USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 39
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On the 20th, Stephenson's and Craig's companies, under command of Col. Strode, went out to Waddam's Grove and buried the remains of Howard, Eames and Lovell, but left the dead Indian above ground. On their return, they heard some suspicious sounds, but pushed on to Imus', in Rush Township, (now) Jo Daviess County, and from there to Galena, where they arrived in safety. " Afterward," says Capt. Green, who was one of the party, "we learned that a large party of Sacs were within a half-hour's march of us, when we left the graves of our dead comrades."
This party, which numbered about one hundred and fifty, had left the main body of the Sacs on Rock River, and after following Strode's command, were supposed to be the same party who made a furious attack on the Apple River stockade on the night of the 24th, the circumstances of which are thus related : F. Dixon, Edmund Welsh, G. W. Herclerode and another man. named Kirk- patrick, started to carry dispatches to Gen. Atkinson. After they passed Apple River, they were fired upon by Indians, and Welsh was badly wounded. His
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companions told him to retreat to the fort, and to give him time, turned upon the foe and raised a yell, which temporarily checked them. Welsh reached the fort and gave the alarm. Their stratagem succeeded. Dixon dashed through the savages and escaped to Galena, Kirkpatrick and Herclerode gained the stockade, the gate was closed and for three-quarters of an hour the battle raged with furious heat. The women and girls molded bullets and loaded the guns. Herclerode was killed while taking deliberate aim at an Indian over the pickets. The number of Indians killed was not known, but they were believed to have lost several. They finally withdrew, after destroying a good deal of property and stealing a large number of cattle.
On the evening of June 14, five men were killed while at work in a corn- field on Spafford's farm, on Spafford's Creek, five miles below Fort Hamilton ; and on the morning of the 16th, Henry Apple, a German, was killed within half a mile of the fort. Gen. Henry Dodge, with a mounted force of twenty- nine men, started in pursuit and came in sight of the murdering party about three miles from the fort, but did not overtake them until after they had crossed the Pec-a-ton-i-ca River and entered an almost impenetrable swamp, at Horse- Shoe Bend. At the edge of the swamp, Gen. Dodge ordered his men to dis- mount and link horses. Four men were left in charge of the horses, four were posted around the swamp to prevent the escape of the savages, and the remain- der, twenty-one in number, with Gen. Dodge at their head, advanced about half a mile into the swamp, where they received the fire of the Indians. Three of the men fell mortally wounded. Gen. Dodge instantly ordered a charge upon the Indians, who were found lying under the bank of the slough, but were not seen until Dodge and his men had approached within a few feet of them. Ten of the Indians were killed and scalped in less than that many minutes. The eleventh one swam the slough in an attempt to escape, and was shot on the oppo- site bank. In this foray F. M. Morris and Samuel Wells were mortally, and Samuel Black and Thomas Jenkins severely, wounded.
This was the first victory over the Indians and occasioned great rejoicing in the settlements.
On the 17th of June, Capt. Adam W. Alexander, of Col. Fry's regiment, was sent out to scout the country between Rock River and Galena, and while encamped near Burr Oak Grove, in what is now the township of Erin, in Stephenson County, was fired upon by four Indians. He pursued and killed them, losing one man, who fell mortally wounded. Returning, he was attacked by seventy Indians, both parties taking positions behind trees. Gen. White- side, then a private, shot the leader of the band, when the Indians retreated, but were not pursued. Snyder lost two men killed and one wounded.
On the 25th, a detachment of Gen. Posey's brigade, commanded by Maj. John Dement, and encamped at Kellogg's Grove (then called Burr Oak Grove), was attacked by a large party of Indians and a sharp skirmish ensued. Maj. Dement lost five men and about twenty horses killed. The Indians left nine of their number stretched upon the field. Gen. Posey, who was encamped at Buffalo Grove, went to the relief of Dement, but the Indians had retreated two hours before he arrived. He returned to Kellogg's Grove to await the arrival of his baggage-wagons, and then marched to Fort Hamilton, Michigan Terri- tory (now Wisconsin.)
