plan of "The Most Important Nature." He said:
The volunteer corps above alluded to are intended to be called out by companies, battalions, or regiments, but a sudden emergency may arise when men may be wanted at a given point before such corps can be prepared and marched to it. I deem it indispensable, therefore, that a body of Mounted Minute Men should be always prepared to proceed in the shortest time possible to any place which may be designated, to be kept on duty for a few days or a few weeks, until more regularly organized corps shall be brought into the field. My plan is this. Let a number of men, every one of whom keeps a horse, agree to repair at a moment's warning to any point which may be designated by the governor in any emergency. Let them then come prepared with guns or rifles, or arms of any description, with a supply of powder and ball, and come in the shortest time possible. If in each district only one hundred such men could be secured, we would have the means of throwing 2,500 of the é1ite of the whole state upon a given point in three or four days. And by no other means could this be effected....
To execute this plan, it may be well to select ten influential men in various parts of your district, to be called leaders; bring them fully into the scheme, and let each of them engage ten men as their quota. When the notice is given to you, that the minute men are wanted, you will instantly inform the leaders and get them to extend the notice to their respective squads....Have one or more
