Nor was it only his ignorance of the manual which caused him trouble.  He was so unfamiliar with camp discipline that he once had his sword taken from him for shooting within limits.  Another disgrace he suffered was on account of his disorderly company.  The men, unknown to him, stole a quantity of liquor one night, and the next morning were too drunk to fall in when the order was given to march.  For their lawlessness Lincoln wore a wooden sword two days.

But none of these small difficulties injured his standing with the company.  Lincoln was tactful, and he joined his men in sports as well as duties.  They soon grew so proud of his quick wit and great strength that they obeyed him because they admired him.  No amount of military tactics could have secured from the volunteers the cheerful following he won by his personal qualities.

The men soon learned, too, that he meant what he said, and would permit no dishonorable performances.  A helpless Indian took refuge in the camp one day; and the men, who were inspired by what Governor Reynolds calls Indian ill-will—­that wanton mixture of selfishness, unreason, and cruelty which seems to seize a frontiersman as soon as he scents a red man—­were determined to kill the refugee.  He had a safe conduct from General Cass; but the men, having come out to kill Indians and not having succeeded, threatened to take revenge on the helpless savage.  Lincoln boldly took the man’s part, and though he risked his life in doing it, he cowed the company, and saved the Indian.

[Illustration:  Map of Illinois in 1832, prepared specially for MCCLURE’S magazine.

[Transcriber’s note:  The map includes the following legend:  The black line indicates the route Lincoln is supposed to have followed with the army as far as Whitewater, where he was dismissed.  When the army started from near Ottawa, after the 20th of June, to follow the Indians up Rock River, Lincoln’s battalion was sent towards the northwest, and joined the main army near Lake Koshkonong early in July.  Soon after he went to Whitewater, where, about the middle of the month, his battalion was disbanded, and he returned by foot and canoe to New Salem.  The dotted line shows the route he is supposed to have taken.  The towns named on the map are those with which Lincoln was connected either in his legal or his political life.]

THE BLACK HAWK CAMPAIGN.

It was on the 27th of April that the force of sixteen hundred men organized at Beardstown started out.  The spring was cold, the roads heavy, the streams turbulent.  The army marched first to Yellow Banks on the Mississippi, then to Dixon on the Rock River, which they reached on May 12th.  None but hardened pioneers could have endured what Lincoln and his followers did in this march.  They had insufficient supplies; they waded in black mud for miles; they swam rivers; they were almost never dry or warm; but, hardened as they were, they made the march gayly.  At Dixon they camped, and near here occurred the first bloodshed of the war.