USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : containing biographical sketches war record statistics portraits of early settlers history of the Northwest, history of Illinois, &c. > Part 20
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
encamped. The Indian boy ran, but Shull hailed him in the Winnebago tongue and induced him to halt and surrender. When brought into the presence of Gen. Dodge, the brave Indian boy refused to give up his gun, and was disarmed by force. He informed Gen. Dodge that he was a son of ' Winneshiek,' or ' Coming Thunder,' whose village was on the Pecatonica, and who, with his braves, was hunting in that vicinity. Dodge and his volunteers moved to the Indian encampment, but the Indians fled. Gen. Dodge directed the Indian boy to go into the neighborhood of some thickets, where the Indians were, and call them out, as he wished to have a talk with them; but the suspicious Winnebagoes paid no heed to the captive Indian boy. Gen. Dodge retained his captive, and soon started with him down the Pecatonica to ascertain if Winneshiek and the bands of Winnebagoes had gone to attend a council of the hostile Indians, at that time reported to be in council on the Wisconsin River. Gen. Dodge and his volunteers, guided by Winneshiek's son, came to Winneshick's principal village, where Freeport now stands, but found the village deserted, and concluded that Winnesheik and his warriors were attending the great Indian pow-wow on the Wisconsin.
" The Winnebago difficulty resulted in a great scare to the miners, but in · nothing more, except the building of forts and block-houses, which were after- ward found very handy to have in the family. The Winnebagoes made a treaty with the whites, by which the whites were allowed to occupy. a part of the mineral region, and the Indians were paid $20,000 in goods and trinkets, at enormous prices, for the damages sustained by mining on their lands, and a much larger strip of mineral-bearing land opened up to the miners. About a year afterward, two large strips of country were purchased from the Winnebagoes, one extending along the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers from the east to the west, giving a passage across the country from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and the other reaching from Rock Island to the Wisconsin, including Stephenson County."
INDIAN TROUBLES .- THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
" A treaty had been made with the Sacs and Foxes, by General Harrison, at St. Louis, in September, 1804, by which those powerful Indian nations had ceded to the United States all their lands on Rock and Pecatonica Rivers, and much more elsewhere. That treaty was confirmed by another treaty with part of those Indians in 1815 and by another part in 1816. Under these various treaties the Indians had principally removed to the west side of the Mississippi, and the United States had caused some of these lands situated at the mouth of the Rock River to be surveyed and sold.
" But there was one old chief of the Sacs, called Mucata Muhicatah, or Black Hawk, who always denied the validity of these treaties. Black Hawk was now an old man. He had been a warrior from his youth ; he had led many a war party on the trail of an enemy, and had never been defeated. He had been in the service of England in the war of 1812, and had been aide-de-camp to the great Tecumseh. At the close of the war of 1812 he had not joined in making peace with the United States, but he and his band long kept up a con- nection with Canada, and the voice of Black Hawk was always for war upon the Americans. Black Hawk's ownaccount of the treaty of 1804 is as follows: He says that some Indians of his tribe were arrested and imprisoned in St. Louis for murder, and that some of the chiefs were sent down to provide for their defense ; that while there, and without the consent of the nation, those
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chiefs were induced to sell the Indian country ; that when they came home it appeared that they had been drunk most of the time while absent, and could give no account of what they had done, except that they had sold some land to the white people, and had come home loaded with presents and Indian finery. This, said Black Hawk, was all the nation ever heard or knew about the treaty of 1804.
" Under the pretence that the treaty of 1804 was void, he made some resist- ance to the order of the Government for the removal of his tribes west of the Mississippi, but had at length consented, and with his people took up a resi- dence on the west side of the ' Father of Waters.' In the spring of 1831 Black Hawk re-crossed the river with his women and children and three hundred war- riors of the British band, together with some allies from the Pottawatomie and Kickapoo nations, to establish himself upon his ancient hunting-grounds and in the principal village of his nation, on the banks of Rock River, in what is now Whiteside County. Many white settlers were there, but he ordered them away, threw down their fences, unroofed their log cabins, cut up their grain, drove off and killed their cattle, and threatened the people with death if they remained. The settlers complained to Gov. Reynolds, who called out the militia, which was placed under the command of Gen. Gaines, of the regular army, who, after many delays, marched against Black Hawk, but only to find that he and his dusky warriors. and dusky maidens and squaws and pappooses had quickly re- crossed the Mississippi. But Gaines, more bent upon devastation than the In- dians had been, gave the ancient Indian village to the flames, and proposed to follow Black Hawk across the river and chastise him there. Black Hawk sued for peace and ratified the treaty of 1804, by which the Indian lands, including Stephenson County, had been sold to the whites.
