4th Illinois Regiment of Mounted Volunteers

County: Sangamon County

State: Illinois

Samuel M. Thompson commanded this regiment, which consisted of four companies, one of which Abraham Lincoln commanded. The regiment was part of Samuel Whiteside’s Brigade of Illinois Volunteers mustered into service during the Black Hawk War. It had a reputation as a tough unit but engaged in no battles. Its members were from Rushville, Illinois, and Sangamon County, Illinois. Its companies mustered into United States service at Rock Island and marched to Dixon’s Ferry and then Ottawa, where they mustered out of service on May 27 and 28, 1832.

Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-48 (Springfield, IL: Rokker, 1882), 98-101; 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), 1:171-80.