Mr. John K. Robison was at the time a resident of Galena. Subsequently he removed to Dixon, and later removed to Melugin’s Grove, in the same county, where he passed most of his long and honored life. He was fourth sergeant in Captain Gear’s company.
In his lifetime I had many conversations with him about the campaign and his famous comrades, in the course of which he has more than once alluded to this meeting of Lieutenant Davis and Lieutenant Gardenier at Galena while they were encountering such trouble with Colonel Strode and his pig-headed tactics. He also told me of meeting Lieutenant Davis on several occasions thereafter, particularly at the time Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor’s troops, with others, crossed the Wisconsin River on the march to the Bad Axe, where Black Hawk was overtaken and his band annihilated.
From Galena Lieutenant Davis and his companions, with the exception of Lieutenant Gardenier, returned to Dixon’s Ferry, where, with the exception of scouting duty from time to time, and the march up Rock River, the troops under Taylor remained until the 27th day of June at 12 o’clock, when the militia under General Henry and the regulars under Atkinson and Brady started up the east bank of Rock River for the head-quarters of Black Hawk among the morasses of the river above Lake Koshkonong.
CAPT. H. HEZEKIAH GEAR.
SERGT. JOHN K. ROBISON.
GEN. GEORGE W. JONES.