"But, notwithstanding Black Hawk and his followers had, in 1831, ratified the treaty of 1804, the wily chieftain and the disaffected Indians prepared to again cross to the east side of the Mississippi, and re-assert their claim to the country on Rock River and Pecatonica and their tributaries.
. "The united Sac and Fox nations were divided into two parties. Black Hawk commanded the warlike band, and Keokuk, another chief, headed the band which was in favor of peace. But nearly all the bold, turbulent spirits, who delighted in mischief, arranged themselves under the banner of Black Hawk, and with the chivalry of his nation he re-crossed the Mississippi early in the spring of 1832, and marched directly to the Rock River country. Gov. Reynolds made another call for volunteers, and four regiments and a spy battalion were soon organized. Col. Dewitt commanded the First Regiment, Col. Fry the Second, Col. Thomas the Third, Col. Thompson the Fourth and Col. James D. Henry commanded the spy battalion, and the whole was placed under the command of Brig. Gen. Samuel Whiteside, of the State Militia, after whom Whiteside County was afterward named. Gen. Atkinson, of the regular army, commanded the regulars, and had general command. The force marched to Dixon, and was there joined by two battalions of mounted volun- teers from Central Illinois, under Majs. Stillman and Bailey, who were pushed up Rock River, in the advance, about thirty miles above Dixon, to White Rock Grove, in Ogle County, where he encamped just before night, on the 12th of May, 1832, and in a short time a party of Indians were discovered on some rising ground about a mile further up the river. A party of Stillman's volun- teers, without orders, mounted and pursued, stringing along in disorder. The Indians retreated, but were overtaken, and three of them slain. Black Hawk was just over the hill with his main force, amounting to about seven hundred
C.A. Wright
(DECEASED) FREEPORT.
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warriors, and with his dusky warriors, he moved down on Maj. Stillman's camp, driving his whole force helter-skelter before him, and, it is said, that not a man of them stopped until they had safely reached the camp at Dixon, or been halted by an Indian rifle or tomahawk. The writer recently visited that locality, and it is known to this day as 'Stillman's Run.' Eleven of Stillman's men were killed, among them Maj. Perkins and Capt. Adams. As is usual in a disastrous retreat, every man who escaped reported all his com- rades killed. One badly frightened Kentuckian made a report to Gen. White- side, of Dixon, and his speech has come down to us in history. Here it is,
for it is too good to be lost : 'Sirs,' said he to Gen. Whiteside and the soldiers gathered near, 'our detatchment was encamped among some scattered timber, on the north side of Old Man's Creek, with the prairie from the north gently sloping down to our encampment. It was just after twilight, in the gloaming of the evening, when we discovered Black Hawk's army coming down upon us in solid column ; they displayed in the form of a crescent upon the brow of the prairie, and such accuracy and precision of military movements were never witnessed by man ; they were equal to the best troops of Wellington in Spain. I have said that the Indians came down in solid column, and displayed in the form of a crescent; and, what was most wonderful, there were large squares of cavalry resting upon the points of the curve, which squares were supported again by other columns fifteen deep, extending back through the woods and over a swamp three-quarters of a mile, which again rested upon the main body of Black Hawk's army, bivouacked upon the banks of the Kishiwakee. It was a terrible and glorious sight to see the tawny warriors as they rode along our flanks attempting to outflank us, with the glittering moonbeams glistening from their polished blades and burnished spears. It was a sight well calcu- lated to strike consternation into the stoutest and boldest heart, and accord- ingly, our men soon began to break in small squads, for tall timber. In a very little time the route became general ; the Indians were upon our flanks, and threatened the destruction of the entire detachment. About this time Maj. Stillman, Col. Stephenson, Maj. Perkins, Capt. Adams, Mr. Hackelton and myself, with some others, threw ourselves into the rear to rally the fugitives and pro- tect the retreat. But in a short time all my companions fell, bravely fighting hand to hand with the savage enemy, and I alone was left upon the field of battle. About this time I discovered, not far to the left, a corps of horsemen which seemed to be in tolerable order. I immediately deployed to the left, when, leaning down and placing my body in a recumbent position upon the mane of my horse, so as to bring the heads of the horsemen between my eye and the horizon, I discovered by the light of the moon that they were gentle- men who did not wear hats, by which token I knew they were no friends of mine. I therefore made a retrograde movement and recovered my former position, where I remained some time meditating what further I could do in the service of my country, when a random ball came whistling by my ear, and plainly whispered to me, "Stranger, you have no further business here." Upon hearing this, I followed the example of my companions in arms, and broke for tall timber, and the way I ran was not a little, and quit.'
