At each resting-place diversion was sought in wrestling matches, horse racing, foot racing and other kindred sports, and quickly enough came Mr. Lincoln’s reputation as a champion in the manly sports of the day, notably wrestling, which then, as now in new and small villages, was made to measure a man’s standing. No one was above a “match.” If he was, his presence in that locality soon became a reminiscence. Add, then, the two accomplishments of Captain Lincoln, and no imagination is required to account for his tremendous popularity in the army.
At New Salem Mr. Lincoln adapted himself to his surroundings by accepting the first challenge for a match that Mr. Offutt unwittingly caused to be sent him by John Armstrong, and notwithstanding the threatened interference by the “Clary’s Grove Boys,” he asserted his strength and bravery to such advantage that he became from that hour a respected leader, and the following year that same Armstrong became his First Sergeant, while William and Royal Clary became privates in his company. During the annual muster in the fall of 1831 those same influences elected him captain of the militia.
Being “out of a job” in the spring of 1832, the Black Hawk war offered him employment which was at once accepted. On April 21st sixty-eight men volunteered[[286]] to serve the state from “Richland, Sangamon County,” and at the election which followed for captain Mr. Lincoln was chosen by more than three-fourths of the men. Another, one William Kirkpatrick, aspired to the same position. He was pretentious, assumed a prominence in the neighborhood, questioned at times, but never severely challenged, and when he announced a desire for the office, he expected to get it. The two candidates were placed a short distance away and the men were requested to fall in behind the man they preferred for their captain. The proceeding was simple, brief and overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Lincoln, and he was hilariously declared elected. Enrolling his company for sixty days’ service, he marched at its head to Beardstown to be mustered in.
MUSTER ROLL OF CAPT. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
MUSTER ROLL OF CAPT. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Captain Lincoln owned no horse and to make that march he was forced to borrow, a not very difficult matter in those days; but on that borrowed horse, at the head of his men, he marched into Beardstown, “forty miles from the place of enrollment,” the proudest man in the state. On April 28th the company was mustered into the service of the state of Illinois by Col. John J. Hardin, Inspector-General of the state and Mustering Officer. Two muster rolls were made out, one by Colonel Hardin and one by Captain Lincoln, both of which are in existence and one reproduced herein.