In addition to those named there were Gen. Hugh Brady, Gen. Henry Atkinson, Col. Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone, Capt. W.S. Harney, Robert Anderson, Jefferson Davis, N.J. Eaton, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, Bennet Riley, W.M. Graham, George Wilson, Kearney, Abercrombie, Gardenier, William Whistler, M.L. Clark, of the regular army, and of the militia, Capt. Abraham Lincoln, Gen. Henry Dodge, Gen. George W. Jones, Gov. John Reynolds, Gen. E.D. Baker, O.H. Browning, John A. McClernand, John Dement, Harrison Wilson, James D. Henry, Sidney Breese, Jacob Fry, Samuel Whiteside, Adam W. Snyder and others without number, who became famous in the history of the country at subsequent periods.
The regulars stationed at Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis) started under Atkinson up the Mississippi for Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), from which point the General, with a small detachment, proceeded further up to Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien), to secure the assistance of the troops stationed there under Lieut.-Col. Zachary Taylor, and those at Fort Winnebago (Portage, Wisconsin) under Lieut.-Col. Enos Cutler. Those under Taylor returned with Atkinson to Fort Armstrong to meet the militia of the State of Illinois, then gathering at Beardstown, preparatory to moving up to the mouth of Rock River, where a junction was to be formed with the regulars. Other troops under General Scott were subsequently ordered from Fortress Monroe. Others under Brady were ordered to Dixon’s Ferry from Detroit, taking in the Fort Winnebago men, the whole finally making an army formidable enough to annihilate all the Indians in the West if Indians could have been drawn into a general engagement.
On the 12th of May, 1832, the militia under Governor Reynolds and Gen. Samuel Whiteside arrived, almost simultaneously with a company of troops from the mining district under the intrepid Gen. Henry Dodge. On the 17th the regulars under General Atkinson arrived, and on this day Jefferson Davis assisted in mustering into the United States service the newly-formed Fifth Regiment, of which James Johnson of Macon County had been made Colonel just before.
In this first campaign of 1832 Lincoln was captain of a company of militia composed of sixty-nine as intractable and headstrong men as could be found at that very independent period, extravagantly opposed to discipline, acknowledging no superior, yet managed with skill and credit to all by the captain, who, under ordinary circumstances, chafed under restraint much less severe than that which military authority imposed and which few western men respected.
The age was one of independence, and that, more than anything else, was the cause of Stillman’s defeat. Private differences were settled without the assistance of courts, which were few and far between. One man was as good as his neighbor, and if anyone disputed the proposition it generally cost him a sore head. Those men who had fought in the war of 1812, without the assistance of the general Government, looked with profound contempt on the gold trappings of the regular officer and his tedious routine, and Governor Reynolds, diplomat that he was in handling western character, was put to the limit of his ability and endurance in smoothing over the difficulties which were needlessly created by this miserable spirit of independence. But by appointing officers of the regular establishment on his personal staff, requesting General Atkinson to accept some of the militia on his staff,[[294]] which he cheerfuly did, and finally instructing others in the gentle art of “mixing” he was finally able to overcome almost every obstacle which arose. Officers of the militia were invited to mess with the regulars, and vice versa, and through the friendly offices of the Governor, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were brought together for the first time and “messed” at Mr. Dixon’s table.
Albert Sidney Johnston, then a second lieutenant, accompanied the expedition from Jefferson Barracks and was appointed on the Governor’s staff with Robert Anderson. Lieutenant Johnston’s journal, kept regularly during the entire campaign, and which is fortunately preserved to us at this day, is a valuable and entertaining document.
When Atkinson was ordered to the front, Lieut. Robert Anderson was at Jefferson Barracks making an inspection. Asking and obtaining leave to accompany the expedition, he was appointed Assistant Inspector-General of the militia, and, as before stated, made a member of the Governor’s staff, with the rank of Colonel.
Gen. W.S. Harney, then a captain, and Jefferson Davis, then a lieutenant, were both absent on furlough when Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi, but on hearing of his purpose, each at once returned, rejoined his regiment at the mouth of Rock River and continued throughout the campaign to its close.[[295]]
The season was unusually rainy, and by the time the troops had reached Dixon’s Ferry they were nearly exhausted with fording creeks and towing the unmanageable keel boats up the river, many times wading waist deep in mire and water to propel them.
Stillman had been defeated on the 14th, and by the time General Atkinson’s forces reached the ferry the militia and its officers were a panicky lot.