In July 1861, Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln to call out 500,000 men, to serve for three years unless sooner discharged. The 4th Vermont Infantry was the third of the three years regiments from the state placed in the field as a result of this call, and organized simultaneously with the 5th Vermont Infantry. It was recruited from towns mostly in the southern part of the state.[citation needed] Nine of its ten companies were recruited from the east side of the state, an important cultural division at the time.