The gentlemen who presented these two members of Congress asked me if I would have any objections to their addressing my regiment.  I hesitated a little before answering.  It was but a few days before the time set for mustering into the United States service such of the men as were willing to volunteer for three years or the war.  I had some doubt as to the effect a speech from Logan might have; but as he was with McClernand, whose sentiments on the all-absorbing questions of the day were well known, I gave my consent.  McClernand spoke first; and Logan followed in a speech which he has hardly equalled since for force and eloquence.  It breathed a loyalty and devotion to the Union which inspired my men to such a point that they would have volunteered to remain in the army as long as an enemy of the country continued to bear arms against it.  They entered the United States service almost to a man.

General Logan went to his part of the State and gave his attention to raising troops.  The very men who at first made it necessary to guard the roads in southern Illinois became the defenders of the Union.  Logan entered the service himself as colonel of a regiment and rapidly rose to the rank of major-general.  His district, which had promised at first to give much trouble to the government, filled every call made upon it for troops, without resorting to the draft.  There was no call made when there were not more volunteers than were asked for.  That congressional district stands credited at the War Department to-day with furnishing more men for the army than it was called on to supply.

I remained in Springfield with my regiment until the 3d of July, when I was ordered to Quincy, Illinois.  By that time the regiment was in a good state of discipline and the officers and men were well up in the company drill.  There was direct railroad communication between Springfield and Quincy, but I thought it would be good preparation for the troops to march there.  We had no transportation for our camp and garrison equipage, so wagons were hired for the occasion and on the 3d of July we started.  There was no hurry, but fair marches were made every day until the Illinois River was crossed.  There I was overtaken by a dispatch saying that the destination of the regiment had been changed to Ironton, Missouri, and ordering me to halt where I was and await the arrival of a steamer which had been dispatched up the Illinois River to take the regiment to St. Louis.  The boat, when it did come, grounded on a sand-bar a few miles below where we were in camp.  We remained there several days waiting to have the boat get off the bar, but before this occurred news came that an Illinois regiment was surrounded by rebels at a point on the Hannibal and St. Joe Railroad some miles west of Palmyra, in Missouri, and I was ordered to proceed with all dispatch to their relief.  We took the cars and reached Quincy in a few hours.