USA > Illinois > Ogle County > The history of Ogle County, Illinois, 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, general and local statistics history of the Northwest, history of Illinois etc > Part 26
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Of course the boatmen expected an attack on their return trip, for they knew they deserved it, and the dispassionate judgment of humanity, after the lapse of half a century, concurs in that opinion. Knowing this, they attempted to run by the Winnebago Village on their return, in the night. The watchful, vengeful Winnebagoes, however, were not to be eluded. The
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boats were forced to approach near the shore in the narrow channel of the river at that point, and there, says Reynold's, " the infuriated savages as- sailed one boat and permitted the other to pass down " unmolested. The presumption is that the boat assailed contained the offenders whom they wished to punish. Reynolds' account of the fight is as follows :
The boatmen were not entirely prepared for the attack, although to some extent they were guarded against it. They had procured some arms, and were on the alert to some de- gree. The Indians laid down in their canoes and tried to paddle them to the boat; but tlie whites, seeing this, fired their muskets on them in the canoes. It was a desperate and furious fight for a few minutes, between a good many Indians expo-ed in open canoes and only a few boatmen protected, to some extent, by their boat. One boatman, a sailor by pro- fession on the lakes and ocean, who had been in many battles with the British during the war of 1812, saved the boat and those of the crew who were not killed. This man was large and strong, and possessed the courage of an African lion. He seized a part of the setting pole of the boat, which was about four feet long and had on the end a piece of iron, which made the pole weighty and a powerful weapon in the hands of "Saucy Jack," as the cham- pion was called. It is stated that when the Indians attempted to board the boat, Jack would knock them back into the river as fast as they approached. The boat got fast on the ground, and the whites seemed doomed, but with great exertion, courage and hard fighting, the Indians were repelled. ("Jack," unmindful of the shower of bullets whistling about, seized a pole, pushed the boat into the current, and it floated beyond the reach of the as- sailants.) The savages killed several white men and wounded many more, leaving barely enough to navigate the boat. Thus commenced and thus ended the bloodshed of the Winnebago War. No white man or Indian was killed before or after this naval engage- ment.
The arrival of these boats at Galena and the report of their narrow escape, created great alarm, intensified by the arrival, the same day, of a party who had fled to Galena for safety, anticipating war, and by the warn- ing given to the Gratriots. All mining operations ceased ; the miners and scattered settlers hurried to Galena for safety, built stockades and block- houses in their own neighborhoods, or left the country. A little fort was built at Elizabeth, another at Apple River, and still another in Michigan Territory. These forts, although not needed then, were afterwards found " very handy to have in the family."
Governor Edwards received information, on which he relied, that the Winnebago Indians had attacked some keel-boats, that the settlers and miners on Fever River were in imminent danger of an attack from a band of the same and other Indians (although the facts, as reported to him and upon which he acted, have never been made public), and called ont the Twentieth Regiment Illinois Militia, under Col. Thomas M. Neale, who were to rendezvous at Fort Clark (Peoria), " and march with all possible expedition to the assistance of our fellow citizens at Galena." The brave citizens of Sangamon rallied to the rendezvous, and, with ten days rations, marched to Gratiot Grove, and-finding no hostile Indians there, disbanded and-marched home again.
Gen. Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory, who had been appointed by the government to hold a treaty with the Lake Michigan Indians, at Green Bay, arrived there about this time, but, finding but few there and hearing that the Lake Indians had received war messages from the interior, hastened to communicate the startling intelligence to the military commander at St. Louis. He ascended Fox River from Green Bay, descended the Wisconsin and Mississippi, and in nine days arrived at St. Louis. It is said that "among the Winnebagoes he discovered warlike preparations, but his sudden and unexpected appearance among them in a birch canoe, of larger size than that used by ordinary traders, filled with armed men, with the U. S. flag flying, led the Indians to suspect that he
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was accompanied by a superior force. To this fact and the rapidity of his movements may be attributed his safety and the men under his command." A single birch bark canoe, with armed men enough in it to overcome thousands of hostile savages for hundreds of miles, must have been worth seeing.
