomas O. Osborn was made brigadier general. From this time the Thirty-ninth headed the Army of the James in pursuit of Gen. Lee until the latter surrendered at Appomatox.

In the early part of 1862, Co. K of the Twenty-sixth Illinois, 60 men, went out under Capt. Ira J. Bloomfield, who had resigned from the high school. Bloomfield later became brigadier general. The Twenty-sixth saw service in twenty-eight hard fought battles, ending at Bentonville, N. C, and taking part in the grand review at Washington.

There were 87 men from McLean County in Company D, of the Sixtythird regiment, Capt. A. E. Cherrington. This regiment was in the Vicksburg campaign, the march to the sea, and in numerous engagements. The regiment was mustered out in 1865.

There were many McLean County men in the regiments enlisted for thirty days in 1862, among them being the 67th, 68th, 69th, 70th and 71st. Col. Owen T. Reeves, after Judge Reeves, went out in charge of the

70th regiment, a three months regiment. J. H. Scibird was major of this regiment. These short-term enlisted men were used mostly for guard duty.

Company H of the 62d was made up of McLean County men; Capt. Samuel Sherman; Lieuts. Foley and Wilson. Organized in April, 1862; veteranized in 1864 and mustered out in 1866.

This county contributed Co. D of the 63rd, Capt. John W. Champion, mustered in at Camp Dubois in April, 1862; was at Vicksburg, Mission Ridge, northern Mississippi campaign, Atlanta to the sea, and in May, 1865, was at Richmond. Mustered out in July, 1865, at Camp Butler.

Company F of the 68th Illinois was from McLean County; captain, John W. Morris; lieutenant, John R. Larimore; and Company G, captain, James P. Moore ; lieutenants, Harvey C. DeMotte and John H. Stout. This was a three-months regiment.

McLean County furnished part of Company E of the 82d, Capt. Robert Sender. This regiment was at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, at Gettysburg, losing heavily of its men in the latter two battles. It was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland and fought at Lookout Mountain; mustered out in 1865.

The Ninety-fourth regiment was more than any other a McLean County regiment. Its muster was started in the summer of 1862 under the president's call for 600,000 men. It was a very popular movement, men rushing to sign the muster roll in all parts of the county; within a week, 1,200 men had been signed. The regiment was completed and two full companies were left over and joined other regiments, one company from Cheney's Grove joining the 116th as Company F, and one from McLean becoming Company A of the 117th. The military history of these two companies was mostly lost. The Ninety-fourth was mustered into the U. S. service in Bloomington and left on the 25th of August in box cars for St. Louis. By Sept. 10 it was on its way to Rolla, Mo. It received its baptism of fire Dec. 7 at Prairie Grove, Mo., where one man was killed and twenty-six wounded. It remained at Lake Spring, Mo., from January to June, and about this time Col. W. W. Orme was made brigadier general, and Capt. John McNulta and Capt. Laughlin advanced one grade; Capt. Briscoe was made major; Sergt. A. L. Hey wood made adjutant. The regiment arrived at Vicksburg June 13, and from that time to the surrender bore its part in the siege. It lost one man killed and five wounded. The regiment took part in many other engagements during its two years and fifty weeks in the service, but lost comparatively few men from wounds or disease. The make-up of this regiment was as follows: Co. A, Capt. A. S. Lawrence, Bloomington; Co. B, Capt. Timothy Freeman, Hey worth; Co. C, Capt. John Franklin, Lexington; Co. D, Capt. George W. Brown, Padua, Danvers, Bloomington and Towanda; Co. E, Capt. John L. Routt, Bloomington; Co. F, Capt. Aaron W. Walden, Padua, Bloomington, Danvers and Towanda; Co. G, Capt. Aaron Buckles, Leroy ; Co. H, Capt. Joseph P. Orme, known as the Irish company, Bloomington; Co. I, Capt. W. H. Mann, Normal, Money Creek, Twin Grove and Gridley; Co. K, Capt. James M. Burch, mustered from Danvers and other townships.

