[32] Ford, Hist. of Illinois, 82-86.
[33] Ford, Hist. of Illinois, 55, 86, 88,104;
Herndon, 103; N. and H. i. 107; Lamon, 124, 230.
THE START IN LIFE
In Illinois during the years of Lincoln’s boyhood
the red man was retiring sullenly before the fatal
advance of the white man’s frontier. Shooting,
scalping, and plundering forays still occurred, and
in the self-complaisant reminiscences of the old settlers
of that day the merciless and mysterious savage is
apt to lend to the narrative the lively coloring of
mortal danger.[34] In the spring of 1832 a noted chief
of the Sacs led a campaign of such importance that
it lives in history under the dignified title of “the
Black Hawk war.” The Indians gathered in
numbers so formidable that Governor Reynolds issued
a call for volunteers to aid the national forces.
Lincoln, left unemployed by the failure of Offut,
at once enlisted. The custom then was, so soon
as there were enough recruits for a company, to elect
a captain by vote. The method was simple:
each candidate stood at some point in the field and
the men went over to one or another according to their
several preferences. Three fourths of the company
to which Lincoln belonged ranged themselves with him,
and long afterward he used to say that no other success
in life had given him such pleasure as did this one.
The company was attached to the Fourth Illinois Regiment,
commanded by Colonel Samuel Thompson, in the brigade
of General Samuel Whiteside. On April 27 they
started for the scene of conflict, and for many days
endured much hardship of hunger and rough marching.
But thereby they escaped serious danger, for they
were too fatigued to go forward on May 12, when the
cavalry battalions rode out gallantly, recklessly,
perhaps a little stupidly, into ambush and death.
It so happened that Lincoln never came nearer to any
engagement than he did to this one of “Stillman’s
Run;” so that in place of military glory he had
to be content with the reputation of being the best
comrade and story-teller at the camp fire. He
had, however, an opportunity to do one honorable act:
the brief term of service of the volunteers expired
on May 27, and most of them eagerly hastened away
from an irksome task, without regard to the fact that
their services were still much needed, whereas Lincoln
and some other officers reenlisted as privates.
They were made the “Independent Spy Battalion”
of mounted volunteers, were given many special privileges,
but were concerned in no engagement, and erelong were
mustered out of service. Lincoln’s certificate
of discharge was signed by Robert Anderson, who afterward
was in command at Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the
rebellion. Thus, late in June, Lincoln was again
a civilian in New Salem, and was passing from war to
politics.
