hand.  “If any man thinks I am a coward,” said he, “let him test it.”  “Lincoln,” was the reply, “you are larger and heavier than any of us.”  “That you can guard against,” responded the captain.  “Choose your weapons!” The insubordination ended, and the word “coward” was never associated with Lincoln’s name again.  He afterward said that at this time he felt that his life and character were both at stake, and would probably have been lost had he not at the supreme moment forgotten the officer and asserted the man.  His men could hardly have been called soldiers.  They were merely armed citizens, with a military organization in name only.  Had he ordered them under arrest he would have created a serious mutiny; and to have them tried and punished would have been impossible.

It was while Lincoln was a militia captain that he made the acquaintance of a man who was destined to have an important influence on his life.  This was Major John T. Stuart, afterwards his law-partner.  Stuart was already a lawyer by profession.  During the Black Hawk War he commanded one of the Sangamon County companies, and was soon afterward elected major of a spy battalion formed from some of these companies.  He had the best of opportunities at this time to observe the merits of Captain Lincoln, and testifies that the latter was exceedingly popular among the soldiers on account of his excellent care of the men in his command, his never-failing good nature, and his ability to tell more stories and better ones than any man in the service.  He was popular also among these hardy men on account of his great physical strength.  For several years after the Black Hawk War Lincoln retained his military title and was usually addressed as “Captain Lincoln.”  But this in time was discontinued.  Stuart’s title of “Major,” on the contrary, adhered to him through life.  He was best known as “Major Stuart” down to the time of his death, which occurred early in the winter of 1886.

The time for which Captain Lincoln’s company enlisted soon ran by, but the trouble with the Indians not being ended Governor Reynolds called for a second body of volunteers.  Lincoln again responded, and was enrolled as a private in the independent company commanded by Elijah Iles of Springfield.  A note of this occurrence, made in 1868 by Captain Iles, contains the following statement:  “The term of Governor Reynolds’s first call being about to expire, he made a second call, and the first levy was disbanded.  I was elected a captain of one of the companies.  We were mustered into service on the 29th of May, 1832, at the mouth of Fox river, now Ottawa, by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, Assistant Inspector General in the United States Army.”