On the 29th of June, three men at work in a corn-field at Sinsinawa (Jones' Mound), ten miles from Galena, were attacked by a small party of Indians, and two of them, James Boxley and John Thompson, were killed. The third one escaped and carried the news to Galena, when Maj. Stephenson, with thirty
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men, immediately started out to bury the murdered men and pursue the mur- derers. The bodies of Boxley and Thompson . were horribly mutilated. Both had been scalped, and Thompson's heart cut out. The Indians were followed to Jordan's farm (now Dunleith), on the Mississippi River, where they had stolen a canoe and crossed to the Iowa side.
It has always been admitted by those who were familiar with the facts, that the Stillman's Run affair precipitated the war and led to the several murders and outrages herein quoted. But it never was believed that all these atrocities were committed under the direction, with his knowledge and approval, or by members of Black Hawk's band. It is certain that a large number of young Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies and straggling representatives of other tribes took advantage of the condition of affairs and hung on the outskirts of his forces. just as the bummers hovered in the shadows of Sherman's army, when he was marching from " Georgia to the sea." When the war suddenly closed at Bad Axe. it was learned beyond question, that nearly all the murders had been com- mitted by these stragglers.
The excitement continued, the alarm increased, and, on the 30th of June, all the inhabitants along the Mississippi River from the present site of Savannah and north of Galena to Cassville (Wisconsin), either went to Galena or some of the other stockades for safety, and it was not considered safe to go the shortest distance outside of any of the forts.
Capt. George W. Harrison, in command of Fort Hamilton, on the Pecaton- ica River, thirty miles from Galena, after vainly trying to get a cannon, went to Col. Hamilton's* lead furnace and cast several lead pieces, to represent 22-pounders, which were properly mounted at the stockade, and answered every purpose.
While the whirligig of time was recording the events here narrated, Black Hawk's forces kept on their march up Rock River, with the intention, it was believed, of returning to the west side of the Mississippi, as the forces of Gen. Atkinson below, prevented their return by the way they came, and as they no doubt believed, after the affair with Stillman, no flag of truce or proposals for peace would be received by the whites. Various Indian signs were discovered along the Mississippi. July 6. Lieut. Orrin Smith and twenty men were sent to Jordan's farm (Dunleith) to reconnoiter the country round about there. On the 9th, Indians were in the vicinity of Rountree's Fort (Plattsville, Wis. ). where they held a war-dance around the scalp of a white woman. On the 10th, the Galenian said: "To-day we learn that the trail of the Indians shows that they must have come from the west of the Mississippi, in a direction from . Dubnque's mines."
July 14, Gov. Reynolds, Col. Field (Secretary of State). Judges Smith and Brown. Cols. Hickman, Grant (not Gen. Grant), Breese and Gatewood, Capt. Jeffreys and others, arrived at Galena from the army, and reported that the Indians were entirely destitute of provisions, and were endeavoring to reach and recross the Mississippi.
July 15, an express arrived at Galena, and stated that Capt. Harney, of the U. S. A., had found and pursued the trail of the Indians for thirty miles. passing four of their encampments in that distance, and that he found many signs of their want of provisions, "such as where they had butchered horses, dug for roots, and scraped the trees for bark." It became evident that the military had concluded that Black Hawk was doing his best to escape to the west side of the Mississippi. Orders were sent to troops stationed on the
A son of Alexander Hamilton, who was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.
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banks of the river to prevent or delay the Indians from crossing until the brigade sent by Gen. Atkinson could come up with them.
Murders and depredations by straggling Indians had now nearly ccased, and the movements of the troops were directed against the main body of the * Black Hawk Indians.
On the 15th of June, 1832, the new levies of volunteers, in camp at Dixon's Ferry, had been organized into three brigades ; the first was com- manded by Gen. Alexander Posey, the second by Gen. Milton R. Alexander, and the third by Gen. James D. Henry.
About the 25th of June, Gen. Atkinson commenced his slow and cautious march up Rock River. At Lake Kosh-ko-nong he was joined by Gen. Alex- ander's brigade. Further on, at Whitewater or White River, they were joined by Gen. Posey's brigade and the Galena battalion under Maj. Henry Dodge, when Gens. Alexander and Henry, and Maj. Dodge were sent to Fort Winne- bago for supplies. At Fort Winnebago they heard that Black Hawk was making his way toward the Wisconsin River, when, without orders, Gen. Henry and Maj. Dodge started in pursuit, Gen. Alexander and his brigade returning to Gen. Atkinson. They struck the broad, fresh trail of the Indians and followed it with tireless energy. Ever and anon they would find old men, women and children who could not keep up with the main body of the fleeing Indians, and had been left to their fate. Some of them were killed. One old man who had been left to die was found sitting against a tree, and was boldly shot and scalped by a surgeon, who afterward exhibited the scalp as a trophy of his valor.
