USA > Illinois > Rock Island County > Past and present of Rock Island County, Ill., containing a history of the county-its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late Rebellion, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 12
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"That spring we went down to St. Louis to see our Spanish father. I found many sad and gloomy faces because the United States were about to
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take possession of the town and country. Soon after the Americans came I took my band and went to take leave of our Spanish father. The Ameri- eans came to see him, also. Seeing them approach, we passed out of one door as they entered another, and immediately started in our canoes for our village on Rock River, not liking the change any more than our friends appeared to at St. Louis. On arriving at our village we gave the news that a strange people had arrived at St. Louis, and that we should never see our Spanish father again. The information made all our people sorry."
Black Hawk had at that time both a British and a Spanish "father." He had been brought up in an atmosphere of hatred of the Americans. Both the Spanish and the English had systematically poisoned his mind against our people, from the time he was a youth, living on Rock River, and learning his first arts of war, till he became a veteran in the service of the latter, and was ambitions to requite their friendship and earn their rewards by presenting to his "British father" as many American sealps as he and his band of braves could secure. He was born at the Sac village on Roek River in 1768. Probably the first knowledge he ever had of the Americans was in 1781, when he was a boy thirteen years of age; for, according to Lieutenant Pike, a party of three hundred Americans destroyed the Sae village on Rock River at or about that date. The Indians on that occasion assembled about seven hundred warriors, but were unable to save their village. This was during the Revolutionary period, when few Amer- icans were in the West, except the hardy and adventurons volunteers from Virginia and Kentucky, led by Col. George Rogers Clark in his "Illinois Campaign." It is by no means certain that Black Hawk saw any Ameri- cans, and if he did he was quite sure to get no very favorable impression of them. Probably the Indians of this locality got their first sight of the "Long Knives" when Lient. Pike arrived here in 1805. Black Hawk says: "A boat came up the river with a young American chief and a small party of soldiers. We heard of them soon after they had passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched him every day to see what sort of people he had on board. The boat at length arrived at Rock River, and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter, made a speech and gave us some presents. We, in return, presented him with meat and such pro- visions as we had to spare. We were well pleased with the speech of the young chief. He gave ns good advice; said our American father would treat us well. He presented us an American flag, which was hoisted. He then requested us to pull down our British flags and give him our British medals, promising to send us others on his return to St. Louis. This we declined, as we wished to have two fathers."
The greed of these Indians was such for presents and plunder, that they wished, as the saying is, to carry water on both shoulders; at least they did not desire to renounce allegiance to the British, the symbols of whose anthority they had kept floating at their council-lodge, and whose flattering insignia they wore upon their breasts and girdles.
The American flag was first hoisted at Rock River during this visit of Lientenant Pike, in the summer of 1805. How long its graceful folds remained floating in the breeze of this fresh wilderness, we are not informed. Probably after they had given the young American chief this semblance of submission to United States anthority, they pulled it down.
The object of Pike's expedition was to explore the newly acquired country, to conciliate and secure the loyalty of the Indians, to establish the
EDITOR OF "ROCK ISLAND ARGUS"
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authority of the United States on the upper Mississippi, among the British traders who had established themselves south of our northern boundary line, and to acquire from the Indians certain tracts of land for military purposes. Pike ascended to the head waters of the Mississippi. Having accomplished his object, he returned in April, 1806. He informns us in his journal, that as his boat approached Rock Island (not then named), a barge appeared in view bearing the American flag, and landed on the island. It proved to be Captain May, of the artillerists, who was in search of some Osage prisoners among the Sacs and Foxes. Captain May said that when he and his party approached the Indian villages, they were saluted with the appellation, " bloody Americans," who had killed such a person's father, and such a person's mother or brother. The women carried off their guns and concealed them, and when May crossed to the opposite side of the river, he was followed by Indians with pistols concealed under their blankets. They would listen to no conference whatever, relating to the delivery of the pris- oners. Capt. May wore the plume of an artillery officer, which the Indians regarded as a signal of war, and immediately decked themselves in their raven's feathers. Capt. May says: "We regretted that our orders would not permit of our punishing the scoundrels, as by a coup de main we might easily have carried the village."
