Memorandum Concerning Pressing Matters in Illinois

Memoranda of matters in Ill.

requiring attention -

1. When the first troops were sent to Cairo, it was necessarily done in great haste, & there being at that time no mustering officer in the State, they were sent without being mustered into the service or formed into a regiment - In the subsequent organization of the first six Regiments in Ill. a part of the forces being at Cairo and a part at Springfield, it was found at Cairo that there were two extra companies beyond the number necessary to form a Regiment at that point - the mustering officer mustered these two companies into the Service in addition to the ten, which constituted the Regiment, & they have since been attached to Col. Prentiss Regiment

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and doing service. These two companies insisted on continuing in the service, & under the circumstances, they having gone into service on call without stopping to form a Regiment, it was conceived in Ill. that they had claims which ought not to be rejected -

2. There are also at Cairo about two hundred men in the artillery service with about Eighty horses These men also went to Cairo on the first call & have been in service ever since, supplied by the State except one company mustered in as infantry are not recd into the U.S. Service. There was an absolute necessity for artillery at Cairo at that time, which still continues, & the only artillery were there, with some twenty pieces are those provided by the State - The Government has recently sent

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some large Guns to Cairo but no men to manage them These artillery men, which are believed to be efficient, many of them having seen service before they repaired to Cairo, ought it is believed to be recd into the U.S. Service for three years.

3. The commanding officer at Cairo made a requisition on the Governor & the State for some cavalry, as essential to his proper defense of the place, and one hundred men fully armed & equiped & furnished with horses were sent to that place and are now in service at State expense. These it is also believed should be mustered into U.S. Service for three years -

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4. The State of Illinois has now organized & in ten different camps, ten full Regiments of Infantry. Six of these Regiments have been accepted by the U.S. for three years, leaving the other four on the hands of the State, and they will be disbanded and return to their homes under the law at the end of thirty days unless they should in the mean time be accepted by the U.S. These ten Regiments all went into camp, under a pledge to respond to any call of the U.S. and to send four of them home, while six are accepted creates an invidious distinction and much dissatisfaction - The State also has organized armed, equipped for thirty days five companies of cavalry and a battalion of artillery, a portion of both the cavalry & artillery are at Cairo, their services being needed at that point -

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General & three Brigadiers, while up to this time she has but a single Gen. who was elected by the three months men, to wit, Gen. Prentiss now in command at Cairo.

Memorandum to be attended to in visit to Washington

May 1861