At Beardstown Captain Lincoln’s company was assigned to the Fourth Regiment, of which his First Lieutenant, Samuel M. Thompson, was elected Colonel April 30th, and William Kirkpatrick, late candidate for captain, was made Quartermaster’s Sergeant, both quoted as coming from “Richland Creek.”
On the 30th the last of the army, including Captain Lincoln’s company, left Beardstown and encamped four miles north of Rushville. On Tuesday, May 1st, the march for Yellow Banks, seventy or seventy-five miles distant, was resumed and about twenty-five miles covered, the army camping at a point on Crooked Creek in McDonough County. On Wednesday, the 2d, another distance was made and the army encamped in a large prairie, two miles from timber or water. The night was cold and tempestuous.
At about 12 o’clock of Thursday, the 3d, the Henderson River was reached and crossed, and before night the Yellow Banks in Warren County was reached, where the army again encamped.[[287]] There, by reason of delay in the arrival of the boat with provisions, the army was compelled to remain the 4th, 5th and 6th, on which last-named day the provisions arrived. On the morning of the 7th the army moved for the mouth of Rock River, reaching that point about nightfall.
About Beardstown Captain Lincoln absorbed all the information to be found concerning tactics and imparted the same to his company to the best of his ability by frequent drills, stories of which have caused many a hearty laugh. The best version of one of those celebrated drills has been told by Ben. Perley Poore and is to be found on page 218 of “Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln”: “I remember his narrating his first experience in drilling his company. He was marching with a front of over twenty men across a field when he desired to pass through a gateway into the next enclosure.
“‘I could not for the life of me,’ said he, ‘remember the proper word of command for getting my company endwise so that it could get through the gate, so as we came near the gate I shouted: “This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate!”’” The story was told to picture the position of someone in debate who could find no tactful way out of a dilemma he had worked himself into. But Captain Lincoln was proud of his company and expressed his pride on many occasions. Leonard Swett obtained the story of that company direct from the lips of the captain and it is to be found in the book last quoted, on page 465: “Together with the talk of organizing a company in New Salem began the talk of making Lincoln captain of it. His characteristics as an athlete had made something of a hero of him. Turning to me with a smile at the time, he said: ‘I cannot tell you how much the idea of being the captain of that company pleased me.’
“But when the day of organization arrived a man who had been captain of a real company arrived in uniform and assumed the organization of the company. The mode of it was as follows: A line of two was formed by the company, with the parties who intended to be candidates for officers standing in front. The candidate then made a speech to the men, telling them what a gallant man he was, in what wars he had fought, bled and died, and how he was ready again, for the glory of his country, to lead them; then another candidate, and when the speech-making was ended they commanded those who would vote for this man, or that, to form in line behind their favorite. Thus there were one, two or three lines behind the different candidates, and then they counted back, and the fellow who had the longest tail to his kite was the real captain. It was a good way. There was no chance for ballot-box stuffing or a false count.
“When the real captain with his regimentals came and assumed the control, Lincoln’s heart failed him. He formed in the line with the boys, and after the speech was made they began to form behind the old captain; but the boys seized Lincoln and pushed him out of the line and began to form behind him, and cried, ‘Form behind Abe,’ and in a moment of irresolution he marched ahead, and when they counted back he had two more[[288]] than the other captain.”
The lawlessness of the troops in camp and on the march caused Governor Reynolds much annoyance and chagrin. When Major Long’s battalion was ordered down the river the troops were especially charged not to fire their guns aboard the boat, a charge unnecessary with most men. So prevalent had that amusement become that the celebrated order of April 30th was issued just as the little army was taking up its march for the Yellow Banks. At the Henderson River a crossing was effected only after great labor and more inconvenience in the way of wet clothing, and probably to celebrate so successful an event the firing was resumed, this time by Captain Lincoln himself, which promptly brought upon his head his first disgrace by being reprimanded and, as is generally conceded, by being compelled to wear a wooden sword. That punishment was accepted in good spirit, but no more firing was charged to his account during the campaign; in fact, it made him more punctilious and watchful and more insistent with his men. When off duty, however, he allowed himself and his men the harmless diversions of camp life without restraint.
