USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 46
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535
The Council.
ing out the militia himself, it is but a fair assumption that Gen. Gaines, by virtue of the authority of the United States, would have marched to the scene of dis- turbances and put an end to them by enforcing an even measure of justice between the two parties whose dis- putes were limited within the boundaries of a 700-acre field of corn. But the governor had a difficult part to act. If he failed to call out the militia and give them a. chance to hunt Indians, he would lose the popular favor by which he had recently been elected to office, and besides this he would be held responsible for any Indian outrages which the aggressive and captious spirit of the settlers on the frontier might provoke, and in the end the miserable Indians might be doubly victimized by a fiercer though tardier war upon them.
Under these circumstances history cannot blame frank, honest John Reynolds for doing as he did. Com- plaints against the Indians now multiplied, and Gen. Gaines advanced to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, close by the disputed corn field and village of Black Hawk, and here on the 7th of June, the Indians were summoned to a council to be held in the fort. At its session Gen. Gaines, wishing to quell the war spirit among the Indians by making light of their most ten- acious chief, asked in derision, Who is Black Hawk? At which the indignant chief arose and left the council room with smothered rage. The next morning he re- turned and replied :
" My father, you ask who is Black Hawk-why does he sit among the chiefs? I will tell you who I am: I am a Sac. My father was a Sac. I am a warrior, and so was my father. Ask these young men who have foi- lowed me to battle, and they will tell you who Black Hawk is. Provoke our people to war, and you will learn who Black Hawk is."
The conference terminated by a peremptory sum- mons from Gen. Gaines to Black Hawk to leave the east side of the Mississippi and retire to its west bank, which command the chief with more chivalry than policy refused to obey.
536
Good Record of the Sac and Fox Nation.
To enforce this order, Gen. Gaines deemed it prudent to wait till the 1, 600 militia which Gov. Reynolds had already raised, and were now encamped at Beardstown, should arrive, who reached Fort Armstrong after a pros- perous march of four days.
This interval gave the Indians time for a sober second thought, and on the night of the 24th they left their vil- lage, retreating across the river as ordered. The next day Gen. Gaines, at the head of his own force of regu- lars and Gov. Reynolds' militia, who had joined them, advanced on the place, and on the 26th took possession of its deserted wigwams and corn fields.
The incidents of the war which followed the next year are still remembered by many now living (1881) who took part in it. Many histories of it are extant, some of which have made it an opportunity to cultivate sentimentality in favor of the Indians, at the expense of the government. Others have taken the opposite ex- treme, and while stating only truth, have omitted such portions as would be calculated to bring discredit to the system by which the Indians were driven from their lands. Some historians have made it an opportunity to crown the brows of soldiers with laurels. They have not succeeded in this attempt, for the reason that the enemy was too insignificant to leave much glory to soar above his pitiful grave. Any attempt to conceal or dis- tort the conditions which sent him there cannot deceive the impartial historian who reads both sides, and com- pares, discriminates and verifies till the truth comes uppermost after much shaking.
By no authority has it been claimed that the Sac and Fox nations from 1816 to the commencement of the Black Hawk war in 1832, ever killed or personally in- jured a white man, and it is acknowledged, that during this time traders continually passed through their coun- try, to and from the lead mines of Galena, often with large amounts of goods and money, without being mo- lested. The sum of accusations against them was for tearing down the fences of the corn field as just related, and during the same year, 1831, they were accused of destroying some goods of a trader, among which was a
537
Beginning of the Black Hawk War.
barrel of whisky, which they emptied on the ground-a common occurrence now-a-days among ourselves.
After Black Hawk and his band had retreated across the Mississippi before the large force of Gen. Gaines, he encamped on its western bank with a white flag fly- ing over his wretched fugitives, who had little else but this emblem of submission to save them from starva- tion; and under this duress, a council was held between his band and Gen. Gaines and Gov. Reynolds. It re- sulted in a treaty of peace, signed on the 30th of June, 1831, by which Black Hawk after confirming the validity of the treaty of 1804, agreed to relinquish his old claims to any lands east of the Mississippi river, and submit to the authority of Keokuk, who with the most sensible portion of the Sac and Fox nation, were now peaceably settled in their new home.