On the 21st of July, the pursuing forces arrived at the hills that skirt the left bank of the Wisconsin River, at a point nearly opposite Sauk Prairie, near the present village of Muscada, about fifty miles above ils mouth, and were brought in plain sight of Black Hawk's entire party, including their women and children. The Indians were in the bottom-lands, hastening to remove their people to an island in the river, to avoid a conflict in which they could not reasonably expect anything but destruction. But to cover the retreat of the women and children, the aged and infirm, it became necessary for Black Hawk to make as bold a stand as possible until this purpose was accomplished.
The scouts who were some distance in advance of the column of pursuit, came suddenly upon some Indians as they were descending the high grounds, and were instantly attacked and forced to fall back on the main body, which had already been formed for action. Col. Dodge occupied the front and received the first attack of the enemy. The main body, under Gen. Henry, soon joined Col. Dodge, and in their united action a complete victory was obtained over the Indians. The battle commenced about 5 o'clock in the after- noon, and closed about sunset. The Indians were supposed to number from six to eight hundred, but Col. Patterson, of Oquawka, Ill., who is the author of at life of Black Hawk and a history of the Black Hawk war, is authority for he statement that Black Hawk told him that his forces at no time exceeded five hundred braves. A few of these were Winnebagoes. When he started up Rock River, he expected that his army would be re-enforced and doubled by Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies, but was disappointed in the latter, as not one of them joined him. The loss of the whites in this engagement was one killed and eight wounded. The Indian loss was estimated at about sixty killed and a great number wounded, many of whom died on the march to the Missis- sippi. The first Indian killed was one who was discovered with a pack of
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meat on his back. A soldier fired at him but missed his aim, when the Indian threw down his gun and was bayoneted by Sample Journey after he surren- dered.
" At this battle," says Mr. Townsend, one of the participants, and now a resident of Warren Township, Jo Daviess Co., Ill., " the Indians were badly whipped by our troops, and worse-whipped by starvation." The fighting com- menced about the middle of the afternoon, but the hottest part of the battle was about sunset.
The firing ceased about 10 o'clock at night, and the men bivouacked for rest on their arms. "About daybreak the next morning." says Capt. D. S. Harris, of Galena, then a Lieutenant in command of Stephenson's Company, " the camp was alarmed by the clarion voice of the Prophet, from a hill nearly a mile away. At first, we thought it was an alarm, but soon found that the Prophet wanted peace. Although he was so far distant, I could distinctly hear every word, and I understood enough to know he did not want to fight. The interpreter reported that the Prophet said . they had their squaws and children with them, and that they were starving, that they did not want to fight any more, and would do no more harm if they were allowed to cross the Mississippi in peace."" Mr. J. W. Pilcher, now of Elizabeth, Jo Daviess Co., who was also present, says " they were awakened by the shrill voice of the chief, and that he plainly understood ' Ne-c-om. Pe-e-l-0-0-0-Friends, we fight no more.'" Mr. Pilcher further adds, that he told Gen. Henry what the Indians said, and that that officer replied, "pay no attention to anything they say or do, but form in line of battle." The Winnebagoes in our camp also informed the officers of the meaning of the Prophet's message. " Early in the morning," continues Mr. Pilcher, "the Winnebagoes went with us to the spot where the Indians stood when he proclaimed a desire for peace, and there we found a tomahawk buried, an emphatic declaration, that so far as Black Hawk and his band were concerned, hostilities were ended." No attention was given to this second attempt to ne- gotiate peace. It has been said that the officers had no interpreter, and did not know what the Prophet said until after the war closed. But this excuse is ex- ploded by the direct and emphatic testimony of Capt. Harris and Mr. Pilcher.
