532     HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
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                        CHAPTER XVI.
 
MILITARY - THE EARLY MILITIA - WAR WITH MEXICO - PUBLIC SENTI-
  MENT PRIOR TO THE CIVIL WAR - THE NEWS FROM FORT SUMPTER -
  EARLY VOLUNTEERING - MEETINGS OF THE CITIZENS - FIRST COMPA-
  NIES - PUBLIC MEETINGS - RENEWED VOLUNTEERING - COMPANIES
  FOR THE FIFTIETH - ORGANIZATION OF THE SIXTIETH REGIMENT - 
  PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN 1863 - 0THER REGIMENTS - THE DRAFTS - COM-
  PANIES OF THE LEGION - ARREST OF JASON B. BROWN - BOUNTY AND
  RELIEF.
 
For nearly half a century prior to 1861, the settlement and
progress of Jackson County had been almost wholly uninter-
rupted by any of the stirring scenes attendant upon a nation at war.
The militia which had done such effective service during the wars 
with the Indians, was fostered by early laws of the Territorial
and State Governments. All able-bodied men, of proper age,
were enrolled, and required to attend certain days in each year
for the purpose of drilling in military tactics. For several years
after this the "general training" days were the grand county
holidays. At first the people took active interest in learning the
different military movements, and studied, in their homely way,
the strategies of war. Each man furnished a gun in the begin-
ning, and all were skilled in the manual of arms. Until the time
of the Mexican war, this system of militia organization was kept
up in Jackson County, although for a part of the time only nom-
inally so. The musters were generally held at the county
seat, or some other important point in the county. They were
always attended by large and noisy crowds. As the men were
privileged from arrest on "training" days, the occasion became
one of general jollification, and fun of the rougher sort, such as