On his way down, Gen. Cass stopped at Galena, where Gen. Henry Dodge and Gen. Whiteside had raised a company of volunteers, ready to march against the terrible foe. An eye witness of his arrival says that in the midst of the alarm then prevailing the excited people heard singing, and thought the Indians were coming, but soon their fears were allayed, for they saw, gliding gracefully up the river, around the point below the vil- lage, a large canoe flying the United States flag and containing an Ameri- can officer and six Canadians dressed in blue jackets and red sashes, with bright feathers in their hats, who were singing the "Canadian Boat Song " as they bent over their oars, and with measured strokes sent it flying to the bank, when Gen. Cass stepped ashore amid the cheers of the assembled population. "Armed men " were few and far between in that boat.
Immediately upon receipt of news from Governor Cass, General Atkinson marched with 600 men to the " seat of war," and formed a june- tion with the Galena Volunteers at Fort Winnebago. "Thus far they had marched into the bowels of the land without impediment." During all this period of alarm, excitement and feverish expectation of a descent of the hostile Indians upon the defenceless frontier settlements in the mining dis- trict, what were these Indians doing ? They had had time enough to have swept the white settlers on Fever River out of the country, or out of exist- enee, before the "imposing display of such a large number of troops in the heart of their country, dampened their war spirit and induced them to sur- render their chiefs," but it does not appear that they murdered a single set- tler, or committed any serious depredations after they had punished the keel-boatmen who had so grossly insulted them.
Capt. D. S. Harris, who was a volunteer in the Galena company com- manded by Gen. Dodge, says: " We marched to Fort Winnebago, where Red Wing was brought in a prisoner, and that was the end of it." The Winnebagoes surrendered Red Wing and We-Kaw, the two chiefs who had led the attack upon the keel-boats, when Gen. Atkinson made the imposing military display in " the heart of their country." Red Wing was impris- oned at Prairie dn Chien, where he was to be kept as a hostage for the good behavior of his nation, but his proud spirit was so broken by the con. finement which he felt was unjust, that he soon died.
Thus ended the Winnebago War, which was really only an attack upon some keel-boatmen, provoked by the ontrages upon the Indians by the boat- men themselves. There was no war elsewhere, but the prosperity of the mining region was temporarily checked by the alarm and consequent sus- pension of mining and business.
Whether, had the Indians succeeded in their attempt to murder the offending crew of the boat they attacked while they permitted the other to pass down the river unmolested, they would have entered upon the war path against all the white settlements in this region, must forever be a matter of conjecture, and while there were and are differences of opinion, the most of the survivors of that period of excitement coincide in the belief that had not the Indians been stung to fury by these drunken boatmen there would have been no trouble. The mineral lands could have been bought, as they
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were, subsequently, by treaty. If the government, when it demanded the surrender of Red Wing and kept him as a hostage, had arrested these boat- men and imprisoned them for life, both for the outrage they committed and for recklessly disturbing the peace, and destroying for a time the pros- perity of the frontier settlements, and causing so much damage to the inno- cent settlers, or had delivered them to the Indians to be kept as hostages for the good behavior of their class, it would have been only even-handed justice.
Soon after this digraceful and, in some respects, ludicrous affair, a treaty was made with the Winnebagoes by which, for twenty thousand dol- lars paid in goods and trinkets at fabulous prices, they were satisfied for the damages sustained by them in consequence of the trespasses on their lands, and relinquished a large tract of these lands to the miners.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
The great event of the year 1832 was the Black Hawk War. The reader is familiar with the general history of this war, but there are some incidents connected with it and some phases of it familiar to the survivors of the sturdy rank and file that participated in it, who had and still have their opinions relating to its canses and conduct, differing from most pub- lished accounts, that should be recorded. The war was commenced and most of the blood was spilt in what was then Jo Daviess County. Mostly confining this sketch to these events and to the canses of the war as received from the lips of the survivors, it may appear that, like the Winnebago affair of 1827, the whites were not entirely guiltless.