" The Kentuckian was a lawyer, just returning from the circuit, with a slight wardrobe and Chitty's pleadings packed in his saddle-bags, all of which were captured by the Indians. He afterward related, with much vexation, that Black Hawk had decked himself out in his finery, appearing in the wild woods, among his savage companions, dressed in one of the Kentuckian ruffled
B
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shirts drawn over his deerskin leggings, with a volume of Chitty's Plead- ings under each arm.
" But the trumpet sounded a council of war at the tent of Gen. Whiteside, in Dixon, and it was resolved to march to the fatal field. The volunteers marched, but the Indians had gone-some further up Rock River, and many had scattered out in smaller parties all over the country to attack the nearest settlements of white people.
"One party of about seventy Indians made a descent upon a settlement of whites at Indian Creek, and massacred fifteen persons, men, women and chil- dren, of the families of Messrs. Hall, Davis and Pettigrew, and took two young women prisoners-Silvia and Rachel Hall, one about seventeen, the other about fifteen years of age. To describe this massacre is only to repeat what has been written hundreds of times. The Indians in broad daylight entered the homes of the settlers, quietly and apparently peacefully ; some of the inmates were immediately shot down with rifles, others pierced through with spears or dis- . patched with the tomahawk. The Indians afterward related with an infernal glee, how the women had squeaked like geese when they were run through the body with spears, or felt the sharp tomahawk entering their heads. All the victims were scalped; their bodies were mutilated and mangled; the little chil- dren were chopped to pieces with axes, and the women were tied up by their heels to the walls of the houses. The young women prisoners were hurried away, by forced marches, from this horrid scene, beyond the reach of pursuit. After a long and fatiguing journey through the wilderness in charge of their Indian conductors, they were at last ransomed by Major Gratiot, founder of Gratiot's Grove, on the headwaters of the Wisconsin River, by the payment of two thousand dollars in horses, wampum and trinkets, and returned to their friends.
"General Whiteside gathered up the mutilated remains of the eleven white men slain by the Indians and buried them at Stillman's Run, and then returned to Dixon, where he met General Atkinson and the regulars with supplies. The volunteers, who had expected to have grand sport killing Indians, began to realize that the boot might be on the other leg, and the Indians have grand sport killing them; and so they grumbled and demanded to be mustered out, their term of enlistment being about to expire, and on the 27th and 28th of May they were mustered out by Gov. Reynolds, at Ottawa. Meanwhile a new regiment of volunteers was mustered in at Beardstown, with Jacob Fry as Colonel, James D. Henry as Lieutenant Colonel, and John Thomas as Major. Gen. Whiteside, the late commanding general, volunteered as a private. The different companies of this regiment were so posted as toguard the frontiers, Capt. Adam W. Snyder was sent to scout the country between Rock River and Galena, and while he was encamped near Burr Oak Grove, in what is now the township of Erin, in Stephenson County, on the night of the 17th of June. 1832, his company was fired upon by the Indians. The next morning he pur- sued them, four in number, and drove them into a sink-hole in the ground, when he charged upon and killed the Indians, losing one man mortally wounded. As he returned to camp, bearing his wounded soldier. his men, suffering from thirst, scattered in search of water, when they were sharply attacked by about seventy Indians, who had been secretly watching their motions, and awaiting a good opportunity. Captain Snyder called upon General Whiteside, then a private in his company, to assist him in forming his men. General Whiteside proclaimed in a loud voice that he would shoot the first man who attempted to run. The men were soon formed. Both parties took position behind trees.
