tional Guard to report at once to General McKee at the grounds of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture near Indianapolis. From every portion of the State demands were received from new companies and from individuals that they be aecepted for service, and Indiana alone would have supplied the entire number of men called for. So great was the response that Governor Mount publicly stated that as the number of those tendering their services was so far in excess of all requirements that he deemed it well to announce that no one should feel under compulsion to respond, and all whose domestic affairs or business matters would be jeopardized, or whose response would entail hardship and suffering, should stand aside with honor and without prejudice. As soon as the orders were issued by the Governor, all company commanders were notified by telegraph, and at once there was the greatest excitement in every part of the State. The officers had been expecting it, and immediately the members of the Guard were notified-some by the sounding of the riot call, others by the use of fife and drum corps, some by telephone, and messengers were dispatched for those who lived in the country. The response was prompt and hearty. The armories were surrounded by friends of the members and others who desired to be enrolled. New members were accepted until the maximum number was reached, and many company commanders started with more men than they were entitled to, realizing that many would be rejected on the physical examination. In nearly every town escort parades were hastily arranged and these were usually tendered by the Grand Army posts and veterans of the civil war. Crowds waited at railroad stations and greeted every company that was speeding towards Indianapolis with hearty and patriotic cheers and with the booming of cannon. From midnight until the evening of the next day, companies were on their way to Indianapolis, and it was 5 o'clock on the morning of April 26, and just at sunrise that the first company, that commanded by Captain Allen, from Frankfort, arrived in Indianapolis and reached the camp. From that hour companies arrived on every train, and as it was impossible to provide tents for all, many were quartered in the barns and other buildings on the fair grounds. By evening every company in the State was present and, in honor of the Governor, the camp was named Camp Mount. Vacancies existed in a number of the regiments, and that in the First Regiment was filled by accepting a company of students from Vincennes, which was made Company L. The vacancies in the Second Regiment were filled by accepting the company at Frankfort as Company C and the company at Martinsville as Company K. The Plymouth company was assigned to the Third as Company M, and the Fourth was filled by accepting the company from Tipton as Company I, the company from Anderson as Company L and the company from Logansport as Company M. These companies had been organized in anticipation of such action, and, with the exception of the Tipton company, which was accepted April 25, all were accepted April 26. Then followed a busy season for the officers. Companies demanded that they be accepted, but the quota of the State was filled. Individuals demanded that they be accepted in almost any capacity, while the officers in direct command of the men vied with one another in their efforts to prepare their commands for muster into United States service. Lieutenant W. T. May, Fifteenth Infantry, U. S. A., was on duty with the National Guard by detail, and was appointed mustering officer. The arming and equipping of the regiments, so suddenly raised to a war footing, taxed the resources of the State, while the severe physical examination which each man was compelled to undergo introduced the element of doubt as to who would be accepted for service. These details were attended to as rapidly as possible, and it was the Third Infantry which was first ready for service, and Company H, of Angola, which was first filled. The Second was next, the First was the third and the Fourth was the last. The First Regiment was stripped of arms and equipments in order to complete arming and equipping the others. Orders were issued regarding the destination of troops and then countermanded, and at different times Mobile and New Orleans were said to have been selected. In the numbering of the regiments it was determined to begin where the numbering for the civil war ceased, as the same plan was adopted at that time and the numbering of regiments begun where the numbering for the Mexican war ceased. The Third Regiment, Indiana National Guard, thus became the One-hundred-and-fifty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. It was mustered into the service of the United States on May 10, by Lieutenant May, who was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and the first company from Indiana to enter United States service was F, of South Bend. Five days later the regiment was paid by the State, through Colonel W. T. Durbin, of Governor Mount's staff, who was detailed by the Governor for that purpose, and who paid all the troops called out. The same day it was paid the regiment moved to Camp George H. Thomas, Chickamauga Park, Georgia. At this time the companies composing it were: A, of Knox; B, of Ft. Wayne; C. of Goshen; D, of North Manchester; E. of Elkhart; F, of South Bend; G, of Ft. Wayne; H, of Angola; I, of Waterloo; K, of Auburn; L, of Ligonier, and M, of Plymouth. It was on Sunday that the regiment left camp, and as it marched from Camp Mount to the Union Station in Indianapolis the streets were lined with enthusiastic friends. About 6 o'clock the following Tuesday morning it reached Rossville, Georgia, about six miles from the park, and after marching to the place assigned it went into camp. The routine of camp life followed until orders were issued, May 30, that the regiment should go to Port Tampa City, Florida, and the order was received with delight, as it was believed this meant to go to Cuba at once. At 9 o'clock on the morning of June 1 camp was struck and the regiment marched to Ringgold, Georgia, a distance of about nine miles, and arrived there at 1:30 in the afternoon. It was 650 miles from there to Port Tampa City, and that place was reached shortly after noon on June 3. The regiment was assigned to the Third Brigade, a provisional division of the Fourth Army Corps. Then followed a period of anxious waiting and hopes for orders to embark for Cuba. Rumors of all kinds were heard, which resulted in disappointment in nearly every instance. Horses and camp equipage were at one time loaded on transports, but finally the possibility of seeing active service was removed by the destruction of the Spanish fleet and the battle of Santiago, and the hearts of the boys were broken by orders on July 22 to break camp and proceed to Fernandina, Florida. A change from Port Tampa City to almost any place was welcomed as a relief, but the members of the regiment wanted the change to be to Cuba. One week after the order was issued the regiment broke camp and arrived at Fernandina about the middle of the afternoon of July 30 and went into camp about a mile from the station. The regiment was temporarily attached to the Third Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army Corps. For one month the dreary monotony of camp life was undergone, but about noon on August 30 camp was broken and the regiment marched to the station to take the train for home. During the morning of September 2 the troops reached Camp Mount, and eight days later were furloughed for thirty |