80th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Text of Lincoln's Call for 300,000 Volunteers

	Call for 300,000 Volunteers By President Abraham Lincoln [Close this window to return to the previous page]
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln Taken November 8, 1863 by Alexander Garner Image LC-USZ62-13016 courtesy of US Library of Congress

In the second year of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the following letter to the Governors of the 17 states that were still in the Union. The quota of men who were to be supplied from each state was actually listed separately in a document issued by the War Department on July 7, 1862. The quota for the State of Indiana was 9 regiments of Infantry, approximately 9,000 men in all. One of those regiments was the 80th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was formed in August 1862.

Executive Mansion, Washington, July 1, 1862

To the Governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and the President of the Military Board of Kentucky:

Gentlemen: Fully concurring in the wisdom of the views expressed to me in so patriotic a manner by you in the communication of the 28th day of June, I have decided to call into the service an additional force of 300,000 men. I suggest and recommend that the troops should be chiefly of infantry. The quota of your State would be ______. I trust that they may be enrolled without delay, so as to bring this unnecessary and injurious civil war to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion. An order fixing the quotas of the respective States will be issued by the War Department tomorrow.

Abraham Lincoln

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