In July, shortly after the laying of the corner-stone of an armory in the Eastern District, the committee began paying "hand-money" prizes of $175 and upward to persons bringing recruits. In September the news that Kings County was "out of the draft" was hailed with great satisfaction. Early in 1865 the evidences that the war was drawing to a close clearly appeared. A party of excursionists which left Brooklyn, in April, on the steamer Oceanus, learned at Charleston of Lee's surrender, and witnessed the restoration of the flag on Sumter. The Rev. Dr. Storrs and Henry Ward Beecher were present and spoke. The party heard of Lincoln's assassination before reaching home. The tragedy of Ford's Theatre, by which the strong hand of Lincoln was taken from the government of the nation, threw the city into profound gloom. The War Fund Committee opened subscriptions, which were limited to one dollar from each person, and the result of this prompt, patriotic, and well-managed movement was the statue of Lincoln by Henry K. Brown, which occupies a commanding place in Prospect Park Plaza.[30] The record of Brooklyn's National Guard organizations is an honorable one. The Thirteenth Regiment (National Guard), the first company of which, known as the Brooklyn Light Guard, was organized as long ago as 1827, had for its first colonel Abel Smith. The call of President Lincoln in 1861 elicited a unanimous offer of service from the Thirteenth, which went farther south than any other New York regiment, save the Eleventh. It formed a part of the left wing of McClellan's army. When the regiment was called into active service for the third time, John B. Woodward was in command.[31] The Fourteenth Regiment has the distinction of being the only one of the National Guard regiments that served throughout the war. It left for the front under command of Colonel Alfred M. Wood. At Bull Run, at Gettysburg, in the Wilderness, and elsewhere, it performed heavy and prolonged service. In twenty-one battles its mettle was tested, and the record made by the "red-legged devils" is a brilliant and honorable one. The Twenty-third Regiment was the outgrowth of one of the Home Guard companies of the war period. It was summoned to Harrisburgh, Penn., in 1863, being then in command of Colonel Everdell. The subsequent history of the regiment has been one of steady rise in efficiency and distinction. The Forty-seventh Regiment, organized, as already stated, under the leadership of J. V. Meserole,[32] was called to Washington, and was recalled after thirty days' service in consequence of the draft riots, in which, with the Forty-third, it performed valuable service. The Third Battery was organized in 1864, by Major E. O. Hotchkiss. Brooklyn is estimated to have contributed 30,000 men to the guards and armies of the Union during the war; but this estimate would not represent the highly creditable extent of the city's support to the great cause which saw its triumph in 1865.