Both Gov. Reynolds and Gen. Gaines now supposed the difficulty to be settled, and congratulated them- selves that a long term of peace was assured to the frontier before the villainous whisky traders and the volcanic red men should again embroil the state in a border war.
Up to this time Black Hawk and hi's British band (as they were called), had demeaned themselves with ex- emplary moderation under the inevitable destiny which had forced them from the beautiful valley of the Rock river. That they should have clung to it with firmness, and left it with painful regrets, was to be expected; nor is it strange that the vehement emotions that are a dis- tinguishing trait in the Indian character should have made them cast a longing, lingering look behind, when the broad face of the Mississippi separated them from all their local attachments.
The autumn succeeding the Indians' retreat from their village, found them in a destitute condition. They had raised no corn, for it was too late to plant when they left their village; moreover, there was a large
* Both Gov. Reynolds and Gen. Gaines were moved with compassion for the Indians in their wretchedness, and sent them a liberal supply of provisions to satisfy their immediate wants. This charity excited some murmurs among the volunteers, who stigmatized the late treaty as a "corn treaty," and said they had better give them lead than bread.
538
Bad Advice.
field of corn which they had planted now fully ripe, which they looked upon as their own by right; and some stealthy attempts being made to gather the ears under cover of night, the pilferers were fired upon by the whites. But during these accumulated griefs, an affront which had been inflicted upon them two years before by the Menominees, was not forgotten. This was the wanton murder of a single Sac by the offending tribe. To revenge this, a band of Black Hawk's men, late in the fall ascended the Mississippi to Prairie du Chien, attacked a camp of Menominees and Sioux near by, and took seven-fold vengeance by killing twenty- eight of the unsuspecting and unprepared warriors. This was in clear violation of the treaty of 1825, and the authorities of Prairie du Chien made a demand of Black Hawk to give up the authors of this bloody deed, to be tried by the laws of the United States. Nettled as he was by the late misfortunes which had overtaken him, he was in no mood to do this, and delayed the matter by a false pretense.
During the ensuing winter Black Hawk's emissaries, Neopope, Wisshick and White Cloud, the prophet, * visited the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattamies and Winnebagoes, and professed to have received assurances of assistance from all of them in recovering their ancient possessions. Under this fatal illusion he assem- bled his people in March, 1832, on the west bank of the Mississippi, on the spot where Fort Madison had been built in 1804, long since abandoned, but now the site of the flourishing city of Madison, Iowa. Here were assem- bled 368 braves, mounted on tough, muscular ponies, not unlike their masters, capable of great endurance, with slender means of subsistence, squaws, jaded down with unceasing toil, and their quota of half-clad chil- dren, shivering in the humid blasts of early spring, bent on a trip to their old home east of the Mississippi, prob- ably not without some faint hopes of repossessing it.
* White Cloud was a Winnebago chief, whose village was at the pres- ent site of Prophetstown, Ill. He was in full sympathy with Black Hawk, acting as his oracle and orator. Both Neopope and Wisshick were also firm friends of Black Hawk, ever counseling war against the whites.
539
Black Hawk Returns to Illinois.
With this purpose in view, the cavalry arm of the ser- vice, consisting of the men, leaped on the backs of their ponies, and whipped the patient beasts over the spongy soil up the west bank of the river, while the squaws manned the canoes, and tugged up stream with their materials of war, consisting of a few kettles, blankets, etc. How the canoes passed Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, without exciting the suspicion of Gen. Atkinson, its commander, is not known. Early in April they arrived at the mouth of Rock river, but little above the fort. Here they crossed the Mississippi, in defiance of the treaty of the previous year, and the whole tribe made their way up the Rock river, under pretense of going to their friends the Winnebagoes, to plant corn in their country.
1
The wanderers had not passed far up the river till they were overtaken by two messengers from Gen. Atkinson, one briefly succeeding the other, warning them back to the west side of the river with threats of war if not heeded. Black Hawk replied spiritedly that he was determined not to go back, and equally so not to make war on the whites unless attacked. Continu- ing his course up Rock river, he soon came to Dixon's Ferry, where he paid his respects to Mr. Dixon, its proprietor, explained his position to him, and passed on with his fugitives, all behaving. with commendable de- corum, carrying with them all the wealth they possessed, which was more ponderous than valuable.