In 1831, Black Hawk and his band had crossed to their old homes on Rock River, but had negotiated a treaty and returned to the west side of the Mississippi, receiving liberal presents of goods and provisions from the Government, and promised never to return without the consent of the President of the United States or the Governor of Illinois. But on the 6th day of April, 1832, he again recrossed the Mississippi with his entire band and their women and children. The Galenian, edited by Dr. A. Philleo, of May 2, 1832, says that "Black Hawk was invited by the Prophet, and had taken possession of a tract about forty miles up Rock River, but that he did not remain there long, but commenced his march up Rock River." Capt. William B. Green, now of Chicago, but who served in Stephenson's Company of mounted rangers, says that " Black Hawk and his band crossed the river with no hostile intent, but to accept an invitation from Pit-ta-wak, a friendly chief, to come over and spend the Summer with his people on the head waters of the Illinois," and the movements of Black Hawk up Rock River before pursuit by the military, seems to confirm this statement. There seems to be no question of the fact that he came in consequence of an invitation from the Prophet or Pit-ta-wak, or both, as his people were in a starving condition.
Others who agree with Green, that Black Hawk did not come to fight and had no idea of fighting, say that he had retired to the west side of the Mississippi the previous year under treaty, receiving a large quantity of corn and other provisions, but in the Spring his provisions were gone, his followers were starving, and he came back expecting to negotiate another treaty and to get a new supply of provisions.
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There is still another explanation that may enable the reader to har- monize the preceding statements and to understand why Black Hawk returned in 1832. It is well known that in nearly all the treaties ever made with the Indians, the Indian traders dietated the terms for their allies and customers, and, of course, received a large share of the annuities, ete., in payment for debts due to them. Each tribe had certain traders who sup- plied them. George Davenport had a trading post at Fort Armstrong. His enstomers were largely the Saes and Foxes, and he was held in high esteem by them ; in faet, his word was their law. It is said that Blaek Hawk's band became indebted to him for a large amount and were unable to pay. They had not had good luck hunting during the Winter, and he was likely to lose heavily. If Black Hawk, therefore, could be induced to come on this side of the river again and the people could be alarmed so that a military foree could be sent in pursuit of him, another treaty could be made, he might assist in making terms and get his pay out of the payments the government would make, and all would be well. Mr. Amos Farrar, who was Davenport's partner for some years, and who died in Galena during the war, is said to have declared, while on his death-bed, that the " Indians were not to be blamed, that if they had been let alone there would have been no trouble-that the band were owing Mr. Davenport and he wanted to get his pay and would, if another treaty had been made."
In a letter to Gen. Atkinson, dated April 13, 1832, Davenport says : " I have been informed that the British band of Sae Indians are determined to make war on the frontier settlements. * * % From every informa- tion that I have received I am of the opinion that the intention of the British band of Sae Indians is to commit depredations on the inhabitants of the frontier."
Just such a letter as he or any other trader would have written to eause a pursuit, and consequent treaty. Black Hawk evidently understood the game. He was leisurely pursuing his way up Rock River, waiting for the first appearance of the military to display the white flag and negotiate as he had done the previous year.
Although Black Hawk's movement across the Mississippi, on the 6th of April, was at onee construed into a hostile demonstration, and Daven- port skillfully cultivated the idea, he was accompanied by his old men, women and children. No Indian warriors ever went on the war path eneumbered in that way. More than this, it does not appear, from the sixth day of April until Stillman's drunken soldiers fired on his flag of truee, on the 12th of May, that a single settler was murdered, or suffered any material injury at the hands of Black Hawk or his band. In truth, Hon. H. S. Townsend, of Warren, Jo Daviess County, states that in one instance, at least, where they took eorn from a settler they paid him for it. Capt. W. B. Green writes : " I never heard of Black Hawk's band, while passing up Roek River, committing any depredation whatever, not even petty theft." Frederick Stahl, Esq .. of Galena, states that he was informed by the veteran, John Dixon, that "when Black Hawk's band passed his post, before the arrival of the troops, they were at his house. Ne-o-pope had the young braves well in hand, and informed him that they intended to commit no depreda- tions. and should not "fight unless they were attacked."
Whatever his motive may have been, it is the unanimous testimony of the survivors, now residing on the old battle-fields of that day, that except the violation of treaty stipulations and an arrogance of manner natural to
(DECEASED) OREGON
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an Indian who wanted to make a new trade with the "Great Father," the Sacs under Black Hawk committed no serions acts of hostility, and intended none, until after the alternative of war or extermination was presented to them by Stillman's men.
