After the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor by forces of the new Confederate States of America, news of Fort Sumter's fall reached Augusta by telegraph on the afternoon of the surrender on April 12, 1861, and the struggle for the Union soon brought profound changes to Maine's capital city. Within weeks Augusta became the state's seat of war. On April 22, Governor Washburn called the Legislature into session, which authorized the raising of 10 regiments and a million dollars to put down the rebellion of the Southern states. Augusta then became an armed camp, with streets filled with soldiers and open spaces filled with army camps and hospitals. Maine went on to raise 32 infantry regiments, 2 cavalry regiments, 7 artillery batteries, and numerous other units, many of them organized in Augusta at Capital Park, Camp Keyes, and the Kennebec Arsenal. Augusta's citizens quickly rallied to the flag and during the next four years sent hundreds of their sons into the Union army and navy. Augusta companies served in the 3rd, 19th, and 21st Maine Infantry Regiments, and Augusta citizens also served in other units, in regiments from other states, and in the Regular army and navy. Augusta citizens fought for the Union on battlefields from New Mexico to Louisiana and Virginia, and more than 130 gave their lives for the Union, while several citizens also fought for the Confederacy. Others occupied high places in the United States Government, with Lot Morrill in the U.S. Senate and John Potter in the House of Representatives, and Samuel Cony of Augusta became Maine's last war governor. In the army, General Seth Williams became Adjutant General of the Army of the Potomac and witnessed Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Augusta's city government raised troops, supported their dependents, and kept law and order on the city streets, while Augusta citizens sent off Maine regiments and welcomed returning regiments with band music and banquets. Maine's statewide war effort was guided from the State House, where orders were issued, laws passed, and money raised to assist the nation's cause under the leadership of Maine Adjutant General John L. Hodsdon of Bangor. On April 9, 1865, Augusta received news of Lee's surrender, and less than a week later, after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the city held a solemn funeral service at the Kennebec County Court House. Augusta then welcomed home returning Maine regiments, and Independence Day 1865 was marked with grand parade floats, soldiers, and citizens. The war then faded into memory with the dedication of the city's Civil War monument in 1882, and until 1940, when the city's last Civil War veteran died, aging veterans gathered there each Memorial Day to remember when Maine's capital city and its citizens fully engaged in what Lincoln called the "People's Contest."