HE RETREAT TO BATTLES'S. 194

"HOME, SWEET HOME." 204

THE BOY SETTLERS.

CHAPTER I.

The Settlers, and Whence They Came.

There were five of them, all told; three boys and two men. I have
mentioned the boys first because there were more of them, and we shall
hear most from them before we have got through with this truthful
tale. They lived in the town of Dixon, on the Rock River, in Lee
County, Illinois. Look on the map, and you will find this place at a
point where the Illinois Central Railroad crosses the Rock; for this
is a real town with real people. Nearly sixty years ago, when there
were Indians all over that region of the country, and the red men were
numerous where the flourishing States of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin
are now, John Dixon kept a little ferry at the point of which I am now
speaking, and it was known as Dixon's Ferry. Even when he was not an
old man, Dixon was noted for his long and flowing white hair, and the
Indians called him Na-chu-sa, "the White-haired." In 1832 the Sac
tribe of Indians, with their chief Black Hawk, rose in rebellion
against the Government, and then there happened what is now called the
Black Hawk war.

In that war many men who afterwards became famous in the history of
the United States were engaged in behalf of the government. One of
these was Zachary Taylor, afterwards better known as "Rough and
Ready," who fought bravely in the Mexican war and subsequently became
President of the United States. Another was Robert Anderson, who, at
the beginning of the war of the Rebellion, in 1861, commanded the
Union forces in Fort Sumter when it was first fired upon. Another was
Jefferson Davis, who, in the course of human events, became President
of the Southern Confederacy. A fourth man, destined to be more famous
than any of the others, was Abraham Lincoln. The first three of these
were officers in the army of the United States. Lincoln was at first a
private soldier, but was afterwards elected captain of his company,
with whom he had come to the rescue of the white settlers from the
lower part of the State.

The war did not last long, and there was not much glory gained by
anybody in it. Black Hawk was beaten, and that country had peace ever
after. For many years, and even unto this day, I make no doubt, the
early settlers of the Rock River country loved to tell stories of the
B