Certain it is that the people of Galena and of the mining district generally, apprehended no serious trouble and made no preparations for war until Capt. Stephenson brought the news of Stillman's route, on the 15th of May.
Some United States troops arrived at Galena from Prairie du Chien on the 1st of May, and about the same time Black Hawk commenced his march up Rock River, from the Prophet's Village (Prophetstown, Whiteside County), but there was no serions alarm among the inhabitants of the settled portions of Jo Daviess County, and the troops went to Rock Island (Fort Armstrong) on the 7th. About that time J. W. Stephenson, John Foley and Mr. Atchinson returned from a reconnoitering expedition, and reported that the Indians had " dispersed among the neighboring tribes." The Galenian of May 16th, printed before the tidings of Stillman's fiasco had reached Galena, said : "It is already proved that they will not attempt to fight it out with us, as many have supposed. Will the temporary dis- persion of Black Hawk's band among their neighbors cause our troops to be disbanded ?"
On Saturday, May 12, Gov. Reynolds was at Dixon's Ferry, with about two thousand mounted riflemen, awaiting the arrival of Gen. Atkinson's forces from Fort Armstrong. A day or two previous, Major Isaiah Still- man, " with about four hundred well-mounted volunteers," says the Gale- nian, " commenced his march with a fixed determination to wage a war of extermination wherever he might find any part of the hostile band." Just before night, on the 12th |of May, 1832, Stillman's forces encamped at White Rock Grove, in the eastern part of Marion Township, near what is now called Stillman Creek, about ten miles from Oregon. lIe was in close proximity to Black Hawk's encampment, but did not know it. Black Hawk was at that moment making arrangements to propose a treaty of peace. Stillman's men were well supplied with whisky. Some authorities state that they had with them a barrel of " fire water," and that many of them were drunk. They were all eager to get sight of an Indian, and were determined not to be happy until each had the gory scalp of a Sac dangling at his belt. Extermination was their motto, although the game they hunted had committed no depredations.
Soon after, becoming aware of the immediate presence of an armed force, Black Hawk sent a small party of his braves to Stillman's camp with a flag of truce. On their approach, they were discovered by some of the men, who, without reporting to their commander, and without orders, hastily mounted and daslied down upon the approaching Indians. These, not understanding this sudden movement, and apparently suspicions, retreated toward the camp of their chief. The whites fired, killed two and captured two more, but the others escaped, still pursued by the reckless volunteers. When Black Hawk and his war chief, Ne-o-pope, saw them dashing down upon their camp, their flag of truce disregarded, and, believ- ing that their overtures for peace had been rejected, they raised the terrible war-whoop and prepared for the fray.
It was now the turn of the volunteers to retreat, which they did with wonderful celerity, after murdering their two prisoners, without waiting for
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the onslaught, supposing they were pursued by a thousand savage warriors. The flying braggarts rushed through the camp, spreading terror and con- sternation among their comrades, but late so eager to meet the foe. The wildest panic ensued, there was " mounting in hot haste," and without wait- ing to see whether there was any thing to run for, every man fled, never stopping until they had reached Dixon's Ferry or some other place of safety, or had been stopped by the tomahawk or bullet. The first man to reach Dixon was a Kentucky lawyer, not unknown to fame in Jo Daviess County, who, as he strode into Dixon, reported that every man of Stillman's com- mand had been killed except himself. Another man, named Comstock, never stopped until he reached Galena, where he reported that "the men were all drunk, as he was, got scared and made the best time they could ont of danger, but that he didn't see a single Indian." All accounts concur in the main facts, however, that the men were drunk, and that the white flay displayed by Black Hawk was fired upon in utter disregard of all rules of warfare recognized, even among thie Indians. The whites had commenced the work of murder, and the Indians, losing all hope of negotiation, deter- mined that extermination was a game that both parties could play. Gen. Whiteside, who was in command at Dixon, at once marched for the fatal field, but the enemy had gone, the main body having moved northward, and the rest scattered in small bands to avenge the death of their people upon unoffending settlers. ' Eleven of Stillinan's men were killed, among whom were Captain Adams and Major Perkins. Their mutilated remains were gathered and buried, and the place is known as "Stillman's Run " to this day. This was the commencement of hostilities, and justice compels the impartial historian to record that the whites were the aggressors. Many of the volunteers appreciated the fact, too. It was not such grand sport to kill Indians when they found that Indians might kill them, and especially when war had been wantonly commenced by firing upon and killing the bearers of the flag of peace. They grumbled and demanded to be mustered ont, and were dismissed soon after by Governor Reynolds. Another call was issued, and a new regiment of volunteers was mustered in at Beards- town, with Jacob Fry as Colonel; James D. Henry, Lieutenant Colonel, and John Thomas, Major. The late commanding general, Whiteside, vol- unteered as a private.
