on
every one's tongue.

Volunteers had been called for. But Illinois could send but three
regiments; she offered six to the cause. Many companies were refused. I
organized a company, financing it myself. But it could not be taken, and
I joined the army under the colonelcy of John J. Hardin. He it was whom
Douglas had supplanted as state's attorney. Now he was to lead troops,
to the vindication of Douglas' dream.

Dorothy was inconsolable for my departure. She could not have sustained
the ordeal except for Mother Clayton. There were fear, anxiety, and
mystical foreboding in Dorothy's heart for a different reason. She was
soon to bear a child. She was loath to have me away from her in this
ordeal. Yet I had to go. A whole continent moved me; great forces urged
me forward. I was now an American. Martial blood stirred in me. All
concerns of home, of Dorothy, sank below the great vision of war. The
aggregate feelings and thoughts of a people make a superintelligence
which may be mistaken for God. Of this superintelligence Douglas' voice
was the great expression. I broke from Dorothy's arms, after vainly
attempting to console her.

The six Illinois regiments assembled at Alton, where I had been so many
times before. I was to see this town again in the most dramatic moment
of my life, how unimagined in this terrible time of war. We hurried on
to join General Taylor, who had already, as we learned later, won the
battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Characters later to figure
momentously in the history of the country were here to settle the title
of Texas with the sword. Robert E. Lee, a lieutenant, was brevetted for
bravery in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and
Chapultepec. Captain Grant had come with a regiment and joined the
forces of General Taylor. He took part in the battles of Palo Alto,
Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey; and then being transferred to General
Scott's army, he served at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, Molino
del Rey, and at the capture of Chapultepec. Here too was Colonel
Jefferson Davis, who led his valorous Mississippians, who put to flight
Ampudia at the battle of Buena Vista. Lee, Grant, Davis, Taylor, the
next President, all in arms for the ocean-bound republic of the young
Congressman from Illinois!

Our Illinois troops with those from other states, numbering in all 5000
men, proceeded to Monterey, thence to Buena Vista where we were
confronted by 20,000 Mexicans u