The first colonel of the Ninety-fourth was William W. Orme, who was made a brigadier general in 1862, and confirmed by the U. S. Senate April 4, 1863. He was followed by Lieutenant Colonel John McNulta, who served as colonel to the end of the war. Part of the time Col. McNulta commanded a brigade, and at the close of the war was made brigadier general.

One of the two companies left over after the Ninety-fourth regiment was formed and captained by Lemuel N. Bishop of Cheney's Grove, from which section most of the men enlisted. This company became Co. F of the 116th, a Macon County regiment. This regiment first fought at Chickasaw Bayou in December, 1862, and on Jan. 11, 1863, took part in a great defeat of the rebels at Arkansas Post. Company B lost all but 25 men at this battle, coming out under command of a fifth sergeant, afterward Lieutenant and Captain C. Riebsame, who lived many years after the war in Bloomington. In camp along the river opposite Vicksburg in 1863, the 116th lost one hundred men from disease, a record of fatality rarely equalled. Fourteen of the McLean County company died of disease.

Mt. Hope and Funk's Grove get credit for the enlistments in Co. A of the 117th regiment, another overflow from the Ninety-foUrth. S. B. Kinsey was the first captain, followed by Charles S. Beath. The 117th regiment was at Vicksburg, also in the Red River expedition, at Nashville during the bitter cold weather of December, 1864, and in all engaged in six battles and thirty-three skirmishes.

Recruits to the number of 2,000 men had enlisted in the army during the year 1862, and the quotas from McLean County were well filled. Consequently as the year 1863 came on, recruiting fell off in numbers and enthusiasm, only a few men here and there offering themselves for service. People in general were anxiously awaiting the end of the war, which they thought would come soon. In the subsequent Illinois regiments numbering from the 97th to the 115th, there were a few recruits in each from McLean County. A company of forty Germans under Capt. Robert Lender made up a company recruited into the Army of the Potomac, this being the second company made up here for service in German regiments.

Forty McLean County men were members of Companies I, K, L, and M of the Sixteenth Illinois cavalry, the last cavalry regiment organized in the state. These men, recruited late in 1863, had some of the most trying experiences encountered by any McLean County men in the war. The regiment was captured in an early engagement, and the prisoners were cast into the notorious prison at Andersonville, where many of them died and from which many others finally were released physical wrecks.

An incident of peculiar and sensational, though not of tragic moment, was the midnight alarm which aroused Bloomington on May 25, 1863, when it was announced that immediate recruits were wanted by hundreds to suppress an outbreak of rebel prisoners in Camp Butler in Springfield. Before morning a company of 475 men in all kinds of uniforms and carrying all kinds of arms, were on their way to Springfield. Their arrival was a surprise to the capital, for no one there had heard of an uprising of rebel prisoners, and affairs at Camp Butler were calm enough. The suddenly recruited company contained most of the men of Bloomington, young, old, rich, poor, cripples and every other kind.

There was a very great slacking up of recruiting in McLean County during the year 1863, as the people considered that they had done their share of sending men into the army. The county had offered a bounty of $50 for each man enlisted in 1862 for a period of three years. The infantry quotas were filled, there were but few enlistments for the artillery and considerably more for the cavalry. Men from McLean County were among those making up Companies I, K, L, and M of the Sixteenth Illinois cavalry.

The general feeling in the north had undergone a change during the year 1863 from what it had been one or two years previous. A feeling of uncertainty as to the outcome of the war gave way in certain sections to one of actual opposition to its further prosecution. The people opposed to Lincoln's war policies became known as "Copperheads" and the opposition to the war culminated in New York City in riots as a demonstration against the drafting of soldiers for the service. A secret society known as "Knights of the Golden Circle," came into being, with many branches in Illinois. It gave secret and sometimes open comfort to the enemy and rejoiced at victories by the rebel arms.

In opposition to the Knights of the Golden Circle and other organizations opposing the war, a counter movement of a secret nature became organized known as the Union League. This society had many adherents in McLean County.