Gov. Reynolds having heard the news of his return, immediately organized a force of 1,800 volunteers to follow him, who promptly assembled at Beardstown for organization in companies. The command of this zealous army was given to Gen. Samuel Whiteside, a man of much ability and considerable experience in Indian fighting. Discipline or training of these fresh recruits, the contemptible character of the enemy seemed to make unnecessary, and they immediately took up their march to follow Black Hawk's "tramps." After a hasty march in the pursuit, they reached Dixon, which brought them within only a single day's march of the object of their pursuit, Black Hawk's band, who
540
Shaubena Declines to Renew Hostilities.
were encamped but thirty miles above this place on Sycamore creek, a tributary of Rock river. Gen. Atkinson was now advancing to the same place with the regulars from Fort Armstrong, and Gen. Whiteside thought best to wait till his arrival before advancing further. Gov. Reynolds was among the volunteers but took no responsibility as to their military com- mand, although his authority transcended that of Gen. Whiteside, and of him in an unlucky hour, a certain Major (Stillman) begged the privilege of making a reconnoisance of the enemy's camp. The governor consented, and on the 14th of May he, at the head of 275 volunteers, mounted on their own horses, started out in gay spirits on their mission, each man enjoying the stimulating reflection that he was about to distin- guish himself by a brilliant achievement.
As they approached the camp of Black Hawk, he was engaged not in the tactics of a soldier but in enter- taining his Winnebago friends with the impressive hos- pitalities of a dog feast, on the banks of the Kishwaukie, a tributary of Rock river, since called Sycamore creek, about thirty miles above Dixon's. This feast was to be succeeded by a great council of chiefs, which it is fair to assume was intended at least to make sufficient show of strength to preserve the "balance of power" in its equilibrium between the red and white men of northern Illinois. The issue at stake involved the existence of the Sac nation, as Black Hawk viewed it, for it is hardly to be presumed that he foresaw at that time the eventual ruin of his people.
Foremost among the chiefs present was Shaubena, he who had fought by the side of Black Hawk when allies of the English, against the Americans through the war of 1812. These veterans were bound together by ties of affection doubly strengthened by consanguinity. But Shaubena was fully impressed with the power of the whites, and though his refusal to join his fortunes to Black Hawk lacerated his heart, he unhesitatingly declined to take up the war belt, and refusing even to attend the council, took his leave and made his way down Rock river toward Dixon.
541
The Dog Feast Abruptly Broken up.
Shortly after his departure some of Black Hawk's hunters who were scouting the country in search of game, came in in breathless haste, and informed him of the near approach of cavalry, upon which he sent out three young men to meet and conduct them to his camp.
The immediate consequences are told by Gov. Reynolds, as follows: that "three Indians unarmed, with a white flag, made their appearance near the encampment. These Indians gave themselves up, and were taken into custody as hostages by order of the officers. Soon after the three unarmed Indians were taken into custody, six armed Indians appeared on horseback on a hill three-fourths of a mile from the encampment. Without orders, a few soldiers and some officers commenced an irregular chase of the Indians on horseback and pursued them four or five miles. During this race in the prairie, a great portion of the troops mounted their horses and joined without orders in the disorderly chase of the Indians. The whites became enraged in the pursuit, and having the best horses, overtook two Indians and killed them. Major Hackle- ton, of Fulton county, was dismounted, and had a per- sonal combat with an Indian, also dismounted. In this irregular running conflict, three Indians were killed without loss to the whites. In this skirmish, which extended over four or five miles of the smooth prairie, between the encampment and the mouth of Sycamore creek, the volunteers at the camp, knowing that blood was shed, attempted to kill the three unarmed Indians who had been taken into custody as hostages under pro- tection of the white flag. One Indian was killed, but in the darkness and confusion the other two escaped unhurt. At the time Stillman's volunteers had this running skirmish in the prairies, Black Hawk had many of his friends of the Pottawattamie nation feasting with him on dog meat. The retreating Indians had almost reached the camp of Black Hawk where he was feast- ing, and the whites at their heels whooping, yelling and shouting. This uproar alarmed Black Hawk and the Indians at the feast; and they in a hasty, tumultuous
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542
Stillman's Defeat.
manner, mounted their horses, snatched up their arms and rushed out in all the fury of a mad lioness in defense of their women and children. Black Hawk took a pru- dent and wise stand, concealed behind some woods (then nearly dark), so that the straggling and unman- ageable forces of Major Stillman approached near him. It was a crisis with the Indians. They fought in defense of all they held the most sacred on earth.
