Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/165

Rh proceeded, as he said in after years, "to make a crop of corn." Influences that were certainly not employed by him, and are unknown to the writer of this sketch, caused his restoration to the grade of major, and he resumed his place in the army, there to continue until the voice of the people called him to the highest office within their gift. Under the rules that governed promotion in the army, Maj. Taylor became lieutenant-colonel of the 1st infantry, and for a period commanded at Fort Snelling, then the advanced post in the northwest.

In 1832 he became colonel of the 1st infantry, with headquarters at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The barracks were unfinished, and his practical mind and conscientious attention to every duty were manifest in the progress and completion of the work. The second Black Hawk campaign occurred this year, and Col. Taylor, with the greater part of his regiment, joined the army commanded by Gen. Henry Atkinson, and with it moved from Rock Island up the valley of Rock river, following Black Hawk, who had gone to make a junction with the Pottawattomie band of the Prophet, a nephew of Black Hawk. This was in violation of the treaty he had made with Gen. Edmund P. Gaines in 1831, by which he was required to remove to the west of the Mississippi, relinquishing all claim to the Rock river villages. It was assumed that his purpose in returning to