By noon of the 8th the troops reached Kirker’s farm, where they halted to consider the numerous murders constantly committed in their midst. Here Dodge delivered a short address to the troops, which fired them with an enthusiasm that none but Dodge could inspire. In fact, it may be said for the troops from the mining districts that they fought and dragooned their country night and day, with never a thought of flinching or flagging. In the afternoon the men marched south and found and buried the bodies of St. Vrain, Hale and Fowler, after which Stephenson returned to Galena, while Dodge moved on to Hickory Point to camp for the night. The next morning he marched to Dixon’s Ferry and camped that night with General Brady. There it was learned that Atkinson had gone over to the mouth of Fox River, below which the new levies were massing. With twenty-five men Dodge escorted Brady thence,[164] and on the 11th the two had a conference with Atkinson, at which plans for the future campaign were fully mapped out. By midnight Dodge had returned to Dixon’s. His faculty for quick marches has seldom been equaled. In fact, to keep track of him, Colonel Hamilton and Captain Stephenson during their rides over the frontier was impossible to any save members of their commands. Night and day they rode tirelessly. From Ottawa and Fort Wilbourn to the south to Mineral Point and the Four Lakes to the north, they were incessantly moving and charging bands of thieves and murderers, and to their work this pen cannot do justice. With little or no rest, Dodge started back for the mining country, reaching Gratiot’s Grove June 13th. There, worn and exhausted, he dispersed his command to their respective forts to recuperate the strength of the horses and await further orders. No sooner had the men reached Fort Defiance at sundown of the 14th, than one David, as an express, arrived with news of the murder that day of Spafford, Searles, Spencer, McIlwaine and an Englishman nicknamed John Bull, at Spafford’s farm on the Pecatonica, six miles southeast of Fort Hamilton. Captain Hoard at once dispatched an express to Dodge at Dodgeville, and ordered Lieut. Charles Bracken with a detachment to Fort Hamilton, which was reached late that night. The following morning, under guidance of Bennett Million, a survivor of the party which had been attacked, Bracken took a detachment over to Spafford’s farm and buried the dead men, who as usual had been shockingly mutilated. Early in the morning of the 16th Dodge sighted the fort about one mile away, where he met a German named Henry Appel going to his cabin for blankets. In a few minutes shots were heard, and just as Dodge was entering the fort, Appel’s horse, bedabbled with the blood of its owner, came galloping back to the fort.