The fatal act of Stillman's men precipitated all the horrors of Indian border warfare upon the white settlements in Jo Daviess County, as it then existed, and in the adjoining portions of Michigan Territory. Nor is it certain that all the outrages were perpetrated by the "British Band." It is certain that young Pottawattomies and Winnebagoes joined Black Hawk, and after the war suddenly closed at Bad Axe, it was ascertained that many of the murders had been committed by these Indians. Among the first results of " Stillman's defeat" was the descent of about seventy Indians upon an unprotected settlement at Indian Creek (LaSalle County) where they massacred fifteen men, women and children of the families of Hall, Davis and Pettigrew, and captured two young women, Sylvia and Rachel Hall. These girls, seventeen and fifteen years old, respectively, were after- wards brought in by Winnebagoes to Gratiot Grove, and were ransomed by Major Henry Gratiot, for two thousand dollars in horses, wampum and trinkets, and taken to Galena.
May 15, 1832, Capt. James W. Stephenson arrived at Galena with the startling intelligence of Stillnan's disastrous defeat and the commencement
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of bloody hostilities by the Indians, ereating intense exeitement among the people. The ringing notes of the bngle ealled the settlers and miners together on the old race course on the river bottom, near the foot of Wash- ington Street, and a company of mounted rangers was organized, with James W. Stephenson for captain. At 3 o'clock on the morning of Satur- day, May 19, Sergeant Fred Stahl (now a respected eitizen of Galena) and privates William Durley, Vineent Smith, Redding Bennett, and James Smith, started to bear dispatches to Gen. Atkinson, at Dixon's Ferry, with John D. Winters, the mail contractor, for guide, but on Sunday, 20th, Sergeant Stahl returned and added to the alarm of the people by reporting that his party had been ambuscaded by the Indians just on the edge of Buffalo Grove, about 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon, and that Durley was instantly killed and left on the spot. Stahl received a bullet through his eoat collar, and James Smith afterwards found a bullet hole in his hat and became intensely frightened. After the war the leader of the Indians told Dixon that he could have killed the young fellow (Stahl) as well as not, but he had a fine horse, and in trying to shoot him withont injuring the animal, he shot too high, as Stahl suddenly stooped at the same time.
The Galenian of May 23, 1832, says: "The tomahawk and sealping . knife have again been drawn on our frontier. Blood of our best citizens has been spilt in great profusion within the borders of Illinois. The Indians must be exterminated or sent off."
In the same paper it is said that "fortifications for the defense of the town are rapidly progressing. On Saturday last (19th) a stockade * was commeneed near the eentre of the town." On a bluff above, at a spot selected by Lieut. J. R. B. Gardenier, commanding the stoekade and a large part of the town, a blockhouse was ereeted and a battery planted, manned by an artillery company, of which Lient. Gardenier was captain.
On Monday, May 21, + Col. J. M. Strode, commanding the 27th Regi- ment Illinois Militia, proclaimed martial law, and required every able bodied man to work on the stoekade from 9 A. M. to 6 P. M. Strode's proclamation also prohibited the sale of spirits " at any of the groceries or taverns in Galena from 8 o'clock A. M. nntil 7 o'clock P. M.," and all per- sons were " positively prohibited from firing guns withont positive orders, unless while standing guard to give an alarm."
The following is a list of the officers of the different companies then organized, as published in the Galenian, May 23:
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