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Gen. Whiteside, an old Indian fighter and a capital marksman with a rifle, shot the commander of the Indians, and they, from that moment, began to retreat. As they were not pursued, the Indian loss was never ascertained. Capt. Snyder lost two men killed and one wounded.
" On the 15th of June, 1832, the new levies of volunteers were in camp, and were formed in three brigades. Gen. Alexander Posey commanded the first ; General Milton K. Alexander, the second, and Gen. James D. Henry the third brigade."
" Before the new army could be brought into the field, the scattered war parties of the Indians had killed several white men ; one was killed on Bureau Creek, one in Buffalo Grove, in Ogle County, another on Fox River, and two east of Fox River. On the 22d of May, 1832, Gen. Atkinson had dispatched Mr. St. Vrain, the Indian Agent for the Sacs and Foxes at Rock Island, with a few men, as an express to Fort Armstrong. On their way they fell in with a party of Indians led by a Chief well known to St. Vrain, a particular friend of his, named ' Little Bear,' who had adopted St. Vrain as his brother. Mr. St. Vraîn felt no fear of one who was his friend, who had been an inmate of his house, and had adopted him as his brother, and approached him in the greatest security ; but ‘Little Bear ' no sooner got St. Vrain in his power than he murdered and scalped him and all his party."
" About the middle of June, 1832, some strolling Indians had captured horses near Elizabeth, in Jo Daviess County. Shortly after the animals were missed, Capt. J. W. Stevenson, a son of Col. Benjamin Stevenson, in honor of whom this county is named, went from Galena to Elizabeth, with a few of his men, and set out in pursuit of the savages. As the grass was long at that season of the year, it was not difficult to keep the Indians' trail, and they soon came up to them at a point a little northeast of what is now known as Waddam's Grove, in Stevenson County. The Indians immediately ran into a thicket close by, and, concealing themselves amid the thick brush and fallen timber, waited for Stevenson to make the attack, which Capt. Stevenson did with admirable gallantry, although it may appear at this distance that his zeal and gallantry outran his discretion. Capt. Stevenson, who had with him only about a dozen men, ordered his party to dismount, and, leaving the horses, in charge of one or two men, led the rest to the charge, intending, probably, to drive the Indians from their place of concealment. The Indians reserved their fire until the white men approached quite close, when they fired from their concealment, the whites returned the fire without effect upon their concealed foe, and turned back upon the prairie out of range to re-load ; and again, with admirable courage, marched toward the thicket, and, before entering it, again received the cool fire of the Indians. Three of Capt. Stevenson's men were killed, and others, including himself, wounded. Capt. Stevenson then retreated, leaving the bodies of his dead companions, Stephen Howard, George Eames, and a man named Lovell, who were buried the next morning after the Indians had departed. Governor . Ford says : 'This attack of Capt. Stevenson was unsuccessful, and may have been imprudent; but it equaled any thing in modern warfare in daring and desperate courage.'
"About a week after the above occurrence, Black Hawk selected about one hundred and fifty of his very choicest braves and marched across the country from Rock River, and made an attack on Apple River Fort, erected by the miners, just north of the present village of Elizabeth, in Jo Daviess County. It was a fearful struggle by the handful of miners and their wives-the women molded bullets while the men, in the absence of Moody and Sankey, proceeded
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most gallantly to ' Hold the Fort '-and Black Hawk and his band were defeated.
" About the same time, another party of Indians made an attack on three men near Fort Hamilton, on the Pecatonica, killing two of them, the third escaping to the fort. General Dodge soon after arrived at Fort Hamilton, with twenty men, and made quick pursuit of the Indians, and chased them to the Pecatonica, where they took shelter under the high bank of the river. Dodge and his party charged up on them in their place of concealment and shelter, and killed the whole party of Indians, eleven in number, losing four whites wounded, three of them mortally.
