There were so many jealousies and irritations, there was such lack of cohesion, and certainly lack of organization and discipline, that men naturally disposed to continue their service lost interest by the contagion of disaffection and wished themselves well rid of it. It may therefore be said that the dispersion of the army was the act of wisdom. General Whiteside was an energetic and patriotic man, and so it should be said of Governor Reynolds. Both had been rangers in the war of 1812, suffering dangers and fatigues without number. Both had been in responsible military positions and acquitted themselves creditably, but the army was composed of such divergent, discordant, independent and headstrong characters that harmony was impossible. Crops for the second year were being neglected; business interests left to be resumed at the end of thirty days[140]–as was supposed–were urging many to return. The prospect of a long campaign, complaints for burning the village of the Prophet and the forced march to Dixon’s thereafter–allowing the Stillman expedition, when probably the men favored it at the time–all conspired to raise a state of affairs so disagreeable all round that disintegration was inevitable and proper. Immediately the mustering out was finished, on May 27th, six companies, commanded by Captains Samuel Smith of Greene County, Benjamin James of Bond County, Elijah Iles–with whom Lincoln was a private–Alexander White and Alexander D. Cox of Sangamon, William C. Ralls of Schuyler and Adam W. Snyder of St. Clair, flew to the rescue of this regiment. Jacob Fry, on the 31st, was made colonel; James D. Henry, lieutenant-colonel; John Thomas, major; E.P. Oliphant, adjutant; John W. Scott, paymaster; William Kirkpatrick, quartermaster; H. Dulaney and John B. Rutledge, surgeons; Thomas R. Waldron, quartermaster’s sergeant; Jonathan Leighton, surgeon’s mate, and William McAdams, sergeant-major. This regiment, the flower of the first army, was made up of resolute and fearless men, among them Privates Joseph Gillespie, Francis Jarrott, Pierre Menard, Richard Roman, James Semple, John T. Stuart, John Dement, John J. Hardin and General Samuel Whiteside–men who would not permit crops, business or any other enterprise to keep them away from the path of duty as they then saw it. ----- Footnote 137: Also served at Bad Axe. Footnote 138: The direction thought to have been taken by the enemy and mentioned herein was erroneous. He had followed Rock River to a point near its source. Footnote 139: ... “The muster roll is not on file, but the records show that the company was mustered out at the mouth of Fox River, May 27, 1832, by Nathaniel Buckmaster, Brigade Major, to General Samuel Whiteside’s Illinois Volunteers.” Letter Gen. R.C. Drum, Adj. Gen. U.S. Army, in Vol. I, p. 96, of Nicolay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln. Footnote 140: The enlistment was for sixty days. -----