Certificate of Discharge for Royal Potter, 13 May 18321
I do hereby certify that Royal Potter is dismissed on furlough during the present campaign for the purpose of attending
a sick man— given under my hand this 13th day of May 1832.2
A. Lincoln Capt[Captain]<Page 2>
[ docketing
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8989— Dec 11/50
2At 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.
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.