The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
WAKEFIELD, JOHN A. Distinguished for services in
the war and for writing in 1834 (published at
Jacksonville, Ill., the same year), the first
history of the same. From his only portrait,
owned by his daughter, Mrs. Emily Terry, of St.
Paul, Minn., and now first published. 139
WALKER, CAPT. GEORGE E. First Sheriff of La Salle
County. From photograph made by W.E. Bowman, of
Ottawa, and now first published. 166
WA-PEL-LO, or WAU-PE-LA, CHIEF. From “McKenney and
Hall’s Indians.” 308
WESTBROOK, REV. SAMUEL, of Capt. Holliday’s
Company. Still alive, and who has furnished much
information for this book. 193
WARREN, CAPT. PETER. From a very rare tintype,
owned by a grandson, W.W. Warren, of Windsor,
Ill. 126
WAU-BAN-SE, or WAU-BAN-SEE. From “McKenney and
Hall’s Indians.” 166
WHEELER, CAPT. ERASTUS. From old tintype owned by
his daughter, Mrs. W.W. Erwin, of Minneapolis,
Minn. 97
WHISTLER, MAJOR WILLIAM. From “Kirkland’s
Chicago.” 246
WHITESIDE, GEN. SAMUEL. From the only picture ever
made of him–a very rare tintype–owned by his
daughter, Mrs. J.A. Henderson, of Mt. Auburn,
and now first published. 115
WHITLOCK, MAJOR JAMES. From a beautiful ivory
miniature owned by Mrs. Eliza A. Greenough, of
Marshall, Ill. 124
WILLIAMS, ARCHIBALD, of Capt. Flood’s Company. One
of Illinois’ most distinguished men. From old
portrait owned by his son, John H. Williams, of
Quincy, Ill. 127
WILLIAMS, GEN. JOHN R. From oil painting in rooms
of Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, at
Lansing. 255
WILSON, LIEUT. GEORGE, chum of Lieut. Jefferson
Davis, who carried the note from Lieut. Davis to
Miss Taylor which arranged for their marriage.
From portrait owned by son, Capt. George Wilson,
of Lexington, Mo. 293
WINTERS, CAPT. NATHAN. From photograph owned by
grandson, G.L. Winters, of Trenton, Mo. 126
WISCONSIN HEIGHTS, BATTLEFIELD. From the picture
owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, at
Madison. 216
WISCONSIN HEIGHTS–Plan of the battlefield. From
the “Life of Henry Dodge,” by William Salter. 216
WOOD, JOHN. Later Governor of Illinois. Private in
Capt. Flood’s Company. From photograph owned by
D.C. Wood, of Quincy, Ill. 217
WOOD, MAJ. JOHN D. From photograph furnished by
Hon. George Vernor, of Nashville, Ill. 197
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH–PERSONAL DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTER OF BLACK HAWK–NOT A CHIEF–MADE
A BRAVE–EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE OSAGES–DEATH OF PY-E-SA–PERIOD OF
MOURNING–EXPEDITION AGAINST THE OSAGES–EXPEDITION AGAINST THE
CHEROKEES–EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CHIPPEWAS, OSAGES AND
KICKAPOOS–THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE AMERICANS.
Black Hawk’s name, as given in his autobiography, was
Ma-ka-tai-she-kia-kiak[1], and, without reference to the many renditions
of it by various writers, is the version that will be adopted in this
work as nearest authentic. He was born in the year 1767 at the Sac or
Sauk village, located on the north bank of Rock River in the State of
Illinois, about three miles above its confluence with the Mississippi.
His father, Py-e-sa, a grandson of Na-na-ma-kee or Thunder (a descendant
of other Thunders), was born near Montreal, Canada, where the Great
Spirit was reputed in Indian lore to have first placed the great Sac
nation. Black Hawk was a full blood Sac, five feet eleven inches tall in
his moccasins; of broad but meager build[2] and capable of great
endurance. His features were pinched and drawn, giving unusual
prominence to the cheek bones and a Roman nose, itself pronounced. The
chin was sharp. The mouth was full and inclined to remain open in
repose. His eyes were bright, black and restless, glistening as they
roamed during a conversation. Above these rested no eyebrows. The
forehead was given the appearance of unusual fullness and height from
the fact that all hair was plucked from the scalp, with the single
exception of the scalp lock, to which, on occasions of state, was
fastened a bunch of eagle feathers. In his later years it was his boast
that he had worn the lock with such prominence to tempt an enemy to
fight for it and to facilitate its removal should he be slain in the
encounter. This statement, however, must be received as a boast and
nothing more, because among the Sacs the custom of plucking from the
scalp all hairs save the scalp lock was general and not confined to
Black Hawk’s redoubtable person, as he would have us believe. J.C.
