Please Show Me Squirrels On Stamps!

Quote:
A number of Ohio counties offered their men for the defense of Cincinnati as well, an offer which Tod immediately accepted on Wallace's behalf. He stated that only armed men should report, and that transport should be provided by railroads at no cost. The state of Ohio would later cover the bill. Civilians from 65 counties–a total of over 15,000 men–converged on Cincinnati as part of a volunteer militia that would soon become known as the "Squirrel Hunters."

Many of these men had no previous military experience, and the weapons they brought were outdated–more suited to small game hunting than combat, and thus the source of their enduring nickname. A 1915 article from the Amherst Weekly News characterizes the men's weapons as "pitchforks, clubs and pistols and blunderbusses of the vintage of 1812 or thereabouts." Churches, meeting halls, warehouses, and even Cincinnati's Fifth Street Markethouse were commandeered to operate as makeshift barracks and dining halls as men crowded in to come to the city's defense.