“Headquarters Camp No. ––, Fox River, May 25, 1832.
“Special Order. Col. DeWitt (and the other officers):
“You are hereby commanded forthwith to cause an inquiry and search of regiments in your line and report the articles of any description taken by the men at the Paw Paw and the Indian villages on Sycamore Creek belonging to the Indians, by whom taken, with the supposed value of such articles, to headquarters this evening.
“By order of Brig. Gen. Whiteside,
“N. Buckmaster, Brigade Major.”
Lawlessness was running rampant! Leisurely following Fox River, its mouth was reached on the morning of the 27th, where on that day and the next the volunteers were mustered out of service by Major Buckmaster.[[139]]
While the mortification which fell upon the gallant “Old Ranger” Governor, Reynolds, was crushing to his fine sense of honor, it was probably best for the dissemblers to go, even at so great a sacrifice of life and personal feeling. An opportunity was given the patriotic and well disposed volunteers to accept a twenty-day service to guard the frontier while the new levy could be brought into the field and finish the campaign. On the 29th General Atkinson reached the scene from Dixon’s and established his headquarters opposite the mouth of the Fox, and immediately urged that 1,000 men volunteer for the twenty-day temporary service, which, he hoped, would assure him of 3,000 men when in conjunction with the new levy.
ORDER MAY 22, TO CAUSE INQUIRY.
The utter disregard of the troops for discipline; their contempt for superiors; contempt for their period of enlistment, not one-half expired, and almost open insubordination, cannot be appreciated by the present generation, unless the matter has been made the subject of conversation with a survivor who may have opened his mind in confidence. The following order should be a revelation to explain Stillman’s defeat. Dislike of Whiteside alone could not have been sufficient to demand such an order: