"Choose your weapons!" The insubordination ended, and the word "coward" was never associated with Lincoln's name again.

He afterward said that at this time he felt that his life and character were both at stake, and would probably have been lost had he not at the supreme moment forgotten the officer and asserted the man.

His men could hardly have been called soldiers.

They were merely armed citizens, with a military organization in name only.

Had he ordered them under arrest he would have created a serious mutiny; and to have them tried and punished would have been impossible.
It was while Lincoln was a militia captain that he made the acquaintance of a man who was destined to have an important influence on his life.
This was Major John T.Stuart, afterwards his law-partner.