Certificate of Discharge for John M. Rutledge, 8 August 18321
I certify that John M. Rutledge volunteered & served as a private in the company under my command in the regiment commanded by Colonel Samuel M. Thompson of the Brigade of mounted volunteers commanded by Brigadier General Samuel Whitesides on an expedition directed against the Sac & fox Indians in the Rock River country. & that he was enrolled on the 21st day of April 1832 & discharged on the 8th day of June of the same year— haveing Served Fortyeight & two third days—2
August. 8— 1832A Lincoln. Capt[Captain]<Page 2>
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1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed page one of this document.
At the outbreak of the Black Hawk War, Lincoln volunteered for the Illinois state militia. On April 21, 1832, Lincoln and other men from the New Salem area were mustered into a company in the 4th Regiment of Illinois Mounted Volunteers,
and the members of the company elected Lincoln as their captain. When his month of
service ended, Lincoln re-enlisted twice, for twenty and thirty days respectively,
serving as a private both times. He was discharged finally on July 10, 1832.
Muster Roll of Abraham Lincoln’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Muster Roll of Captain Elijah Iles’ Company of Mounted Volunteers; Muster Roll of Captain Jacob M. Early’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:176-78, 227-30, 544-46.
2Rutledge received for his military service 120 acres of bounty land in Iowa, which
he assigned to John Holbert.
Land Patent of the United States to John Holbert, 15 August 1860, Warrant No. 68989,
Appanoose County, IA, RG 49: Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Records of
the General Land Office, Land Patents, 1789-2012, National Archives at Kansas City,
Kansas City, MO.
Autograph Document Signed, 2 page(s), RG 15, A1, Entry 4:
Records of the Bureau of Pensions and the Pension Service, Bureau of
Pensions Correspondence and Pension Bounty Land Case Files Relating to
Military Service Performed Between 1775 and 1861, Pension and Bounty Land
Warrant Application Files, Case Files of Bounty Land Warrant Applications
Based On Service Between 1812 and 1855 and Disapproved Applications Based
on Revolutionary War Service, 1800-1900, NAB.