The events which soon followed Pike's expedition, were the erection of Fort Johnson, a few miles above the present town of Warsaw, Illinois, and Fort Madison, on the site of the present town of that name, in Iowa. The latter was built in 1808, and evacuated in 1813, when it was burned by the Indians. Fort Johnson was also destroyed after the establishment of Fort Edwards, a few miles further down the river, in 1814. The erection of these forts gave the Indians at Rock Island great uneasiness, and they sent down their delegations, headed by their chiefs, to see what the Americans were doing. Black Hawk relates that the officer at Fort Madison told him that he was building a honse for a trader who was coming to sell them goods cheap, and that the soldiers were coming to keep him company. Distrusting this, Black Hawk attempted to destroy the fort a short time after it was completed. The assault continued two days, with a loss to the garrison of three killed. The Indians appear not to have suffered any.
EVENTS DURING THE WAR OF 1812-14.
The declaration of war between the United States and Great Britain, on the 18th of June, 1812, developed the latent British sympathy already strongly existing among a portion of the Sacs and Foxes. The tribes thus became divided into a peace party and a war party-the former arranging themselves under the leadership of Black Hawk, and the latter selecting Keokuk as their chief, who with his followers remained loyal and friendly to the Americans. Keokuk was a noble Indian, a true friend of the whites, and never at any time sympathised with Black Hawk in his foolish attempts to resist the authority of the United States, and nullify the treaty by which their lands at Rock River were ceded.
As soon as the news of the war had reached the West, a large body of Sacs and Foxes descended to St. Louis and offered their services to our government. It was deemed best that they should remain neutral; their situation was so remote from the seat of war; our government was reluctant to employ savages in a war against the whites; besides, it was thought that
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this general policy of neutrality would have the effect to deter the disaffected Indians from enlisting in the service of the opposite side. But all this was a mistake, for Black Hawk and his followers were already committed, not merely to the British, but to Tecumseh and his confederates on the Wabash, who had combined their forces to drive all the Americans out of the country. The war of 1812-14 was really an alliance between the British Government and the great Indian Confederacy of the Northwest of which Tecumseh was the acknowledged head. Black Hawk and his followers had been in constant communication with Tecumseh and his brother, the Shawanee Prophet, who in the year 1806 had sent out his famous "Talk " to all the tribes of the Northwest, inciting them to war against the Americans. Therefore, when the British agent arrived at Rock River in August, 1812, with a message from his government and presents for the savages, he found it no difficult task to persuade Black Hawk and his followers to enlist in the British service.
From this time forward Black Hawk and his warriors were known as the " British Band." His army consisted of about two hundred braves, the flower of the Sacs of Rock River. Black Hawk was then forty-two years of age. In 1790, his father, Py-e-sa, having been killed in a battle with the Cherokees, he was advanced to the rank and dignity of a war chief. He afterwards distinguished himself in battles with the Osages and other tribes, and particularly in a great battle with the Iowas, in which the remnant of that tribe was exterminated in the valley of the Des Moines.
In proceeding to the seat of war, Black Hawk and his band marched to Green Bay, where he was enrolled with a large body of Indians under Colonel Dixon, of the British army. This officer, in giving the Sac chief command, addressed him as "General " Black Hawk. He appeared very much flattered with the title. His band appears to have been engaged in two battles, viz : the attack on Fort Stephenson, August 2, 1813, and the battle of the Thames, which followed on the 5th of October. Black Hawk seems not to have found as good an opportunity for phuinder as he anti- cipated, and so he indignantly deserted the army. Disappointed and sullen, he returned with what was left of his band to the Mississippi, where he engaged in a course of desultory warfare against the Americans, which only terminated with the close of the war.
