pendent spy company, of which Lincoln was a member, was sent with a brigade to the northwest, near Galena, in pursuit of the Hawk. The nearest Lincoln came to an actual engagement in the war was here. The skirmish of Kellogg's Grove took place on June 25; Lincoln's company came up soon after it was over, and helped bury the five men killed. It was probably to this experience that he referred when he told a friend once of coming on a camp of white scouts one morning just as the sun was rising. The Indians had surprised the camp, and had killed and scalped every man. "I remember just how those men looked," said Lincoln, "as we rode up the little hill where their camp was. The red light of the morning sun was streaming upon them as they lay heads towards us on the ground. And every man had a round red spot on the top of his head about as big as a dollar, where the redskins had taken his scalp. It was frightful, but it was grotesque; and the red sunlight seemed to paint everything all over." Lincoln paused, as if recalling the vivid picture, and added, somewhat irrelevantly, "I remember that one man had buckskin breeches on." Early's company, on returning from their expedition, joined the main army on its northward march. By the end of the month the troops crossed into Michigan Territoryas Wisconsin was then called-and July was passed floundering in swamps and stumbling through forests, in pursuit of the now nearly exhausted Black Hawk. No doubt Early's company saw the hardest service on the march for to it was allotted the scouting. The farther the army advanced the more difficult was the situation. Finally the provisions gave out and July 10, three weeks before the last battle of the war, that of Bad Axe, in which the whites finally massacred most of the Indian band, Lincoln's company was disbanded at Whitewater, Wisconsin, and he and his friends started for home. The volunteers in returning suffered much from hunger. More than one of them had nothing to eat on the journey except meal and water baked in rolls of bark laid by the fire. Lincoln not only went hungry on this return; he had to tramp most of the way. The night before his company started from Whitewater he and one of his messmates had their horses stolen; and, excepting when their more fortunate companions gave them a lift, they walked as far as Peoria, Illinois, where they bought a canoe, and paddled down the Illinois river to Havana. Here they sold the canoe, and walked across the country to New Salem. CHAPTER VII LINCOLN RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY AND IS DEFEATEDSTOREKEEPER-STUDENT-POSTMASTER-SURVEYOR ON returning to New Salem Lincoln at once plunged into "electioneering." He ran as "an avowed Clay man," and the country was stiffly Democratic. However, in those days political contests were almost purely personal. If the candidate was liked he was voted for irrespective of principle. "The Democrats of New Salem worked for Lincoln out of their personal regard for him," said Stephen T. Logan, a young lawyer of Springfield, who made Lincoln's acquaintance in the campaign. "He was as stiff as a man could be in his Whig doctrines. They did this for him simply because he was popular-because he was Lincoln." It was the custom for the candidates to appear at every gathering which brought the people out, and, if they had a chance, to make speeches. Then, as now, the farmers gathered at the county-seat or at the largest town within their reach on Saturday afternoons, to dispose of produce, buy supplies, see their neighbors, and get the news. During "election times" candidates were always present, and a regular feature of the day was listening to their speeches. They never missed public sales, it being expected that after the "vandoo" the candidates would take the auctioneer's place. Lincoln let none of these chances to be heard slip. Accompanied by his friends, generally including a few Clary's Grove Boys, he always was present. The first speech he made was after a sale at Pappsville. What he said there is not remembered; but an illustration of the kind of man he was, |