------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XVII. THE MILITIA MOVES TO ROCK RIVER. At Beardstown the forces rapidly gathered. Colonels March and Christy were again placed in charge of the commissary department, but Christy, unable to give the service that attention which it demanded, resigned, leaving March to go alone to St. Louis for supplies, with instructions to have them at Yellow Banks (now Oquawka), on the Mississippi River, by the time the army reached that point. Col. E.C. Berry, Adjutant-General, and Col. Henry Eddy, Quartermaster-General of the State Militia, accompanied the expedition clear through. Gen. Samuel Whiteside was appointed Brigadier-General and the other field officers were elected by the troops. Two companies of foot appeared, which were formed into a battalion under the command of Major Thomas Long, and though infantry was not asked for in the call for troops, it was deemed impolitic to decline them, and they were disposed of by the following order: “Headquarters, Beardstown, April 29, 1832. “Special Order.–Major Thomas Long, commanding the odd battalion of infantry. “Sir:–You are hereby commanded to repair forthwith on the steamboat employed in the service of the United States to the mouth of Henderson’s River, and there await further orders. And you will strictly prohibit all shooting and other disorderly conduct in your command, and use all military precaution to protect the steamboat upon which you are conveyed, and use every exertion to meet the army at the point designated on the 2d of May next. “By order of Brig.-Gen. Whiteside. “NATHANIEL BUCKMASTER, Brigade Major.” On the 30th Governor Reynolds had received a message from Atkinson stating that the Indians had begun that day a movement up Rock River. Had the order to Major Long not been issued, the army might have been ordered to Peoria or Hennepin and Black Hawk could easily have been headed off at Dixon’s Ferry, saving thereby much blood and treasure, but Reynolds feared he could not overtake March and divert him to the course up the Illinois River, therefore the circuitous march to Yellow Banks was undertaken. We have fortunately preserved to us an account of that march, made by Private O.H. Browning, later United States Senator, and later Secretary of the Interior. “Minutes of an expedition undertaken to the northern part of the State of Illinois, in the spring of 1832, against the hostile bands of Sac and Fox Indians, who, it was rumored, had invaded that portion of said State which lies contiguous to and upon both sides of Rock River. “Sunday, April 22, 1832.