In May, 1814, Governor Clark started from St. Louis for Prairie du Chien, with a flotilla of barges manned by United States regulars and vol- unteers. On the 24th they were attacked by the Indians under Black Hawk, near Fort Edwards ; Captain Craig, Lieutenant Spear, and five soldiers were killed; Black Hawk was forced to retire, with the loss of three of his warriors. The expedition proceeded up the river and in due time arrived at Prairie du Chien. About twenty days before their arrival, the British Commandant, Colonel Dixon, who had previously commanded the garrison there, had evacuated the place with all his force of British and Indian allies, and Governor Clark took peaceable possession. The design was to fortify and hold Prairie du Chien. Accordingly Governor Clark set his men at work erecting a new fort, which was called Fort Shelby, in honor of the Governor of Kentucky. Leaving them thus employed, he returned to St. Louis on the 13th of June.
General Howard, commanding at St. Louis, immediately organized another expedition to proceed to Prairie du Chien with supplies and re-in- forcements. This consisted of three barges manned by forty-two regular
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soldiers and sixty-six rangers, under command of Lieutenant Campbell, of the regular army. The boat containing the regulars was commanded by Lieutenant Campbell, the others, respectively, by Captain Stephen Rector and Lieutenant Riggs. They left St. Louis about the first of July. Arriv- ing at the month of Rock River, the boats lay all night in the neighborhood of the Sac and Fox village. The Indians in great numbers crowded around them, and were profuse in their professions of peace. The next morning when the boats started up the stream, the treacherous redskins armed them- selves and secretly followed along the banks and in their canoes to the rapids, hoping that the barges might there be detained, or some mishap might befall them which would render them an easy prey. The coveted opportunity soon arrived. A sudden gust of wind striking Campbell's barge drove it near the lee shore, where it lodged on a small bnshy island near the main land, and remained stationary, the other boats having pro- ceeded up the current. This was the signal for an attack by the Indians. When Campbell's boat lodged on the island he put out sentinels, and his men began cooking their breakfasts ; but the enemy in hundreds rushed on them, killing many on the spot, and the rest took refuge in the boat." "Hundreds and hundreds of the warriors were on and around the boat, and at last set it on fire. Campbell's boat was burning, and the bottom covered with the dead, the wounded, and blood. They had almost ceased firing, when Rector and his brave men nobly came to the rescue. Campbell him- self lay wounded on his back in the bottom of his boat, and many of his men dead and dying around him. Riggs' boat was well fortified, but his men were inexperienced sailors. Rector and his company could not remain inactive spectators of the destruction of Campbell and his men, but in a tempest of wind, raised their anchor, in the face of almost a thousand Indians, and perilled their lives in the rescue of Campbell. Rector's boat was lightened by throwing overboard quantities of provisions, and then many of his crew actually got out of the boat into the water, leaving the vessel between them and the fire of the enemy, and pushed their boat against / the fire of the Indians to Campbell's boat, which was in possession of the enemy. This was a most hazardous exploit for forty men-forcing their barge to a burning boat in possession of the enemy, nearly. a thousand strong, and taking from it the wounded and living soldiers, together with their commander." Rector took all the living men from Campbell's boat into his, and his men, in the water, hauled their own boat out into the - stream. Rector had his boat crowded with the wounded and dying, but rowed night and day till he reached St. Louis. The barge of Campbell, with its stores of provisions, fell into the hands of the Indians. From the tragic circumstance thus narrated, the island has ever since borne the name of " Campbell's Island."
The failure of this expedition aronsed the officers at Jefferson Barracks to the perils of the situation. Another expedition of greater magnitude was immediately planned and set on foot. It was intended to sweep both shores clean of their Indian inhabitants, burn their villages, and establish a fort in the heart of their country. Only one circumstance prevented the carrying out of this laudable purpose. The failure of Campbell's expedition had left the little garrison at Prairie du Chien a prey to the British, who had captured the fort and sent down to Black Hawk, at Rock River, cannon, artillery-men, munitions of war, and a commanding officer. This sudden fall of the country into the hands of the British was unknown to the
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military authorities below, who proceeded to fit ont their expedition as if ice nothing of the kind had happened. It was quite formidable, with the exception of the needed artillery, consisting of eight barges and four hun- dred and fifty men, under command of Major Zachary Taylor, of the 26th Infantry. It left St. Louis on the 12th of August, 1814. Ascending the river in reel-boats, Major Taylor arrived opposite the mouth of Rock River and found a large force of British and Indians, under command of a British officer, assembled to give him battle. He had taken the precaution to anchor his fleet out in the Mississippi, near Willow Island, about half a mile above Rock River. During the night the artillery was planted in range of him on the shore below the city of Rock Island, and early the following morning opened fire. Major Taylor could not return the fire, having no artillery on board, and was compelled to retire, with the loss of several of his men. He halted on his way down the river at Credit Island, but the Indians having hastened down the shore with the cannon, it was again brought to bear upon him, and he was forced to give way, and returned down the river.
