William Pope to Abraham Lincoln

Sir.

The deplorable & unjust neglect and utter abandonment which this State has been subjected since the commencement of hostilities in the country has been already laid before you but matters have now reached such a point that I have considered it necessary to send this communication to you by the hand of Mr Conklin & I have directed him to protest in my name firmly but respectfully against the further continuance of a State of things fraught with disaster & disgrace to the State of Illinois & which I [solemnly?] [warn?] you will lead to her certain humiliation.

I desire & intend to protect the authorities and people of this State against censure for whatever may ensue & I therefore adopt this last means to impress upon you the absolute necessity of prompt & thorough action. The causes of complaint & dissatisfaction I will set forth briefly leaving the explanation of details to Mr Conklin my authorized messenger.

From the beginning there have been no facilities of any kind extended by the General Govt. to the organization Equipment & instruction of the forces called out from

this State. Even before being mustered in to the U.S. service many of the companies, in fact several regiments were dispatched to Cairo under the order of the Secretary of War, hastily & imperfectly equipped, without organization & without supplies of any kind being furnished by the General Government. They have been kept at there present [residence?] without opportunities for instruction & without any thing necessary to put them into any condition of efficiency.

As fast as regiments could be formed and mustered into the Service they were hastily dispatched to remote points which were considered important & to this day no kind of [opportunity?] has been given them to [rendor?] themselves fit for active service. Illinois is at the least entitled to equal advantages with other States, but while Ohio & Indiana on one side & Missouri in the other, have been allowed to concentrate their forces into large camps, & keep them for more than a month for instruction, equipment and organization, She alone has been denied all these privileges.

Badly armed, without equipment, scattered about in detached & remote camps, the forces of this State have been left to shift for themselves & it is not surprising that today they find themselves dissatisfied and indignant & absolutely in worse condition for active service than on the day of muster. Even worse

forces called out by your proclamation of May 3d. whilst every other State has been carefully attended to Illinois has as heretofore been utterly neglected.

Of all the Generals, Colonels & Lt Colonels appointed in these new regiments Illinois has had not one & our request for the appointment of a single officer to a place we were clearly entitled to claim, has so far been wholly neglected.

I call your attention solemnly to the Subject of this letter & entreat you to right the wrongs I have specified. If matters are suffered much longer to you in this way I shall decree it to be my duty to adopt measures myself to protect the honor & interest of the State & to shield the gallant men who have so nobly & cheerfully responded to your proclamation from the consequences of being abandoned by a Govt. they are in arms to defend.

Know this they have been attached to the command of an officer in a remote State, who has only once visited the State of Illinois for a few brief hours & who has & of cannot be expected to have, that interest in them, essential to their welfare & efficiency in the field.

After some effort authority was obtained to raise a few companies of Cavalry & Artillery but no sooner is a cavalry company fit to take the field than this same general orders it off to Virginia & Ohio, from whence it will not again return during its term of service.

The general officers to which these troops are entitled have not been yet made & if they were they would find themselves very soon by this system of detachments, left without a command. Portions of our regiments have been ordered into Missouri & I have every reason to believe that other regiments are soon to be ordered there whose business will consist in guarding bridges & baggage while the volunteer troops of that State march off to the scene of hostilities to reap all the reputation to be acquired. Separated in this way, & placed under the command of officers alien to the State & regardless of its honor & its interests, the troops of Illinois have already begun to lose their identity & you cannot be surprised that there should be widespread and

& growing dissatisfaction. You need not be told that the influence which Illinois will possess & the position she will occupy in this Nation, in the adjustment of the opportunities before us, must largely if not wholly depend upon her military efficiency in the field & as little is it necessary to tell you that no State in this Union will commence this War with higher military character & prestige.

I consider it my duty to say to you that if the condition of things which exists here now & which has marked the whole course of the Govt. toward this State for the last [two?] months, be not at once corrected Illinois will have lost all the high reputation acquired in Mexico before hostilities actually begin.

We need & for our honor & reputation must have a Military Dept. of smaller dimensions, whose commander must be nearer to us & more identified with our welfare & our interests. He must be clothed with authority sufficient to enable him to correct the abuses and neglect which have begun to make our forces a byword & a reproach & to secure for them the advantages which they have hitherto been denied.

Of a piece with this neglect is the utter ignoring of this State in the appointments in the new regular

Col Pope to Mr Lincoln as to Maj Genl Ills forces &c

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