The night after the battle at Wisconsin Heights. Black Hawk made his es- cape down the river with his remaining force and people. A dispatch was sent to the commandant at Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) to intercept them in their passage down the river. That officer captured several canoes containing women and children, but the warriors marched on foot along the banks of the river. Meanwhile, the forces under Gen. Atkinson and Col. Dodge had crossed to the north side of the Wisconsin, and discovered the trail of the Indians under the bluffs, which they followed till they reached the Mississippi, near the mouth of Bad Axe, on the first day of August. The great number of dead bodies and newly-made Indian graves which they discovered, told too plainly the losses and sufferings sustained by Black Hawk's people.
A steamboat had been dispatched by Col. Loomis from Fort Crawford up the Mississippi, as far as Black River, where a number of canoes were seized. which had been provided (as was believed) by the Winnebagoes to aid Black Hawk in his contemplated retreat across the Mississippi. The boat returned to the fort, and the next day a more serviceable one was sent up, and arrived at the mouth of Bad Axe soon after the battle commenced, and in time to par- ticipate in the last armed conflict of the Black Hawk war.
About 2 o'clock on the morning of the 2d day of August, 1832, the forces under command of Gen. Atkinson and Col. Dodge took up their line of march
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for the field of the last and decisive battle, which terminated Black Hawk's career. Col. Dodge's command, supported by the regular troops under Col. Zachary Taylor, formed the advance. About sunrise, Capt. Dickson, who commanded the scouts, reported that he was up with the Indians, and asked for orders. Col. Dodge directed him to attack them at once, and, at the same time, moved rapidly forward with his own command, supported by the regulars under Col. Taylor. The Indians were attacked in front by fire from the steamboat, and on all sides and in the rear by an exasperated foe. Many of the women endeavored to escape by swimming the Mississippi with their children on their backs, and were drowned. Others succeeded in crossing, and were pursued and killed by a large body of Sioux on the opposite shore. The battle lasted about two hours, and was a complete slaughter and rout of the Indians.
It is stated as a fact by old settlers, upon evidence we have no reason to doubt, that when the Indians were swimming the river, the steamboat that was present at the battle was made to run among them. drowning the starved, fleeing creatures by scores. If this statement is true, it does not reflect any credit upon the civilization and Christianity of that day.
Again we quote from Mr. Townsend: " For eight miles, we skirmished with their rear-guard, and numbers of squaws and children were killed. One squaw had fallen with a child strapped to her back, as Indian women always carry their children. The ball that found the mother's life had hit and broken her child's arm, and when the mother fell the child was fastened between her dead body and the ground. When the soldiers went to secure the child, it was making no moan, but was gnawing ravenously at a horse bone from which the flesh had nearly all been eaten away; nor did the child make any moan while the surgeon was amputating the shattered limb. It sat and ate a hard cracker, with as much indifference as if its arm had been made of wood or stone. The maimed papoose was taken to Prairie du Chien, where it fully recovered.
After the battle at Bad Axe, Black Hawk fled to the Winnebago village at Prairie la Crosse for refuge. At the instance of the authorities in command at Fort Crawford, two Winnebago Indians, Decorah (the one-eyed) and Chæter, went to him with the message that, if he would come in and surrender to Gen. Street, Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien, he would be immediately released. It was reported that the fallen chief told them he knew they lied ; but that, for the sake of his wife and children, who were starving, he would go. On the 27th of Angust, the messengers returned with Black Hawk and the Prophet, and delivered them to Gen. Street, to whom, it is reported, Black Hawk made the following speech. Referring to the late conflict, he said :
My warriors fell around me. It began to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand. The sun rose clear on us in the morning ; at night, it sank in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. This was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. He is now a prisoner to the white man. But he can stand the torture. He is not afraid of death. He is no coward. Black Hawk is an Indian. He has done nothing of which an Indian need be ashamed. He has fought the battles of his country against the white man, who came year after year to cheat them and take away their lands. You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white nien. They ought to be ashamed of it. The white men despise the Indians, and drive them from their homes. But the Indians are not deceitful. Indians do not steal.
Black Hawk is satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented. He has done his duty. His Father will meet and reward him.
The white men do not scalp the heads, but they do worse-they poison the heart. It is not pure with them. His countrymen will not be scalped ; but they will, in a few years, become like the white man, so that you can not hurt them ; and there must be, as in the white settle- ments, as many officers as men, to take care of them and keep them in order. Farewell to my nation ! Farewell to Black Hawk !