This expedition practically closed the war in the West. Peace was concluded at Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814.
OLD FORT ARMSTRONG.
As this celebrated fort was built on Rock Island, it will be proper to precede our account of it by a brief description of the Island itself. Rock Island is situated in the Mississippi River, opposite the upper end of the city of Rock Island, and between it and Davenport on the Iowa side. It is about two and a half miles long by three-fourths of a mile wide, and con- tains an area of about a thousand acres. The base of this island is a mass of limestone of the Hamilton group which underlies this section of country. At its lower extremity this rocky exposure rises in an almost perpendicular wall to a considerable height above the water, and was the cause of its being called by its appropriate name-Rock Island.
This mass of light grey or whitish limestone, rising in the broad chan- nel of the Mississippi and crowned with its luxuriant covering of natural forest trees, was an object of great interest to the early explorers in this region, and its effect was greatly enhanced by coming in view of it unex- pectedly, as the traveler was sure to do, in passing the bend in the river a short distance below. After Fort Armstrong was built on the lower point of this island, the view on ascending the river became still more picturesque ; and it has been described as one of the most beautiful and romantic scenes in the whole western country. Mr. Henry C. McGrew, who published the first newspaper in Rock Island, in 1839, in a recent letter, says :
" Although thirty-eight years have passed since I first landed at Rock Island, I shall never forget my first impressions of the place. It was a beautiful moonlight night in June, and as I stood upon the deck of the steamer, as we rounded the bend below the village, and beheld old Fort Armstrong on the island in the river, with its whitewashed walls, pretty gardens and officers' houses, the scene was charming, presenting the appear- ance of some ancient castle. Then there was the village of Davenport on the opposite bank, with its white-painted cottages, and on the east, Rock Island, encircled by the bluffs. The panorama inspired me with a feeling of happiness I shall never forget; and coupled with the idea that I was on the outskirts of civilization, gave the whole scene an air of romance."
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Governor Ford, in his History of Illinois, speaking of the arrival of the soldiers here during the first Black Hawk disturbance, in 1831, says: " The volunteers marched to Rock Island next morning and here they encamped for several days, precisely where the town of Rock Island is situated. It was then in a complete state of nature, a romantic wilderness. Fort Armstrong was built upon a rocky cliff on the lower point of an island, near the centre of the river a little way above ; the shores on each side, formed of gentle slopes of prairie extending back to bluff's of considerable height, made it one of the most picturesque scenes in the western country. The river here is a beautiful sheet of clear, swift-running water, about three- quarters of a mile wide; its banks on both sides were inhabited only by Indians, from the Lower Rapids to the fort; and the voyage up stream, after several days progress through a wilderness country, brought the traveler suddenly in sight of the fort, perched upon a rock, surrounded by the grandeur and beauty of Nature, which at a distance gave it the appear- ance of one of those enchanted castles in an uninhabited desert, so well described in the 'Arabian Night's Entertainments.' "
This island was the favorite resort of the Indians long before it had ever been visited by the white man. "Here they loved to assemble for their summer pastimes, and to indulge in the simple amusements of their race; along these rocky shores was their favorite fishing-ground; the swift current which here pours down over successive chains of rapids, was the scene of many a dash and frolic in their light canoes; and here dwelt the kindly spirit whose protecting power preserved the red man, and over whose subterranean abode none dared to walk but with the silent step of supreme reverence and awe." The estimation in which the Sac and Fox Indians held this island is well described by Black Hawk in the following language :
" This was the best island in the Mississippi, and had long been the re- sort of our young people during the summer. It was our garden, which furnished us with strawberries, blackberries, plums, apples, and nuts of va- rions kinds, and its waters supplied us with pure fish, being situated in the rapids of the river. In my early life I spent many happy days on this island. A good spirit had care of it, who lived in a cave in the rocks im- mediately under the place where the fort now stands, and has often been seen by our people. He was white, with large wings like a swan's, but ten times larger. We were particular not to make a noise in that part of the island, for fear of disturbing him. But the noise of the fort has since driven him away, and no doubt a bad spirit has taken his place."