The Indians forced the whites back with great speed, and killed in the chase one white man. By the time the volunteers had reached Stillman's camp it was quite dark, and the troops at the camp hearing the yell- ing, supposed all the whole Black Hawk band were upon them. This produced a general panic, and the volunteers fled with their comrades whom Black Hawk was chasing."
This was Stillman's defeat, as told by the veritable governor himself. After the volunteers had fled from their camp, while crossing a muddy stream close by it, ten more were killed, says the governor, making eleven in all. The fugitives left behind them all their camp stores and reached Dixon the next day with such ex- aggerated accounts of the battle as their distempered imaginations suggested.
Black Hawk says he had but forty men engaged, and the governor sets the number not above sixty.
This ill-starred skirmish came near causing the mur- der of the noble hearted Shaubena. When he left Black Hawk's camp, after refusing to take part in his proposed council, he went to Dixon. Here he was pointed out to the volunteers by a nondescript vaga- bond named McKabe, as an Indian spy in the service of Black Hawk, when in truth, though a white volun- teer, he himself had enlisted more in the service of Black Hawk than for any good he cared to do for the cause in which he was drawing pay, for he had ever been associated with the Indians and had married an Indian wife. This apostate of civilization, knowing Shaubena to be true to the interests of the white men, wished to see him killed; but fortunately a humane volunteer, seeing the danger, flew to the house of Mr.
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543
Indian Creek Massacre
Dixon, who in turn flew to the rescue in time to save his life. This done he treated him with deserved re- spect as a guest at his own house, where he introduced him to Gov. Reynolds and Gen. Whiteside. *
Insignificant as the battle of Sycamore creek was, it was a prodigious affair in the estimation of the hostile Indians; nor was it a small affair in the eyes of the bor- derers, whose fears were augmented by the alarms spread by the defeated scouts.
Black Hawk, in order to make the most of his victory, dispatched his fleet-footed messengers in every direc- tion, to yelp the exultant war-whoop, and carry the war to each exposed frontier, where the weight of his blows would fall most unexpectedly; but, thanks to Shaubena, he was in a great measure baulked of the prey he had counted on as the first fruits of his victory. This old weather-beaten veteran had no sooner heard of the battle than he dispatched his son and nephew to Fox river and Holderman's grove settlements, to warn them of danger, while he mounted his pony and galloped toward the settlements on the Bureau and Indian creek. They were planting corn, but at the receipt of the alarm left their plows in the furrow, and flew to the nearest fort, which was at Ottawa.
Unhappily, at Indian creek, by a treacherous sense of security, a few families paid no regard to the warn- ing, but to their dismay a few hours later, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, seventy painted savages were at their very doors. An indescribable scene of butchery of the defenseless victims, and resistance ineffectual but des- perate, immediately succeeded. Fifteen persons were killed and horribly mutilated, two young boys escaped by flight, two young girls, Sylvia and Rachel Hall, were spared from death and abducted as captives. Fortunately, through the influence of the Winnebagoes, they were subsequently ransomed for $2,000.
Naperville, which has already been spoken of in a preceding chapter, was then an infant settlement, and nearer to Chicago than any other. Its history is worth relating, especially as it brings interest to the records of
* Matson.
544
Naperville Settlers Warned.
early Chicago, and more especially as it comes to the writer fresh from the mouth of an eye witness, Mr. Harry T. Wilson, of Wheaton, Ill., ninety-two years old when interviewed by the writer.
He started from Ashtabula, Ohio, on the schooner "Telegraph," in May, 1831, and arrived in Chicago the 15th of July following. Col. Owen (Indian agent) and Col. Hamilton were then the most influential men in Chicago, but the Lawtons, who lived at the present site of Lyons on the Desplaines, were much depended on for public service, as they could speak the Pottawat- tamie language, and were in great favor with them from their long residence and just dealings among them. Both had Indian wives. Isaac Murray, his young son, R. N. Murray (judge of the Probate court in Wheaton in 1881), Joseph and John Naper and L. Butterfield, came in the same vessel with Mr. Wilson, all of whom on their arrival at Chicago were dissatisfied with the uninviting appearance of the place, and after securing a temporary shelter for their families, started into the country on foot to find farming lands for a home. Passing Lawtons, they kept on to the Dupage river, where Naperville now is, and began their new settle- ment. Their milling was done at Ottawa, and an ox team to and from it (a distance of nearly 100 miles) was their only mode of transportation.
