On May 10 the militia marching up the Rock River in pursuit of the British Band reached Prophetstown (about 35 miles from their starting point at the confluence). Rather than wait per Atkinson's plan, they burned White Cloud's empty village before proceeding about 40 miles upriver to Dixon's Ferry, where they waited for Atkinson and his troops. Although Reynolds wanted to allow the 260 eager militiamen not yet federalized to continue further as scouts, the cautious Whiteside insisted on waiting for Atkinson at the settlement. Dixon's Ferry had actually been established in 1826 by Ogee, of half-native ancestry, where the wagon trail connecting Peoria to the lead mines in Galena crossed the Rock River; settlers has established cabins along the Peoria/Galena trace and at the crossing, so that by 1829 its post office served settlers up the river as far as Rockford.