Beltrami, the Italian traveler, who ascended the Mississippi in 1823,
stopping at all the Indian villages, particularly Black Hawk’s upon Rock
River, which he reached May 10th, has this to say, which is interesting:
“The faces of the Saukees, although exhibiting features characteristic
of their savage state, are not disagreeable, and they are rather well
made than otherwise. Their size and structure, which are of the middle
kind, indicate neither peculiar strength nor weakness. Their heads are
rather small; that part called by French anatomists _voute orbitaire_
has in general no hair except a small tuft upon the pineal gland, like
that of the Turks; this gives the forehead an appearance of great
elevation. Their eyes are small and their eyebrows thin; the cornea
approaches rather to yellow, the pupil to red; they are the link between
those of the orang-outang and ours. Their ears are sufficiently large to
bear all the jewels, etc., with which they are adorned; two foxes’ tails
dangled from those of the Great Eagle. I have seen others to which were
hung bells, heads of birds and dozens of buckles, which penetrated the
whole cartilaginous part from top to bottom. Their noses are large and
flat, like those of the nations of eastern Asia; their nostrils are
pierced and ornamented like their ears. The maxillary bones, or
pommettes, are very prominent. The under jaw extends outwards on both
sides. Their mouths are rather large; their teeth close set, and of the
finest enamel; their lips a little inverted. Their necks are regularly
formed; they have large bellies and narrow chests, so that their bodies
are generally larger below than above. Their feet and hands are well
proportioned. Except the tuft on the head, which we have already
remarked, they have no hair on any part of the body. Books which deal
greatly in the marvelous convert this into an extraordinary phenomenon,
but the fact is that, from a superstition common to all savages, they
pluck it out, and, as they begin at an early age and use the most
perservering means for its extirpation, nothing is left but a soft
down.”
With this personal description of Black Hawk, it may be well to add the
following, published in the “Annals of Iowa,” 3rd series, Vol. 4, page
195: “Bones of Black Hawk.–These bones, which were stolen from the grave
about a year since, have been recovered and are now in the Governor’s
office. The wampum, hat,[4] etc., which were buried with the old chief,
have been returned with the bones. It appears that they were taken to
St. Louis and there cleaned; they were then sent to Quincy to a dentist
to be put up and wired previous to being sent to the East. The dentist
was cautioned not to deliver them to anyone until a requisition should
be made by Governor Lucas. Governor Lucas made the necessary requisition
and they were sent up a few days since by the Mayor of Quincy and are
now in the possession of the Governor. He has sent word to
Na-she-as-kuk, Black Hawk’s son, or to the family, and some of them will
probably call for them in a few days. Mr. Edgerton, the phrenologist,
has taken an exact drawing of the skull, which looks very natural, and
has also engraved it on a reduced scale, which will shortly appear on
his new chart. Destructiveness, combativeness, firmness and
philoprogenitiveness are, phrenologically speaking, very strongly
developed. Burlington Hawk Eye, Dec. 10, 1840.”[3]
An intimate knowledge of Black Hawk is denied us. The little known of
him prior to 1832 is derived from less than a dozen sources, the most
important being his autobiography;[5] the others, nearly all military,
are to be found in treaties and the records of the war department. A few
settlers only knew him, because settlers about his haunts in those days
were exceedingly scarce. And so it has come to pass that his character
has been universally judged by the contact with him during the last five
or six years of his long life, while he was in a sense a captive,
brooding over his fallen estate, while the drapery of an eternal evening
was fast falling about him. At such an age, shorn of power, chafing
under restrictions, disgruntled at the supremacy of his ancient enemy
Keokuk, who had answered for his good behavior, the old man’s ambitions
crushed, he was naturally a distressing object, evoking that pity which
so universally appeals to an American and is so surely allowed to cover
a multitude of sins. Those few last years have been thus carelessly
permitted to become the monument to the man, and those who drove him
from power have been harshly judged or jocularly denominated “carpet
soldiers,” as much as to say the pioneers had never suffered hardships
nor endured wrongs. Justice to those whose wives and children had been
butchered, whose fathers and brothers had been burned at the stake,
demands that all the truth be told and the reason given why those
settlers, infuriated at the loss of two successive crops from Black
Hawk’s perfidy, finally drove his band into the Mississippi River at the
mouth of the Bad Axe and almost annihilated it.
It has been written that he possessed a mind of unusual strength, but
slow and plodding, with little genius and few talents to manage a great
enterprise in war.[6] The influence to sustain such a paradox, as well
as kindred irregularities and disorders of the man’s mind, may be
attributed to the fact that he was a confirmed hypochondriac, morbidly
regarding as frivolous everything save war. He was discontented and
reckless, envious of others with greater influence or name, and in
meeting questions in or out of the council with such men as Keokuk he
was churlish to a degree unless his individual will ruled. While it must
candidly be owned that the whites have been guilty of the most revolting
injustices to other Indians, notably Shabona, the same cannot be pleaded
for Black Hawk. He was found making and breaking engagements and
treaties[7] the greater part of his very long life, and then, when
retribution was imminent, he hoisted flags of truce down to August 2d,
1832, when his power for further mischief was forever crushed.
The reputation which he has established in Indian annals comes not from
any sacrifice he made for his people, for never in his life did he make