Late in 1863 a call for 300,000 more men was sent out by the government, and these recruits were to be used mainly to replace men killed, wounded or sick in the regiments already in the field, rather than to forming new regiments. The board of supervisors of McLean County, to stimulate enlistments, offered a bounty of $150 for each recruit, this offer superseding one of $50 in 1862.

The year 1864 witnessed one phenomenon in the military situation which encouraged the north and correspondingly disheartened the south. This was the veteranizing of the regiments in the field by the re-enlistment of the men who had entered the service in 1861 for three years. More than 100,000 of these veteran soldiery were enrolled, those that expressed a willingness to so re-enlist being granted a 30-days furlough before entering on their new term of service. The county board voted money to entertain these veterans on their return home for their furlough, and hundreds of them enjoyed this hospitality. The Thirty-third Illinois, the Normal regiment, was one of the regiments which returned home intact, having been veteranized as a whole and retaining its regimental formation. The Thirty-ninth also kept its organization practically intact, although its men did not get their furloughs all at one time.

The number of McLean County men re-enlisted as veterans in the different regiments to which they belonged, ranged from 95 men in the Thirty-third to 89 in the Thirty-ninth, 30 in the Twenty-sixth, 18 in the* Twentieth, 27 in the Third cavalry, 28 in the Fifth cavalry, 18 in the Four- teenth infantry, 18 in the Twentieth infantry, down to 6 in the Second cavalry, 11 in the Twenty-third, 7 in the Sixty-second, and smaller numbers in the Seventh, Eighth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Nineteenth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-fifth, Sixty-first, Sixty-sixth infantry and the Fourth cavalry.

Owing to serious defects in the forms of enlistments of the earlier years of the war, the quotas required of McLean County were very heavy in 1864, resulting in protest and threats of united action compelling the board of supervisors to offer large rewards, as was done in other counties, Lee County offering $1,000 bounty for each volunteer. The highest figure here, however, was $300, and there were sufficient enlistments under this bounty, together with the volunteers of the years 1861 to 1864, to completely fill all the quotas required of McLean County, and 160 men in addition. This county acquired the reputation of having raised a larger super-quota than any other county in Illinois. The state raised 13 regiments of 100-day men between June and October, 1864, these troops being used to guard rebel prisoners, railroads and supplies, the regiments being numbered from 132 to 145. Col. George W. Lackey took with him 100 men from McLean County for the 145th infantry, they forming parts of Companies B, D, E, I and K. P. B. Keays was captain of Company I. Major I. W. Wilmeth and 70 volunteers joined the 146th regiment, enlisted for one year and kept in service after the close of the war.

By the year 1864, the United States Sanitary Commission was in full running order, and great collections of supplies and moneys were made here for the use of the soldiers in the field. No statistics were kept as to the exact amount of such relief work performed in this county, but it was large. Money in 1864 was mostly in greenbacks or paper money, gold dollars having gone up to the price of as high as $2.85 in greenbacks. However, the latter was legal tender and circulated freely. The war bounties and other public expenditures were paid in paper money. The women and children of the county were the ones on whom fell the burden of this relief work. They gave fairs, bazaars and other kinds of entertainments and donated all the proceeds to soldier relief work. This kind of work was continued in behalf of the families of soldiers until and even after the soldiers returned from the army and until they became again self-supporting.

The presidential election in the fall of 1864 took first place in interest even above the military operations of our armies. The Democrats nominated Gen. George B. McClellan to oppose Abraham Lincoln, and adopted a "peace plank" in their national platform, calling for immediate efforts to end the war. Lincoln, of course, was triumphantly elected, receiving a majority of 110 electoral votes, which constituted a majority over the 21 votes given to McClellan and the 81 electoral votes which belonged to the seceded states. Lincoln carried McLean County by a good sized majority in spite of the absence of thousands of soldier votes, the figures in his favor being 1,419.