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Black Hawk and his two sons were held as prisoners of war. By the terms of the treaty made at Davenport in September, 1832, between Gen. Winfield Scott and Gov. Reynolds, of Illinois, on the part of the United States, and Keokuk and other chiefs, by which the Indians agreed to relinquish their right to the eastern slope of Iowa (commonly known as the Black Hawk Purchase), it was agreed that the captives should be held in confinement during the pleasure of the President, who referred the matter to Congress. At that time, Col. Zachary Taylor (afterward President), was in command at Fort Crawford, and the captives were placed in charge of the late rebel, Jeff Davis, then a Lieutenant in the regular army, to be taken to Jefferson Bar- racks, at St. Louis. They were afterward held at Fortress Monroe until June 4, 1833, when President Jackson ordered their release from captivity and gave them in charge of Maj. Garland, to be taken on a grand tour through the country to exhibit to them the folly of ever renewing hostilities against the United States. They were told the people of the United States were as numer- ous as the leaves of the forest, and everywhere they went they attracted much attention. At this time, in 1833, Black Hawk was. according to his own state- ment, a man of about sixty-six years of age, though looking much younger. He was about five feet eight inches in height, sinewy, with a broad chest, the high cheek-bones of the Indian, high forehead and great penetrating black eyes, with the glance of an eagle, dignified and majestic manner, though mani- festly much depressed in spirits since his great misfortunes.
The starving condition of his wife and children, more than any other cause, induced Black Hawk to surrender himself at Prairie du Chien. After his surrender, his wife and little son came south and stopped near St. Francisville, Mo., where she was a frequent visitor at the house of Jere Wayland, one of the " old settlers " in that neighborhood. Wayland, always one of nature's noblemen, fully sympathized with her in her misfortunes. She brooded sorrow- fully over the absence of her lord, and often declared she never expected him to return; but Wayland kept up her courage with the assurance that he would return in good time. When at last he did return, she was filled with joy. and his arrival was made an occasion for a great feast, at which Black Hawk. Keo- kuk and their families were all present.
After his return from captivity, Black Hawk lived among his people on the Iowa River until that Reservation was sold in 1836, when, with the rest of the Sacs and Foxes, he removed to the Des Moines. where he remained until his death, on the 3d day of October, 1838. His burial-place was near a large spring, not far from the residence of James Jordan. an old Indian trader, near the village of Ashland (now Eldon), at the crossing of the C., R. I. & P. R. R. His burial place is thus described in a letter published in the Hawk-Eye, in Oc- tober, 1843: " It is constructed after the Indian mode of burial, by building a pen of round poles about ten feet long, and three feet wide, and about as high as a man's shoulders when sitting on the ground.
"In the west end of this pen, the mighty Black Hawk was placed in a sitting posture, with his face toward the rising sun; his gun, tomahawk and blanket were placed at his side, and the pen covered over, leaving the head and neck above, and exposed to the weather. His face was painted red and striped off with black, just as a living young Indian dandy paints when he goes a courting. thus conveying the idea to the living Indians, that their great chief had gone a courting to another world, where, should he receive the favor of the Great Spirit, he would be united to some squaw, who had passed the bounds of immortality and that there they would be forever in the green hunting-
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grounds, where deer and elk abound, and no white man could come to molest them."
The writer of the above description of Black Hawk's burial ought to have added that the old chieftain was buried in a swallow-tailed coat made from blue broad cloth, which was elaborately decorated with brass buttons, epaulets, etc. After the " pen " was completed, a plug hat, adorned with a broad red-ribbon, was placed upon his head, and thus was left all that was mortal of the once powerful and warlike chieftain.
During the administration of Robert Lucas, as Governor of Iowa Territory, a vandal doctor from Quincy, Ill., invaded the burying-place and carried away the old chieftain's remains. Gov. Lucas issued a requisition on the Governor of Illinois for the arrest of the grave-robber and the recovery of the bones, and they were surrendered as a skeleton, and tendered to his people, but with Indian superstition and indifference, they never appeared to claim them, and they were deposited for safe-keeping in the Territorial museum at the Capitol in Burling- ton. A fire destroyed the building and its contents, and with them was destroyed all that was mortal of the great Sac chieftain.
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