With the opening of the succeeding spring their first plowing commenced in the new settlement to which many others besides those just mentioned had come, when, on the 18th of May a friendly Pottawattamie came to them with alarming news. Black Hawk's band had fought and defeated the volunteers on Rock river, and scalping parties in his service were rapidly approaching the frontier settlements, and were now within ten miles, where they had already burned the houses of two advance pioneers, Mr. Hollenbeck and Mr. Cunningham. To give force to his statements, the messenger, in awful mimicry, went through motions of the scalping process; but this pantomime was quite un- necessary, for the new settlers were in hot haste to place the friendly walls of Fort Dearborn between
545
Alarm on the Dupage.
themselves and the red scouters. The women hastily packed their linen and cooking utensils, and the men harnessed the horses. In a short time the women and children were on their way over the long flat prairie that intervened between their forsaken homes and Fort Dearborn, while the men arranged themselves in scout- ing parties, and took positions in the adjacent groves to watch for the terrible Sacs. There were yet some distant families who had not been warned to leave, and the next day several incidents occurred of mistaken identity as to the character of persons seen in the far distance, both of whom were white men, and both sus- pecting each other of being savages on the war path. *
On the Dupage river, northwest of Naperville, was a settlement at Plainfield, in which Rev. S. R. Beggs lived. This early pioneer of the Methodist faith has published his early experiences in a book, from which the following is taken, to show the extent of the alarm, and the condition of Fort Dearborn when the fugitives had taken refuge there:
The inhabitants came flying from Fox river, through fear of their dreaded enemy. They came with their cattle and horses, some bare- headed and others barefooted, crying "The Indians! the Indians!" Those that were able hurried on with all speed for Danville. It was urged that all should remain quiet till they could get their cattle and horses together; but there was too much demoralization for that. One team could not be found, and it was thought better to sacrifice one than that the whole should suffer. So it was decided that they should move off as silently as possible; yet there was one ungovernable person among them who made noise enough in driving his oxen to have been heard a mile distant.
The hatless man, and one or two others, found their way to Danville in advance of the rest, and told their fearful stories-how the Indians were killing and burning all before them, while at this time it is pre- sumed that there was not a hostile Indian south of the Desplaines river. At Plainfield, however, the alarm was so great that it was
* It is related by some of the old settlers now living, 1880, that during the hurly-burly of the hour when the inhabitants were leaving the place, a Mr. Payne ventured out on horseback to see some depredations reported a few miles distant. On his return he saw across the prairie a man on horseback, whom he supposed to be an Indian intending to cut him off. He put spurs to his horse to gain the advance, but his sup- Both were posed foe looked upon him with the same suspicion.
approaching the same spot, and the race was an exciting one to see which should reach it first; Payne succeeded, and put his horse in his neighbor's corn crib (Mr. Hobson's), and took to his heels for Chicago. Mr. Hobson soon came up, and seeing the horse of the supposed Indian scout sweating and foaming from the effects of the race, the mutual misconception was divulged to him, but Mr. Payne was now beyond sight and hearing, panting through the grassy prairie toward Chicago.
546
Fort Beggs Built.
thought best to make all possible efforts for a defense, in case of an attack. My house was considered the most secure place. I had two log pens built, one of which served for a barn and the other a shed. These were torn down, and the logs used to build up a breastwork around the house. All the people living on Fox river who could not get farther away, made my house a place of shelter. There were 125, old and young. We had four guns, some useless. Ammunition was scarce. All our pewter spoons, basins and platters were soon molded by the women into bullets. As a next best means of defense, we got a good supply of axes, hoes, forks, sharp sticks and clubs. Here we intended to stay till some relief could be obtained. This was on Thurs- day, and we remained here till the next Sabbath, when the people of Chicago, hearing of our distress, raised a company of twenty-five white men and as many Indians, who came to our aid. The Indians, with Mr. Lawton at their head, were to go to Big Woods (now Aurora), and Gen. Brown with Col. Hamilton and three men, were to visit Holder- man's grove and then fix upon a place to meet in the evening.
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