We were mustered into service on the 29th of May, 1832, at the mouth of Fox river, now Ottawa, by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, Assistant Inspector General in the United States Army." One day during the Black Hawk War there were in the camp on Rock river four men afterward famed in the history of the country.

It was while Lincoln was a member of the company under command of Captain Iles.

These men were Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant Robert Anderson, and Private Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln and Anderson did not meet again until 1861, after the latter had evacuated Fort Sumter.

Major Anderson then visited Washington and called at the White House to pay his respects to the President.