On April 15, 1861 president Abraham Lincoln sent via the Secretary of War a request for 75,000 militia for three months to put down rebellious combinations in seven states. Quotas were sent out to the states as follows:

(One Regiment each.) 37 Officers and 743 men

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota

(Two Regiments each.)

Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Tennessee

(Three Regiments.)

Virginia

(Four Regiments each.)

New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

(Six Regiments each.)

Indiana and Illinois

(Thirteen Regiments.)

Ohio

(Sixteen Regiments.)

Pennslyvania

(Seventeen Regiments.)

New York

Kansas, Oregon, California and District of Columbia had no quotas assigned.

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The responses from the governors of these states are as follows:

Northern States

Connecticut- "Your request will receive immediate attention."
New Hampshire- promised "vigorous measures to form companies"
Vermont- will raise one Vermont regiment with promptness.
New Jersey- called together the representative of the militia and said "I have no authority, by my office, or your enlistment in the organized militia of the State, to offer your Services, uninstructed by you, to the General Government." and called for their assembly for consultation.
Wisconsin- "The call for one regiment will be promptly responded to, and further calls when made."
Pennsylvania- promised 100,000 men if necessary.
Massachusetts- Acting before the official request for troops "The quota of troops required of Massachusetts is ready. How will you have them proceed?
Maine- "the people of Maine of all parties will rally with alacrity to the maintenance of the Government."
Ohio- "will furnish the largest number you will receive. Great rejoicing here over your proclamation."
Indiana- "for the defense of the Nation and to uphold the authority of the Government, 10,000 men."
Rhode Island- the governor offered to lead personally a thousand men.
Iowa- "Two days ago we had two parties in this state; today we have but one, and that for the Constitution and the Union unconditionally."
Illinois- "Our people will wade through seas of blood before they will see a single star or a solitary stripe erased from the glorious flag of our Union."

Border States

Delaware- we have no militia law.
Kentucky- "Your dispatch is received. In answer I say emphatically that Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States."
Missouri- "Your requisition in my judgment is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and can not be complied with. Not one man will, of the State of Missouri, furnish or carry on such an unholy crusade."
Maryland- Very interesting responses since poor Governor Hicks was both trying to stop a rebellion within his state and at the same time being invaded by Northern militia. "the rebellious element had the control of things. They took possession of the armories, have the arms and ammunition, and I therefore think it prudent to decline (for the present) responding affirmatively to the requisition made by President Lincoln for four regiments of infantry."

Southern States

North Carolina- "Your dispatch is received, and, if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops made by the Administration for the purpose of subjugating the State of the South, as in violation of the Constitution and a usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina....The Union men [here] openly denounce the Administration."
Tennessee- "Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but 50,000, if necessary, for the defense of our rights or those of our Southern brethren."
Arkansas- "None will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury."
Virginia- "The militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an Object—an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795— will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited toward the South."

Who sounds like they really wanted a war? Which side had the fever to fight the most? Where willing to invade other states to "wade through seas of blood". The South has always been blamed for this mind set but I think theirs plenty of blame to pass around to Northern States as well.

The Governor of Massachusetts had already mobilized his state before the call for troops and had four regiments ready (above his quota) on April 16 and within twenty-four hours had two regiments, one by ship the other by rail on their way to the Washington D.C. area. The third left the next day and the fourth three days later. In one week he mustered in three thousand militia and a battery of artillery. He doubled the capacity of the Springfield armory. He reported to the Secretary of War of his experiments with new projectiles. He placed guards around the state arsenal in Cambridge to protect it against Harvard's Southern students, stationed a school ship in Boston harbor to challenge the approach of Jeff Davis' navy, ordered the arrest of any naval officers who refused to take an oath of allegiance, and wrote the Governor-General of Canada about a suspicious-looking vessal on Lake Onterio, etc. etc. etc., all in the first week.

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David Upton