The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
procure corn for the horses. By daylight the various expresses were
hurrying on their respective ways over the state.
With the abandonment of the baggage and supplies down the river, the
improvidence of the troops with the provisions brought along and the
destruction and confiscation of Stillman’s by Black Hawk, there was
imminent danger of a famine, but Mr. Dixon came to the rescue by
slaughtering his oxen, milch cows and young stock, which the troops
devoured without bread or salt. After a hasty breakfast, a general march
for the battlefield to bury the dead was begun, and by evening finished.
The sight of the mangled remains of their comrades did not inspire the
majority of the men with a wish to prolong their service.
Dissatisfaction, much of it unexplained, prevailed, and nothing but a
demand for a discharge from further service was heard.
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Gathering the fragments of the mutilated bodies together, they buried
Captain Adams and his faithful companions that evening, the 15th. The
dismantled baggage wagons, ruined saddlebags, dead horses, destroyed
provisions and the whisky keg, said by Black Hawk to have been emptied
by his direction, were found upon the field.
The army camped that night upon the south bank of the creek, with little
to disturb it save the casual firing of small arms in the distance,
which might have indicated the presence of the enemy, but Major Henry
and his battalion of spies, detached to scour the country and test the
presence of the Indians, returned to camp at an early hour of the
morning without discovering a sign of them.
On the morning of the 16th the army began its return march for Dixon’s
Ferry for provisions, presuming, of course, that Atkinson’s forces would
be there against their arrival in the evening, but the progress of the
keel boats up the river had necessarily been very slow, and when the
army reached Dixon’s Ferry the regulars had not yet arrived. This caused
a storm of protest to reach the ears of the officers, which demanded
decisive action. The unplanted crops, the futility of the enterprise and
innumerable other reasons were urged for disbanding. The “fun” of an
Indian campaign had proved too serious for the younger generation.
In this dreadful state of insubordination the Governor held the troops
until the morning of the 17th, when, after a fervid appeal to their
patriotism to continue their service to protect the exposed frontier
until the new levies arrived, the remaining troops of Stillman and
Bailey, recovering their lost senses, immediately consented, whereupon
the Fifth Regiment was organized, as before mentioned. Delaying for a
few hours the decision, which must inevitably have come in favor of the
other men, hopeful that Atkinson would come, Governor Reynolds was
happily relieved by the arrival of Atkinson’s forces and Major Long’s
foot battalion about noon, with stores, which momentarily quieted the
clamoring of the volunteers. With these reinforcements came Captain W.S.
Harney and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, each of whom had been absent on
furlough, but who, on the crossing of Black Hawk into Illinois, had
returned to his regiment at Fort Armstrong in time to march up the river
with Atkinson.
Before dark of the 15th, Strode, Captain J.W. Stephenson and others from
the mining district reached Galena with the intelligence of Stillman’s
defeat, and the possibilities of immediate and general Indian
hostilities created the greatest excitement among the people. The notes
of a bugle at once called the settlers and miners together on the old
race course on the bottom near the river,[128] and by reason of his
popularity, Captain Stephenson quickly organized a company of mounted
rangers, which elected him captain. Strode, however, could not
manipulate his militia, as he had confidently expected and promised.
Candidates for office contested the supremacy of Strode, then a
candidate for State Senator (and later elected), with suggestions that
he should get out of the way. With this conflict among leaders, men did
not respond as expected, and to still more complicate Reynolds’ already
distressing plight, Strode’s troubles reached Dixon’s Ferry. Resolving
upon asking the advice of Atkinson, he started an express for Atkinson’s
camp at 3 o’clock in the morning of Saturday, May 19th, consisting of
Sergeant Fred Stahl and William Durley, Vincent Smith, Redding Bennett
and James Smith, who bore dispatches for Atkinson and who took John D.
Winters, the mail contractor, for guide. On Sunday, 20th, Stahl returned
and added to the alarm by reporting that his party had been ambuscaded
by the Indians just on the edge of Buffalo Grove (now Polo, Illinois),
fifty miles from Galena, about 5 o’clock of Saturday afternoon, and that
Durley was instantly killed and left on the spot.
Strode was in despair. He declared martial law, and had not Atkinson, on
his arrival at Dixon’s, anticipated his troubles and sent relief, poor
Strode might have been discomfited. As it was, Lieutenant Jefferson
Davis and a small detachment was ordered to hasten to his assistance.
Arrived there, Davis, with the co-operation of H. Hezekiah Gear, a man
of strong personality, great force of character and of commanding
influence with the sturdy miners, smoothed the ruffled tempers of the
miners and softened them into an eager desire for enlistment, and the
organization of the Twenty-seventh Regiment followed.
This regiment, organized on the 19th and 21st, was composed of the
companies of Captains Milton M. Maughs, Nicholas Dowling, Clack Stone,
Charles McCoy, Benjamin J. Aldenrath, H. Hezekiah Gear, Samuel H.
