While patriotism never flagged for a moment, and the determination to maintain the Union at all hazards was still as strong as ever, it must be confessed that the midsummer military outlook in 1862 was not altogether inspiring for the Nation. Whatever hopes had been raised by the success of Burnside in North Carolina, by Grant's campaign in Tennessee, and through the occupation of New Orleans by the combined forces of Butler and Farragut, they had been more than offset by the failure of McClellan's efforts on the peninsula and the unfruitful outcome of Halleck's movement against Corinth. An army that had displayed prodigies of valor from Fair Oaks to Malvern Hill, now catching its breath on the banks of the James River, and an enemy leisurely departing from the depot which Halleck had thought thoroughly invested, were bitter morsels for Northern people who had been led to expect the capture of Richmond and a like fate for the rebel forces which had fallen back from Shiloh.

The slopes of Malvern were still red with the blood of fallen heroes when President Lincoln, on the 4th of July, 1862, startled the nation with a call for three hundred thousand additional troops. The land was rapidly becoming one vast armed camp; Massachusetts already had sent nearly or quite fifty thousand men into the army and navy, out of her population of less than one and a half million people, but before the year was done, the aggregate was swollen to more than eighty thousand. Out of the great number called for, the assignment to Massachusetts was fifteen thousand and, on the seventh of the month, Governor Andrew formally presented the demand to the people of the Commonwealth. Hitherto, there had been no regular apportionment, each division of the state having been ready and anxious to aid in filling whatever quota might be required. In this case there was a clear statement of what each city and town, from Abington to Yarmouth would be expected to do.

Concerning the number called for, the president in a private telegram to Governor Morgan of New York said, "It was thought safest to mark high enough. I should not want the half of 300,000 new troops if I could have them now. If I had 50,000 additional troops here now, I believe I could substantially close the war in two weeks. But time is everything; and if I get 50,000 new men in a month I shall have lost 20,000 old ones during the same month, having gained only 30,000 with the difference between old and new troops still against me. The quicker you send, the less you will have to send. Time is everything, please act in view of this." All this time, it must be remembered, Governor Andrew, in a mild way, was criticising the National Administration for its failure to liberate the slaves and for not imposing upon them many of the hardships borne by the regularly enlisted men.

Nor were the needs of the Government satisfied with the demand of July 4th, however large it may have seemed, for, while the entire loyal North was putting forth every possible effort to secure the required enlistments there came from Washington, on the 4th of August, another call for troops, this time also demanding three hundred thousand men, just as though there were a never-ending source of supply. This call was accompanied by the possibility of a draft, that most dreaded of all methods for securing reinforcements, provided the volunteers did not appear within a certain limited period; the apportionment, 19,080 men, it will be observed was more than a fourth larger than that in the preceding call, an excess explained on the basis that the total number, 34,080, bore the same proportion to the 600,000, the sum of the two calls, that the free population of Massachusetts did to the free population in the states that had shown themselves loyal to the Union, and were supporting the Government in the struggle.

A very prominent question in the emergency was just how should the newly enlisted men be placed; should they be added to regiments already in the field or should new organizations be made for their reception? Excellent arguments were offered on both sides; the question had been discussed from the very moment that battles or disease had begun making gaps in the ranks. When Mayor Isaac Davis, after the disastrous engagement of Ball's Bluff, telegraphed to Colonel Charles Devens, of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry, asking what Worcester could do for the regiment, the subsequently distinguished officer replied, "Send us three hundred and ten men to fill our gaps; also a blanket and a pair of mittens for each of us; that will do for the present." The good mayor found it much easier to supply the woolen requirements than the men, who, for certain reasons, were unwilling to enter an old regiment where promotion would inevitably go to those who had been in the ranks longest, and soldiering without the possibilities of promotion is dull business.

Those who have considered carefully the subject of war, its progress and development, have, in many cases, taken occasion to censure some of the Northern States, and especially Massachusetts, forgetful of the fact that local feelings and a confidence in leaders whom the men know go a long way in imparting confidence to the citizen soldier. Governor John A. Andrew would have filled the old regiments, rather than form new ones, and to the newly formed organizations he would have given experienced officers instead of those elected by the men, but the latter would not have it so. In this connection that great man is said to have exclaimed, "Julius Caesar himself couldn't raise a company for an old regiment as long as there is a shoemaker left to make a captain of." The town system, so prominent a feature in New England life, had much to do with the fellow-feeling in companies and when these different companies, representing as many townships, all belonged to the same county, seemingly little was left to be desired in the background of the organization.

The numbering of Massachusetts Infantry organizations had already mounted to thirty before the call of the President in July, 1862. Recruiting was very active, notwithstanding the horrors of war, so graphically set forth in the daily press. Meetings to stimulate enlistments were held throughout the Commonwealth, becoming a daily occurrence in the City of Boston, where her historic buildings and public places resounded with eloquence in behalf of the Union and its preservation. Points of rendezvous were provided at Pittsfield, Worcester, Lynnfield, Readville, and other places for regiments, while Camp Cameron at North Cambridge was reserved for recruits to the older organizations. Within two months from the issuing of Governor Andrew's Order Number 26[B], dated July 7th, more than four thousand men had been enlisted and sent forward to old regiments, nine new ones had been raised and equipped, and eight of them had been sent forward to strengthen the hands of the Government. So diligently had the governor and his assistants labored, the dreaded draft was averted and, long before the first snowfall, the last of the great demand upon Massachusetts for the sons whom she had reared for other purposes, had gone southward, gun in hand, following the flag.

Sometimes regiments were raised by officers commissioned for this purpose; in other cases companies were raised in cities or large towns which, when full, were sent forward to the nearest rendezvous and, when a sufficient number had been thus assembled, the regimental organization followed. Many towns could not furnish men enough for a company, so the men went forward in squads or individually and these recruits either pieced out some company, not quite filled, or were thrown together to constitute a new company, this being the case with Company G of the Thirty-ninth, which had no central source like those of the others. Lynnfield had been designated as the point to which should be sent all Eastern Massachusetts volunteers for new regiments, while to North Cambridge, Camp Cameron, were forwarded the men who had enlisted in old organizations. These two points were to receive the three years' soldiers from the counties of Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk. Already in Camp Edwin M. Stanton, Lynnfield, usually called Camp Stanton, were the Thirty-fifth and the Thirty-eighth Regiments in process of formation and along with the Thirty-ninth in reporting there was the Fortieth; later came the Forty-first, the last of the three years' regiments under the July call.