The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
Mr. John K. Robison was at the time a resident of Galena.
Subsequently he removed to Dixon, and later removed to Melugin’s
Grove, in the same county, where he passed most of his long and
honored life. He was fourth sergeant in Captain Gear’s company.
In his lifetime I had many conversations with him about the campaign
and his famous comrades, in the course of which he has more than
once alluded to this meeting of Lieutenant Davis and Lieutenant
Gardenier at Galena while they were encountering such trouble with
Colonel Strode and his pig-headed tactics. He also told me of
meeting Lieutenant Davis on several occasions thereafter,
particularly at the time Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor’s troops, with
others, crossed the Wisconsin River on the march to the Bad Axe,
where Black Hawk was overtaken and his band annihilated.
From Galena Lieutenant Davis and his companions, with the exception
of Lieutenant Gardenier, returned to Dixon’s Ferry, where, with the
exception of scouting duty from time to time, and the march up Rock
River, the troops under Taylor remained until the 27th day of June
at 12 o’clock, when the militia under General Henry and the regulars
under Atkinson and Brady started up the east bank of Rock River for
the head-quarters of Black Hawk among the morasses of the river
above Lake Koshkonong.
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It was during that period of over one month at Dixon’s Ferry that
Mr. Dixon became so well acquainted with Lieutenant Davis and his
companions that error was impossible. He with others were guests at
Mr. Dixon’s house. They traded with him, buying his merchandise and
paying for it or “having it charged.” They hunted the wild duck, the
grouse, the squirrel, the deer and the wild bee trees, and they
fished and trapped and enjoyed life with a zest allowed no man of
the present day of dirty pavements, crowded streets and dusty roads.
For weeks they were present, conversing, dining, playing, romping
the prairies like so many schoolboys just dismissed from the
termination of a long and arduous term of school. And thus were the
images of those army officers impressed upon the memory of John
Dixon, who, by the by, continued with them clear through the
campaign, as army guide and contractor, till the battle of the Bad
Axe ended the campaign.
After wearisome efforts around the Koshkonong country to dislodge
the enemy, Henry and Dodge found his trail leading to the west, in a
final effort to escape destruction, which was so surely coming upon
him.
Taylor’s division, including Lieutenant Davis, who was Taylor’s
adjutant, marched immediately for the Wisconsin River and the Blue
Mounds, and thence on to the Bax Axe. After this engagement, the
troops marched to Fort Crawford, their headquarters, and there,
freed from the dangers and fatigue of the campaign, Lieutenant Davis
formally wrote out a letter notifying the department of his return
to duty. From that point the Illinois troops were marched back to
Dixon’s Ferry and mustered out by Capt. Zalmon C. Palmer.
During this period of five weeks, while Taylor remained at Dixon’s
Ferry, he was constantly on the alert, intercepting marauding bands
of Indians, assisting the volunteers who had temporarily offered
their services while the new levy was forming at Hennepin and Fort
Wilbourn, and generally protecting the frontiers, and in this
connection it may be said that the bloodiest and most destructive
skirmishes were made between the Ferry and Galena during this
period.
It may also be recorded that while the little account book was at
all times open to the service of the officers there stationed, Mr.
Dixon always laughingly spoke of the fact that, while he often sold
them bills of goods, yet Lieutenant Davis and Lieutenant Anderson
were always cash customers. In the fullness of time, Mr. Dixon, who
had never taken thought for the morrow, particularly when his fellow
man was in need or distress, came to an age when he felt constrained
to marshal all of his resources and call in his few overlooked
accounts. Among them was a large one against the United States
Government, which of right should have been paid years before, but
being in no immediate need, it had slipped along without attention.
He finally applied for a land warrant for a quarter section of land
to recompense him in a measure for the many and valuable services he
had rendered his country during the Black Hawk War. A bill was
introduced in Congress, passed by the Lower House, and in the Senate
was referred to the usual committee for consideration. This
committee reported adversely on the bill, and when it was reported
to the Senate for final action, Senator Trumbull, who well knew the
merit of the case and greatly desired the passage of the measure,
dispatched a message at once to Dixon to inquire if Mr. Dixon did
not know of some friend in the Senate, as he did in the House, who
would assist in its passage. On a moment’s thought he replied to a
friend, “Why, yes, there is Lieutenant Davis,” whereupon the
attention of Senator Jefferson Davis was called to the bill, and
here is the record of what transpired:
From the Congressional Globe, First Session. 36th Congress.–June
8th, 1860, page 2751:
“JOHN DIXON.
“The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, next proceeded to
consider the bill (H.R. No. 236) for the relief of John Dixon,
which had been reported adversely from the Committee on Public
Lands. It directs the Secretary of the Interior to issue a bounty
land warrant for one hundred and sixty acres to John Dixon, of
Dixon’s Ferry, in the State of Illinois, for services rendered in
the Black Hawk war.
