Where was Lincoln?

[Robert Braun]

J. A. Atwood in his Story of the Battle of Stillman's Run places Abraham Lincoln at the Stillman Run battlefield, and described the soldier burial story:

I would that I could tell you something of the impressive burial rites over the victims of Stillman's Run which took place at Stillman Valley, May 15, the day following that tragic event. Suffice to say that the army at Dixon, marched to the battlefield 2,000 strong. Captain Abraham Lincoln, afterward the Great Emancipator and Martyred President, was among the number. It was here he learned his first lessons in warfare that fitted him to so skillfully guide the ship of state as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of our armies and navy, during the bloody years of the great Civil War. While Mr. Lincoln was a member of Congress he referred to the fact in one of his speeches that he was present and assisted at the burial of the dead at Stillman's Run. The service was performed in the early evening, a trench first having been dug 16 feet long and nearly four feet deep and into this hastily improvised grave, nine uncoffined Illinois soldiers, whose blood was the first shed in the Black Hawk war, were tenderly wrapped in their blankets by their comrades and with military honors given a soldiers' burial, the firing of a salute being their only eulogy.

This theme is echoed on the "Abraham Lincoln Online" website showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/stillman.htm where we find:

Lincoln's service took him to many locations around northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. At what is now the town of Stillman Valley in Ogle County, he helped bury soldiers who had been killed and scalped the day before. According to Benjamin Thomas, Lincoln recalled that "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."

Interestingly, a closer reading of Benjamin Thomas' Lincoln's New Salem reveals that Thomas specifically placed Lincoln in the context of burying the militia dead on the field of Kellogg's Grove--- not Stillman's Run! Lloyd Efflandt, in his Lincoln and the Black Hawk War quotes Thomas, and likewise placed Lincoln in the context of burying the dead after the June 25, 1832 action at Kellogg's Grove.

So... where was Lincoln? Did he assist in burying the dead at Stillman's Run--as tradition has long asserted-- or the militia dead of the second battle of Kellogg's Grove?

[Robert Braun]

In the Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Vol. 14, we find an article written by Alfred Augustus Jackson entitled "Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hawk War."

In this article, Jackson wrote:

Black Hawk says that when he learned that these white soldiers were near him, he sent three of his young men with a white flag to conduct them to his camp, that he might hold a council with them, and with them descend Rock River again, and return to the west side of the Mississippi. He also sent five others to see what might take place. The three Indians with the flag entered Stillman's camp, and were taken prisoners; the other five, when seen by Stillmen's men, were pursued without orders or officers. When Black Hawk found that his men were being chased by the whites, he formed an ambush, and upon the approach of the latter attacked them so vigorously that they turned and fled. Eleven of Stillman's men were killed. The regiment to which Lincoln's company belonged, was meanwhile at Dixon's Ferry. The next day, Whiteside's force--among them, Lincoln's company--marched to the scene of this disaster and buried the dead.

Jackson places Lincoln and his company at Stillman's Run, and not at Kellogg's Grove. He cites as his source Ward Hill Lamon's Recollections of Abraham Lincoln Chicago, 1895, p. 106.

[Robert Braun]

Another installment... with a different twist...

We've all heard stories about people who purportedly have collected artifacts from the Black Hawk War. Heck, there's supposed to be someone with parts of a skeleton from Stillman's Run in his garage; another guy is supposed to have artifacts from one of the fellows from the St. Vrain party massacred near Kellogg's Grove. And so it goes....

However, here's a story with a little different ring... at least to my ear.

I have been contacted by a fellow who is moving to a farm near the hamlet of Coldspring, WI-- the traditional muster-out site of Abraham Lincoln and his comrades in Captain Early's Spy Company.

He has written me with some rather fascinating stories from the current owner--

The current owners told us an interesting story about Abraham Lincoln having his horse stolen while he and his company were encamped - on his way home from the Black Hawk War of 1832... They tell me that Mr. Lincoln later wrote of his experience, saying that the company lost much of their equipment in the tamarack marsh which is where the Whitewater River now flows along the back of my property. Some years ago a willow tree fell across the river. While the current owner worked to remove the tree, he found what apperars to be a bayonet. He assumes the bayonet was part of the company's lost equipment.

We have generally accepted that Coldspring was the traditional muster-out site of at least some of Atkinson's militia in July, 1832. What evidence confirms this assumption? ANd did Lincoln actually WRITE of his BHW experiences? Or did he tell others and they wrote about it?


Now, if if IF I have a chance to view the bayonet... I'll be sure to advise the board!

Excited.... ;D

Bob.

[Jeffrey]

Bob,
Exciting story, keep us posted.
I looked in "Herndon's Informants." There are a couple of interesting letters from George Harrison who was in the Spy company with Lincoln. He describes their activities pretty extensively and actually makes it sound like Lincoln was closer to the action than is usually thought--the stories probably improve with thirty years of telling. Anyway, he writes to Herndon the following:
"About the tenth of may, I think, Joined Doct. Early's company; and the whole company was disbanded at White Water in Wisconsin about the tenth or middle of July, and nearly all of the company then returned home. Mr. Lincoln & myself came afoot from Havanna on the Ills river to Petersburg on the Sangamon, we crossed the Sangamon river at Miller's Ferry; several miles northwest from Petersburg." (p. 520)
In another earlier letter Harrison writes:
"Our company was disbanded at Whitewater, Wisconsin, a short time before the Massacre at Bad Axe by Gen. Henry, and most of our men started for home on the following morning. But it so happened that the night previous to starting on this long trip, Lincoln's horse and mine were stolen, probably by soldiers of our own army--and we were thus compelled to start out side the cavalcade; but I laughed at our fate, and he joked at it, and we all started off merrily...." (p. 328)
---Jeffrey

[Robert Braun]

Excellent find, Jeff!

I have pssed this information on to the prosepctive landowner.

I'll keep you posted!

Bob