excuses of such members as were unable to enlist, and had a company of 105 men ready to march by the night of April 17. A second company was organized immediately afterwards. Turners from the Milwaukee and other Wisconsin societies were incorporated in the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment as Company C, known as the “Turner Rifles.” Many societies were so reduced in numbers by enlistment that they found it necessary to disband, and effort was everywhere centered on the support of those who were hastening to the field, or had already gone. The roll of turner dead is a long and honorable one. During the years of the Civil War the _Turnerbund_ retained only a nominal existence. The old Executive Committee remained in office, but few societies kept up their connection with this central body and it received no financial support. Immigration from Germany, where _Turnen_ was now making rapid strides forward, had given an impetus to gymnastics in the larger societies meanwhile, and _Turnvereine_ in and near New York City had effected a district organization, with monthly conventions and _Turnfeste_. At their suggestion the New York _Turnverein_ undertook to manage a general _Turnfest_, in which societies all over the country were invited to share, and after which the matter of reorganizing the _Bund_ was to be discussed. On September 14, 1864, accordingly, delegates from twenty-two societies outside the New York district met with their hosts in a sort of improvised national convention, which reaffirmed the former platform and appointed a provisional central committee. In less than five months six other district organizations, after the New York plan, had reported their existence. The next spring at Washington (1865, April 3-5) fifty-eight societies were represented by delegates in regular convention, and on the first day the details of reorganization were completed under the name _Nordamerikanischer Turnerbund_ (North American Gymnastic Union).[269] The headquarters of the Executive Committee were established in New York, and its members were to be chosen by the New York district (_Turnbezirk_). Physical training was declared to be the first object of the societies. All active members were to take part in the gymnastic exercises up to their thirtieth year, after a uniform system based on the Jahn-Eiselen model and the “free exercises” of Spiess, and suitable classes for boys and girls were also to be provided. The following table reveals the progress made in the next two decades: