required to fill the quota under the order for a draft of 300,000 issued on the 4th of August. Such was the situation at this critical period of the war. To meet the exigencies confronting the State and the Nation with promptness, the Governor issued a call for a special session of the General Assembly. It convened at the Capitol on the 3d of September, 1862, and, in the message, the Governor gave his reasons for calling the General Assembly together. He said:
He continued:
He recommended camps of instruction for the drilling of men who volunteered to fill the ranks of the old regiments. He strongly urged the enactment of a law providing for elections outside of the State, at which all Iowa soldiers absent from home in military service at the time of any general election, might have their votes received and canvassed. He urged the immediate action in the acceptance of the Agricultural College land grant recently made by Congress, amounting to 240,000 acres for Iowa, so that these lands might be secured within the limits of our own State. He called attention to the alarming reports of Indian massacres in Minnesota, and the danger threatening our people on the northwestern frontier.