This name Deposit was given by Maj. Reddick Horn, who established it, to the point at the foot of the Illinois rapids, where the supplies were deposited when brought from St. Louis by Colonel March, Q.M., and is described in the press and documents of that day as being on the left bank of the Illinois River, one and a half miles below the mouth of the Little Vermilion River–about 300 miles from St. Louis and the head of steamboat navigation. Fort Johnston,[174] named from Albert Sidney Johnston, opposite the mouth of Fox River, and Atkinson’s headquarters for some time, was about twenty miles up from Wilbourn and was placed at a distance of ninety miles from Chicago, while Wilbourn was said to be fifty miles from Dixon and Dixon 100 miles from the Four Lakes country and the neighborhood of the camp of the Sacs, which, in turn, was about sixty miles from Fort Winnebago and Chicago. With Atkinson came his staff, Lieut. A.S. Johnston and Lieut. M.L. Clark, Aids; Lieut. Robert Anderson, Assistant Inspector-General; Lieut. G.W. Wheelwright, Ordnance Officer; Lieut. R. Holmes, Commissary of Subsistence, and Dr. Baylor, Surgeon, and Gen. Hugh Brady and his aid, Lieut. Electus Backus, who had left at Dixon’s Ferry the two companies of infantry brought from Fort Winnebago. As this point was as accessible to Dixon’s Ferry, the objective point of the army, as Ottawa, it was decided to remain there and notify the militia to come on from Hennepin and Beardstown, which they did. On the 14th General Atkinson ordered Colonel Moore’s regiment, with the exception of Captain Payne’s company, to return to Danville to be mustered out, while Colonel Moore turned over to the quartermaster at Ottawa his surplus ammunition and supplies, Captain Payne being ordered to remain at his position till further ordered. On the night of the 15th, Billy Caldwell, Shabbona and Wau-ban-see came into camp and offered Atkinson 100 men, to be commanded by Shabbona, who then communicated the location of Black Hawk at his last camp at the head of Rock River, with a following of warriors estimated to be from 1,000 to 2,000, and firmly intrenched against attack. Governor Reynolds, who had rejoined the men about this time, appointed Lieut. R. Holmes on his staff, and, in turn, Atkinson appointed Thomas C. Brown, of the Gallatin County volunteers, one of his aids; accordingly, on the 19th Brown was discharged as a private, to report as aid. On consultation with all the captains, Governor Reynolds determined that every officer above a captain should be elected by the men themselves,[175] a move which pleased everybody and which gave the army a strength unknown during the first campaign. It was further decided that the brigade staff officers should be one brigadier-general, who should appoint one aid-de-camp, one brigade inspector, one brigade quartermaster, one paymaster and two assistant quartermasters.