Scales, Jonathan Craig, L.P. Vansburgh, all from Jo Daviess County. It
was commanded by Colonel Strode, ranged the northwestern part of the
state and was mustered out at Galena, September 6th. Owing to the
careless manipulation of the records in those days, it is impossible to
state the remaining officers of the regiment, except to note the name of
Dr. Horatio Newhall as surgeon and the casual use of the name of Captain
Stephenson as major, but as he was subsequently attached to Dodge’s
squadron as major, and acted almost entirely with Dodge thereafter, his
should be classed as an independent company, not in Strode’s
regiment.[129]
In addition to the Twenty-seventh Regiment, Jo Daviess organized two
independent companies, which later became permanently attached to
Dodge’s squadron and were mustered out September 14 at Galena by Lieut.
J.R.B. Gardenier, who for the most part acted as commandant of the
company of Nicholas Dowling. One of those two companies was commanded by
Capt. James Craig and the other was the company of Captain Stephenson,
until he was elected major. On that date Enoch Duncan was elected
captain, vice Stephenson.
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Of the body called Dodge’s squadron, Henry Dodge was Colonel, James W.
Stephenson was Major and later Lieutenant-Colonel, W.W. Woodbridge,
Adjutant, Addison Philleo, Surgeon, and John Bivens, Surgeon’s Mate. The
moment Dodge received word from Reynolds of Stillman’s disaster, he lost
not one minute in returning to the mining district to quiet the
Winnebagoes, who might and probably would have risen with the
Pottowatomies and overwhelmed the settlers over the entire northwestern
country, but Dodge and Henry Gratiot gave them no time to formulate a
plan. The Winnebagoes were the natural friends and allies of the Sacs
and the constant and unscrupulous enemy of the whites when the least
opportunity arose, but since the affair of 1827 they feared Dodge.
His public position in 1832 was Colonel of Michigan Militia,[130] to
which command was added, immediately on the commencement of hostilities,
the command of the mounted volunteers of Iowa County and the Galena
volunteers in Illinois, when they served by companies in Michigan
Territory. Starting before dawn of May 15th for the lead mines
settlements, he in an incredibly short time had preparations moving for
the safety of every settler in southwestern Michigan. In a week’s time
stockades made of logs ten or twelve feet high, buried end up, in forms
of squares or parallelograms, with blockhouses inclosed and lookouts at
one or more corners, were finished and ready for occupation at the
following places, after which all persons so disposed were comfortably
“forted,” as the expression was in those days:
Fort Union (headquarters), Colonel Dodge’s residence near Dodgeville.
Colonel Dodge commanding.
Fort Defiance, at the farm of Daniel M. Parkinson, about five miles
southeast of Mineral Point. Captain Hoard commanding.
Fort Hamilton, at William S. Hamilton’s diggings, later Wiota.
Fort Jackson, at Mineral Point. Capt. John F. O’Neal commanding.
Mound Fort, on the high prairie about a mile and a half south of
Ebenezer Brigham’s residence at Blue Mounds. Capt. John Sherman
commanding.
Parish’s Fort, at the residence of Thomas J. Parish, later Wingville.
And forts, unnamed, at Cassville, Platteville, Gratiot’s Grove, under
command of J.R. B. Gratiot, Diamond Grove, White Oak Springs, Old
Shullsburg and Elk Grove, at the farm of Justus DeSeelhorst.
About the 22d or 23d of May, Colonel Dodge and Col. Henry Gratiot,
sub-agent of the Winnebagoes, assembled a company of fifty mounted
volunteers, commanded by Captains James H. Gentry and John H. Roundtree,
and marched to the head of the Four Lakes, where, on the 25th, the
assembled Indians were asked to declare their intentions. If they
decided to aid, counsel or abet the Sacs, or harbor them in their
country, such acts would be received as a declaration of war and would
be visited with condign punishment. Dodge emphatically proclaimed the
Sacs liars and traitors, who wished only to draw the Winnebagoes into a
war to distract attention from their own actions, while they might
escape when hostilities went against them, thus leaving the Winnebagoes
to bear the brunt of the punishment which must follow in blood and
uncomfortable peace conditions.
So vigorous, yet so diplomatic, were Dodge and Gratiot, that peaceful
relations were at once assured and, with slight exception, maintained by
all.[131]
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Footnote 126:
Reddick Horn.
Footnote 127:
2d Sergeant Parker Adams, of Gideon Simpson’s Company.
Footnote 128:
Hist. Jo Daviess County, p. 284.
Footnote 129:
William Campbell was later made Major of the Twenty-seventh Regiment.
Footnote 130:
Vol. 1, p. 265, Smith’s Hist. of Wis.
Footnote 131:
The “talk” had at this meeting given in full note A, p. 416, Smith,
Vol. I.
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