“Mr. Trumbull: I ask that the bill may be put upon its passage. I
will remark that the Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands,
with whom I had a conversation on the subject, stated that he
reported adversely on this bill to grant a land warrant to Mr.
Dixon, for the reason that the testimony before the Committee did
not seem to be sufficient of his having rendered any service. He
was not enlisted in the service, but he performed valuable service
in the Black Hawk war–furnished supplies and acted as a guide and
interpreter. He is an old man, over eighty years of age, and is
now in very reduced circumstances. Some of his friends have made
this application to get the old man a land warrant, and comes, I
think, within the spirit of the law. The Senator from Mississippi
(Mr. Davis), who served in the war, knows him personally, and
perhaps he would make a statement to the Senate of his knowledge
of the services for which it is proposed to grant a land warrant
to this poor old man.’
“Mr. Davis: ‘As stated by the Senator from Illinois, I do know
this individual personally and believe him to be a very honest
man, and I should have great confidence in his statement. He was
one of the first pioneers in the country near what is now the town
of Dixon, formerly known as Dixon’s Ferry. He lived there in an
isolated position when I first knew him. His house was reached by
crossing a wide prairie country inhabited only by Indians. He was
of great service in the first settlement of the country. He was of
service to the troops when they ascended the Rock River in the
Black Hawk campaign. For some time a post was established at or
near his house. He was of service at that time in furnishing
supplies and giving information in regard to the country, and
afterwards in taking care of the sick. In a liberal spirit toward
camp followers, we have since that time provided for packmen, for
teamsters and for clerks, giving them bounty land warrants equally
with the soldiers who were serving in the same campaign. I think
the only objection in this case is the want of testimony, but I
have such confidence in the individual, together with my
recollection of the circumstances, that I would say that he was
within the spirit of the law, and I should be glad, because of his
many services in the first settlement of that country, to see him
thus rewarded.’”
After a few exchanges of explanations, the bill passed the Senate,
and the recollections of Senator Jefferson Davis of the days he
spent at and about Mr. Dixon’s log cabin saved the day for the bill.
It is not to be considered by any intelligent person that Mr. Davis
would state on the floor of the United States Senate those facts,
“from my recollection of the circumstances,” if he had not been
present in that campaign and witnessed them with the pleasantest of
memories. The little old log tavern-store-house of the 1832 campaign
came back to him with all its memories and Senator Davis saved the
bill, as the record of the proceedings show.
The days when a man of years was young and his associations are
never forgotten, and if any association under Heaven will evoke
assistance from one to another it is an appeal to those early
associations. And so it was with Senator Davis and Mr. Dixon.
Among others of subsequent prominence in the history of the State of
Illinois, who formed the acquaintance of Mr. Davis during that
campaign, and particularly while Taylor was stationed at Dixon’s
Ferry, was Col. John Dement, later a resident of the city of Dixon,
where he died. For fifty years Colonel Dement was one of the
foremost men of Illinois, and whenever he made a statement it
carried conviction. He it was who fought the battle of Kellogg’s
Grove in that campaign, one of the fiercest of the many which
occurred between Dixon’s Ferry and Galena, retiring only after his
clothing had been pierced with bullets and the Indians thoroughly
checked from further molestation of the northwestern frontier.
Colonel Dement many times told me of his acquaintance with
Lieutenant Davis and how it ripened into a strong friendship as the
campaign progressed, and which continued for all time thereafter. He
many times in his lifetime spoke of Lieutenant Davis during that
campaign, in public; and in the form of historical narrative he
reduced the same statements to writing, one of which I have.
At the breaking out of hostilities, Colonel Dement was State
Treasurer, which station naturally carried with it considerable
prestige in more ways than one, as proved to be the case a little
later when he won for his bride the daughter of Gen. Henry Dodge,
later Governor of Wisconsin and United States Senator, and, by the
by, one of the most famous Indian fighters that ever lived.
Lieutenant Davis knew them both, bride and groom, from the early
day, all through life, and at the death of the Colonel wrote to Mrs.
Dement the following touching letter, in which the friendship of
that famous old campaign is alluded to:
“Beauvoir, Miss., Feb. 4th, 1883.
“My Dear Friend: Of the many who will offer you condolence in your
recent bereavement, there is not one who sympathizes more deeply
with you than he who long years ago claimed the privilege of the
sacred name of friend.
“Widely and long we have been separated, but your image has not
been dimmed by time and distance.
“The gallantry and noble bearing of your deceased husband was
known to all who, like myself, were on the frontier of Illinois
during the campaign against Black Hawk, and from your brother,
Augustus, and your friend, General Jones, I heard of him in after
years.
“As your husband, he was to me the object of special interest, and