Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume X (1888)

              incident of the black hawk war by col charles whittlesey among the recollections of the season i spent in wiscon sin in 1832 is the following incident of the black-hawk war which occurred on the banks of rock river after the so called stillman's defeat or battle of the kish-wau-kee or sycamore creek i cannot now bring to mind the authority on which the " statement is based not being present and therefore give it only as the remembrance of an old man gen atkinson had not arrived in camp and the command of all the troops regular and volunteer devolved upon col zachary taylor of the army he was to move northward across the river in pursuit of black-hawk and his followers a portion of the volunteers held that they were called out only to defend the state of illinois and were not inclined to inarch the column was formed with the volunteers in front before the order to move was issued col taylor rode up to the volunteer troops and made them a brief speech he said that orders had been passed along from washing ton and the president to pursue the indians it might be that some of them would yet be president of the united states and if so they would expect their orders to be obeyed at any rate he should obey such orders and if there were any who did not wish to cross the river there stood the united states infantry behind them forward march ! it may not be true that capt abraham lincoln of the illinois volunteers was present at that time but as he served the whole campaign he must have been if so that com mand included two men who became presidents of the united states — taylor and lincoln cleveland o june 1877