After laying down his official dignity and joining this band of
privileged warriors, the campaign became much more of a holiday
for the tall volunteer from New Salem. He entered with enthusiasm
into all the games and athletic sports with which the soldiers
beguiled the tedium of camp, and grew in popularity from
beginning to end of his service. When, at length, the Independent
Spy Battalion was mustered out on June 16, 1832, he started on
the journey home with a merry group of his companions. He and his
messmate, George M. Harrison, had the misfortune to have their
horses stolen the very day before, but Harrison's record says:
"I laughed at our fate, and he joked at it, and we all started of
merrily. The generous men of our company walked and rode by turns
with us, and we fared about equal with the rest. But for this
generosity, our legs would have had to do the better work, for in
that day this dreary route furnished no horses to buy or to
steal, and whether on horse or afoot, we always had company, for
many of the horses' backs were too sore for riding."
Lincoln reached New Salem about the first of August, only ten
days before the election. He had lost nothing in popular esteem
by his prompt enlistment to defend the frontier, and his friends
had been doing manful service for him; but there were by this
time thirteen candidates in the field, with a consequent division
of interest.
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