stimulus, and a crafty "prophet," who was chief of a village some
thirty-five miles up the Rock, made it appear that aid would be given by
the Potawatomi, Winnebagoes, and perhaps other powerful peoples. In the
first week of April, 1832, the disgruntled leader and about five hundred
braves, with their wives and children, crossed the Mississippi at Yellow
Banks and ascended the Rock River to the prophet's town, with a view to
raising a crop of corn during the summer and taking the war-path in the
fall.

The invasion created much alarm throughout the frontier country. The
settlers drew together about the larger villages, which were put as
rapidly as possible in a state of defense. Again the Governor called for
volunteers, and again the response more than met the expectation. Four
regiments were organized, and to them were joined four hundred regulars.
One of the first persons to come forward with an offer of his services
was a tall, ungainly, but powerful young man from Sangamon County,
who had but two years before settled in the State, and who was at once
honored with the captaincy of his company. This man was Abraham Lincoln.
Other men whose names loom large in American history were with the
little army also. The commander of the regulars was Colonel Zachary
Taylor. Among his lieutenants were Jefferson Davis and Albert Sidney
Johnston, and Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter in 1860, was
a colonel of Illinois volunteers. It is said that the oath of allegiance
was administered to young Lincoln by Lieutenant Jefferson Davis!

Over marshy trails and across streams swollen by the spring thaws the
army advanced to Dixon's Ferry, ninety miles up the Rock, whence a
detachment of three hundred men was sent out, under Major Stillman,
to reconnoitre. Unluckily, this force seized three messengers of peace
dispatched by Black Hawk and, in the clash which followed, was cut
to pieces and driven into headlong flight by a mere handful of red
warriors. The effect of this unexpected affray was both to stiffen
the Indians to further resistance and to precipitate a fresh panic
throughout the frontier. All sorts of atrocities ensued, and Black
Hawk's name became a household bugaboo the country over.

Finally a new levy was made ready and sent north. Pushing across the
overflowed wilderness stretches, past the sites of modern Beloit and
Madison, this army, four thousand strong, came upon the fleeing enemy
on the banks of the Wis