" On the 25th of June, 1832, Major John Dement, of Dixon, in command of a detachment of Posey's Brigade, was camped near Burr Oak Grove, in what is now the township of Kent, in this county, and, learning from Captain Funk that a fresh trail of a large body of Indians leading south had been seen within five miles of his camp the day before, undoubtedly the trail of Black Hawk and his band falling back from Apple River Fort, after his unsuccessful attack, his whole command rushed out in pursuit of the enemy and discovered seven Indians, who were as intent on spying out the situation as was Major Dement. Some of Dement's men immediately made pursuit of the Indians, but their commander, fearing an ambuscade, endeavored to call them back. In this manner Major Dement had proceeded about a mile, pursuing the seven Indians first discovered, and he had scarcely entered the grove before he perceived about three hundred of Black Hawk's band issuing from the timber to attack him. The Indians came on firing. hallooing and yelling to make them- selves more terrific, after the Indian fashion, when Major Dement, seeing him- self in great danger of being surrounded by a superior force, retired to his camp, closely pursued by the yelling savages. Here his whole force took possession of the log buildings erected by Kirker and Kellogg, which answered the purpose of a 'fort, and here Major Dement and his command were vigorously attacked by the Indians. They shot sixty-seven of the horses and narrowly escaped killing the commander himself. Major Dement and Duvall were standing in the door of one of the log houses together, when two of the Indians came out in sight, and before Duvall, who perceived them, could draw the attention of Major Dement to their movements, the Indians fired. One of the bullets whizzed past Duvall's ear and lodged in the timbers of the house ; the other bullet cut Major Dement's commission, which he carried in the crown of his hat. Major Dement mounted two of his men on his swiftest horses, as an express to General Posey, at Buffalo Grove, for reinforcements, who eluded the Indians, but who, doubtless, were observed by the Indians, who divined the object of the flying couriers, and Black Hawk formed his braves into column and started for Rock River. Major Dement lost nine men killed and the Indians left upon the field nine of their dusky warriors, and probably had twice as many wounded. General Posey hastened with his entire brigade to the relief of Major Dement, but did not reach the Grove, until two hours after Black Hawk had retreated. The next day General Posey marched .a little to the north in search of the Indians, then marched back to the Grove to await the arrival of his baggage wagons; and then marched to Fort Hamilton, on the Pecatonica.
"When the news of the battle reached Dixon, where the volunteers and regulars were then assembled, under the command of General Atkinson of the regular army, Alexander's Brigade was ordered in the direction of Plum River to intercept Black Hawk, if possible, but did not succeed. General Atkinson
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remained with the infantry at Dixon two days, then marched, accompanied by the brigade of General Henry, toward the country of the Four Lakes, higher up Rock River, in Wisconsin.
"General Atkinson, having heard that Black Hawk had concentrated his forces at the Four Lakes and fortified his position with the intention of decid -. ing the fate of the war by a grand battle, marched with as much haste as pru- dence would warrant when invading a hostile and wilderness country with undisciplined forces, where there was no means of procuring reliable intelligence of the number or whereabouts of the enemy.
"On the 30th of June, 1832, he passed through Turtle Village, a consid- erable town of the Winnebagoes, then deserted, and camped one mile beyond it on the open prairie. He believed that the hostile Indians were in that immediate neighborhood, and prepared to resist their attack, if made. That night the Indians were prowling about his encampment. Continual alarms were given by the sentinels during the night, and the whole command was fre- quently. called out in order of battle. The march was continued the next day, and nothing occurred until the army arrived at Lake Koshkanong, except the discovery of trails and signs of the recent presence of Indians, the occasional sight of an Indian scout, and the usual camp rumors. Here General Atkinson was joined by General Alexander's brigade, and after Major Ewing and Colonel Fry, with the battalion of the one and the regiment of the other, had thoroughly examined the whole country round about and had ascertained that no enemy was near, the whole force again continued its march up Rock River, on the east side, to the Burnt Village, on the White River, in Wisconsin, where General Atkinson was joined by the brigade of General Posey, from Fort Hamilton on the Pecatonica, and a battalion of a hundred men from Wisconsin, commanded by Major Dodge.
"Eight weeks had now been wasted, with scarcely the sight of a red-skin since the battle of Kellogg's Grove, and the commanding general seemed further from the attainment of his object than when the second requisition of troops was organized. At that time Posey and Alexander commanded each 1,000 men. General Henry took the field with 1,262, and the regulars, under the immediate command of Colonel Zachary Taylor, amounted to 450 more. At this time there was not more than four days' rations in the hands of the com- missary; the enemy might be weeks in advance; the volunteers were fast melting away from various causes, although the regulars had not lost a man. General Atkinson therefore found it necessary to disperse his command for the purpose of procuring supplies.
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