He made an attack on the settlers. The governor called for help, and volunteers. Mr. Lincoln with a number of the Clary's Grove boys and others about New Salem volunteered and went down to Beardstown on the 22nd of April, 1832 to form a regiment. They did not have regular uniform, but each was dressed in whatever clothing he had. Many of them wore buckskin breeches and coonskin caps. Each man had his own blanket, and carried flint lock rifles, with a powder horn slung over his shoulder. Mr. Kirkpatrick wanted to be captain, and Lincoln thought he would like to be. This same Mr. Kirkpatrick had owed Abraham some money for a long time and would not pay it; so Lincoln said to a friend, he would run for the place, and may be Kirkpatrick would pay him. Each one stood out, and the men were told to stand beside the man they preferred for captain, and about two-thirds of them stood beside Lincoln, and thus he was made captain. He said afterwards when he was president, that he was never so proud of any election as that. They were not very well trained soldiers, and Mr. Lincoln did not know the commands very well. One day he wanted to get his company through a gateway, and he said, "I could not for the life of me remember the word of command for getting my company endwise so that it would get through the gate. So as we came near the gate, I shouted, this company will disband for two minutes, then it will fall in again on the other side of the gate." A helpless Indian came to the camp one day and seven men wanted to kill him, but Captain Lincoln stood in front of the seven men and told them they should not hurt the helpless savage. The warfare was not very successful and the company mustered out in May; but in the latter end of the same month, Lincoln joined another company. A strange incident then occurred, the meeting of four men, who afterwards became very celebrated. It was on the Rock River near Dixon. There were together, Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterwards commander in general and president of the United States; Abraham Lincoln, afterwards president of the United States; Lieut. Anderson, afterwards commander of Ft. Sumter when it was fired upon and Lieut. Davis, afterwards president of the Southern Confederacy. On July 10th, Lincoln's company mustered out. It was three weeks before the last battle of the war which finally killed most of the Indians and scattered the rest. He returned to New Salem, ran for a member of the legislature. There were eight candidates. He issued a circular in favor of widening the Sangamon River and made a canvass of the district, going largely to public sales and shaking hands with the people, and making speeches. At one place he helped settle a fight and then got upon the platform and went on with his speech. Lincoln was beaten in the election, although he was third man in the number of votes of the eight candidates. This was the only time that Abraham was ever defeated in a direct vote of the people.