With the end of the war near, according to all indications, a call came near the end of 1864 for 300,000 more volunteers. Early in the year 1865, McLean County mustered in two companies of one-year men for the 150th Illinois infantry. Among its officers were Lieut. Col. G. W. Keener of Old Town; Capt. J. H. Stout of Company A, and Capt. W. B. Lawrence of Company B. Then Capt. I. P. Strayer of Lexington and 35 men joined the 154th regiment, and 20 men enrolled for the 155th. The county's quota for the December call was 576 men, and when the enlistments were checked up it was found that the county had overenlisted by 160 men. It was estimated that the county sent all told into the service 3,500 men.

Soon after the war, a movement for the building of a monument to those who had died in the service was started, and in 1869 a tall shaft was erected in Franklin park in Bloomington. This shaft contained the names of 700 men who had met death in the war. But its record was incomplete and even more than that number had died.

After being subjected to the elements for many years, this monument began to crumble. A movement for the building of a larger and better memorial to the soldiers of the county was begun about 1911, and in consequence the board of supervisors voted a fund of $50,000 for this purpose. After two years of diligent work, the names of every soldier who had served in the Civil and the Spanish wars was compiled by Capt. J. H. Burnham and J. Dwight Frink, who had been employed by the board to collect the names for the new monument. Mr. Frink was the designer of the shaft, a gigantic piece of Georgian granite which was erected at the entrance to Miller park in Bloomington. On bronze tablets within this monument are the names of the soldiers compiled by Messrs. Burnham and Frink, over 6,000 names being perpetuated each with his regiment and company and rank. This great monument was dedicated with imposing ceremonies on May 30, Decoration Day, in the year 1913.

McLean County was again called to arms, along with other parts of this state and the nation, in April, 1898, when the United States government, under the leadership of President William McKinley, declared war against Spain as the result of her continued brutalities against Cuba, in which she had ignored the repeated warnings of our government. The misrule of Spain in Cuba was brought to a climax, so far as our interest in the matter was concerned, when the U. S. Battleship Maine was blown up in the harbor of Havana on the night of February 15, 1898. Feeling was so aroused in this country that on March 21 congress passed a resolution demanding that Spain withdraw and relinquish her authority over the island of Cuba, and authorizing the president to use the armed forces of the United States to enforce this demand.

The Governor of Illinois was called upon for seven regiments as the state's quota. The state militia was first called into service and offered to the federal government. Bloomington had two companies in the state military service, Company D of the Fifth infantry and Troop B of the First Illinois cavalry. Soon after the call, Troop B was divided and recruited to the strength of two full troops, known as Troop B and Troop G. Capt. Edward Y. Miller was commander of the infantry company, Capt. W. P. Butler of Troop B, and Capt. Edward Butler of Troop G.

There was also later a company of colored troops organized here, which became Company G of the Eighth Illinois regiment. It was commanded by Capt. Julius Witherspoon.

The three units of the militia proceeded to the state fair grounds in Springfield, on April 27. Prior to its departure, Troop B was presented with a flag by the members of the D. A. R. The women friends and relatives of Troop G also gave them a flag, while the members of Company G were given a flag by the colored women of the city. At Springfield the troops were mustered into the federal service and on May 14 departed for camp at Chickamauga, Tenn. The cavalrymen remained in camp at Chickamauga during the summer! The troops at that place suffered much from disease due partly to the kind of food they had. Several members of the two McLean County troops were among the sufferers. The cavalry regiments were finally sent to Fort Sheridan after the close of the war, and on Oct. 11. were mustered out. The flags which the two troops carried during their encampment became the property of the McLean County Historical Society.

The Fifth regiment, with its McLean County company, on Aug. 3, set out for Newport News to embark for Porto Rico. They boarded the transport Obdam, but before they sailed the word went out that no more troops were needed. The Fifth disembarked on Aug. 18 and went to Lexington, Ky., thence to Springfield to be mustered out Oct. 16th.

The organization of the colored company in this county was in response to a call for a colored regiment for duty in Porto Rico, where the climate is unsuitable for white men. The regiment was mustered into the federal service and sailed from New York for Porto Rico on Aug. 18th. It landed at Santiago, where it did garrison duty until March 11, 1899, when it returned to the United States and was mustered out April 3, 1899.