The events which led to the building of Fort Armstrong on Rock Island have already been partially described. The British band of Sacs and Foxes had been troublesome in this region all through the latter part of the war of 1812-14. The British had captured the fort at Prairie du Chien, and had not only provided the Indians of this locality with artillery, muni- tions of war, and men, but had left them at the close of the war with feel- ings of strong and bitter hostility to the government. From Jefferson Bar- racks, below St. Louis, to the month of the Wisconsin, the government had practically no established military post by which to enforce its authority or to afford protection to its citizens, whose duties might call them into this portion of the United States. The river was, moreover, a highway of the nation, which must be kept guarded by suitable military stations along its banks. The situation at Rock Island was central, accessible, and in near proximity to the most dangerous body of Indians on the river; it was also
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nearly centrally located on the western border of that great tract of country which these Indians had ceded to the United States in the treaty of 1804, and which would soon be opened for actual settlement.
At the time the fort was built, there were at least 10,000 Indians living on the main shores and adjacent to the island. All those on the east side were the wards of the government, living on government lands, which they were allowed by the terms of the treaty to occupy so long as these lands belonged to the United States.
BUILDING OF FORT ARMSTRONG.
In 1816, Fort Armstrong was built on the lower point of Rock Island. The force of regulars under Col. William Lawrence, which came up the river for the purpose of locating and erecting the fort, arrived at the mouth of Rock River and examined the country for a suitable site. They decided on the above location. On the 10th of May, 1816, they landed on the island, and as soon as they had completed their encampment, Colonel Lawrence employed the soldiers to cut logs and build store-houses for their provisions. He also had a bake-house and oven erected, which was the first building finished on the island. The erection of the fort and its accompanying buildings soon followed, and was named Fort Armstrong, in honor of the Secretary of War.
It was a substantial structure of hewed logs, built in the form of a square, whose sides were four hundred feet in length. A block-house was built at each of the four angles, and embrazures for cannon and loop-holes for musketry were provided. A magazine, store-house, barracks, and officers' quarters were erected within the enclosure, and sections of heavy stone work built for protection against fire.
Col. George Davenport came with the troops as contractor for the com- missary department. On the 10th of August, 1816, Mrs. Davenport and Mrs. Lewis, now Mrs. Goldsmith, reached the island. They were the first American ladies who ever ascended the river to this place. Mrs. Daven- port died in 1847, aged 72 years. Mrs. Goldsmith is still living in Rock Island, a venerable relic of the post, in the 76th year of her age. Her mind is still vigorous and her recollection good of those early days when she and her family and the little garrison on the island were the only American people within hundreds of miles.
In 1823, the Virginia, laden with provisions for the garrison at Prairie du Chien, touched at the fort. It is said to have been the first steamboat that ever landed on the island.
In 1831, the old fort on the island was the scene of a council with the Sac and Fox Indians, with a view to persuading them to retire peaceably to the west side of the Mississippi. About thirty chiefs were present. This council was held by General Gaines, who came up from Jefferson Barracks in the steamer Enterprise with a force of regular troops. It resulted in convincing General Gaines that the Indians were determined to fight rather than give up their possessions; and in view of approaching hostilities, Gaines invited all the settlers in this region to repair to the island for safety. Here the effective male population of Rock Island County, at that time, was organized into a company known as the Rock River Rangers.
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