"The commander-in-chief expresses his gratification at the prompt response to the call of the president of the United States upon the militia of Minnesota, and his regret that, under the present requisition for only ten companies, it is not possible to accept the services of all the companies offered." The order then enumerates the ten companies which had been accepted, and instructs them to report at Fort Snelling, and recommends that the companies not accepted maintain their organization and perfect their drill, and that patriotic citizens throughout the state continue to enroll themselves, and be ready for any emergency. The governor, on May 3d, sent a telegram to the president, offering a second regiment. The magnitude of the rebellion becoming rapidly manifest at Washington, the secretary of war, Mr. Cameron, on the 7th of May, sent the following telegram to Governor Ramsey: "It is decidedly preferable that all the regiments from your state not already actually sent forward should be mustered into the service for three years, or during the war. If any persons belonging to the regiments already mustered for three months, but not yet actually sent forward, should be unwilling to serve for three years, or during the war, could not their places be filled by others willing to serve?" A great deal of correspondence passed between Lieutenant Governor Donnelly at St. Paul and Governor Ramsey at Washington over the matter, which resulted in the First Minnesota Regiment being mustered into the service of the United States for three years, or during the war, on the eleventh day of May, 1861. Willis A. Gorman, second governor of the territory, was appointed colonel of the First. The colonel was a veteran of the Mexican War. The regiment when first mustered in was without uniform, except that some of the companies had red shirts and some blue, but there was no regularity whatever. This was of small consequence, as the material of the regiment was probably the best ever collected into one body. It included companies of lumbermen, accustomed to camp life, and inured to hardships; men of splendid physique, experts with the axe; men who could make a road through a forest or swamp, build a bridge over a stream, run a steamboat, repair a railroad, or perform any of the duties that are thrust upon an army on the march and in the field. There are no men in the world so well equipped naturally and without special preparation for the life of a soldier as the American of the West. He is perfectly familiar with the use of firearms. From his varied experience, he possesses more than an average intelligence. His courage goes without saying, and, to sum him up, he is the most all-around handy man on earth.