About this time Capt. James W. Stephenson, of Galena, with a part of his
company, pursued a party of Indians into a small, dense thicket in the
prairie. He commenced a severe fire upon them at random, within firing
distance of the thicket, but the Indians having every advantage, succeeded
in killing a few of his men, and he ordered a retreat. Neither he nor the
men were willing to give up the fight, and they came to the desperate
resolution of returning and charging into the thicket upon the Indians. The
command to charge was given; the men obeyed with ardor and alacrity; the
Captain himself led the way, but before they had penetrated into the thicket
twenty steps, the Indians fired from their covert; the fire was instantly
returned. The charge was made a second and third time, each time giving and
receiving the fire of the enemy, until three more of his men lay dead on the
ground, and he himself was severely wounded. It now became necessary to
retreat, as he had from the first but a small part of his company along with
him. This attack of Captain Stephenson was unsuccessful, and may have been
imprudent; but it equalled anything in modern warfare in daring and
desperate courage.
The Indians had now shown themselves to be a
courageous, active and enterprising enemy. They had scattered their war
parties all over the North, from Chicago to Galena, and from the Illinois
River into the Territory of Wisconsin; they occupied every grove, waylaid
every road, hung around every settlement, and attacked every party of white
men that attempted to penetrate the country. But their supremacy in the
field was of short duration; for, on the 20th, 21st and 22d of June the new
forces assembled on the Illinois River were put in motion by General
Atkinson, of the regular army, who now assumed the command over the whole.
Major John Dement, with a battalion of spies attached to the First
brigade, was sent forward in advance, while the main army was to follow and
concentrate at Dixon. Major Dement pushed forward across Rock River, and
took position at Kellogg's Grove, in the heart of the Indian country.
Major Dement, hearing by express, on the 25th of June, that the trail of
about five hundred Indians leading to the south, had been seen within five
miles the day before, ordered his command to saddle their horse and remain
in readiness, while he himself, with twenty men, started at daylight next
morning to gain intelligence of their movements. His party had advanced
about three hundred yards when they discovered seven Indian spies; some of
his men immediately made pursuit, but their commander, fearing an ambuscade,
endeavored to call them back. In this manner he had proceeded about a mile;
and being followed soon after by a number of his men from the camp, he
formed about twenty-five of them into line on the prairie, to protect the
retreat of those yet in pursuit. He had scarcely done this before he
discovered three hundred Indians issuing from the grove to attack him. The
Indians came up firing, hallooing and yelling to make themselves more
terrific, after the Indian fashion; and the Major, seeing himself in great
danger of being surrounded by a superior force, slowly retired to his camp,
closely pursued by the Indians.
Here his party took possession of
some log houses, which answered for a fort, and were vigorously attacked by
the Indians for nearly an hour. There were brave soldiers in this battalion,
among whom were Major Dement himself and Lieutenant Governor Casey, a
private in the ranks, who kept up such an active fire upon their assailants,
and with such good aim, that the Indians retreated with the certain loss of
nine men left dead on the field, and probably five others carried away. The
loss on the side of the whites was five killed and three wounded. Major
Dement had previously sent an express to General Posey, who marched with his
whole brigade at once to his relief, but did not arrive until two hours
after the retreat of the Indians. General Posey removed next day a little to
the north in search of the Indians, then marched back to Kellogg's Grove to
await the arrival of his baggage-wagons; and then to Fort Hamilton, on the
Pecatonica.
When the news of the battle at Kellogg's Grove reached
Dixon, where all the volunteers and the regular forces were then assembled
under command of General Atkinson, Alexander's brigade was ordered in the
direction of Plum River, - a short stream with numerous branches, falling
into the Mississippi thirty-five miles below Galena, to intercept the
Indians if they attempted in that direction to escape by re-crossing the
river. General Atkinson remained with the infantry at Dixon two days, and
then marched, accompanied by the brigade of General Henry, toward the
country of the Four Lakes, farther up Rock River. Colonel Jacob Fry, with
his regiment, was dispatched in advance by General Henry, to meet some
friendly Indians of the Pottawatomie tribe, commanded by Caldwell, a
half-breed, and Shauberia, the war-chief of the nation.
General
Atkinson having heard that Black Hawk had concentrated his forces at the
Four Lakes and fortified his position, with the intention of deciding the
fate of the war by a general battle, marched with as much haste as prudence
would warrant when invading a hostile and wilderness country with
undisciplined forces, where there was no means of procuring intelligence of
the number or whereabouts of the enemy.
On the 30th of June he
passed through the Turtle village, a considerable town of the Winnebagoes,
then deserted by its inhabitants, and encamped one mile above it, in the
open prairie near Rock River. He believed that the hostile Indians were in
that immediate neighborhood, and prepared to resist their attack, if one
should be made. That night the Indians were prowling about the encampment
till morning. Continual alarms were given by the sentinels, and the whole
command was frequently paraded in order of battle. The march was continued
next day, and nothing occurred until the army arrived at Lake Kuskanong,
except the discovery of trails and Indian signs, the occasional sight of an
Indian spy, and the usual abundance of false alarms amongst men but little
accustomed to war. Here the army was joined by General Alexander's brigade;
and after Major Ewing and Colonel Fry, with a 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
marched up Rock River on the east side, to the Burnt Village, another
considerable town of the Winnebagoes, on the White Water River, where it was
joined by the brigade of General Posey and a battalion of a hundred men from
Wisconsin, commanded by Major (now General) Dodge.
During the march
to this place the scouts had captured an old blind Indian of the hostile
band, nearly famished with hunger, who had been left behind by his friends
(for want of ability to -travel), to fall into the hands of his enemies or
to perish by famine. Being, as he said, old, Mind and helpless, he was never
consulted or advised with by the Indians, and could give no account of the
movements of his party except that they had gone further up the river. One
historian of the war says that the army magnanimously concluded not to kill
him, but to give him plenty to eat, and leave him behind to end his life in
a pleasant way by eating himself to death. The old man, however, was denied
this melancholy satisfaction; for falling in the way of Posey's men as they
were marching to the camp, he was quickly despatched, even before he had
satisfied liis natural hunger. This barbarous action is an indelible stain
upon the men of that brigade. At this place, also, Captain Dunn, at present
a Judge in Wisconsin, acting as officer of the day of one of the regiments,
was shot by a sentinel, and dangerously wounded.
Up to the time of
reaching the Burnt Village, the progress of the command had been slow and
uncertain. The country was comparatively an unexplored wilderness of forest
and prairie. None in the command had ever been through it. A few, who
professed to know something of it, volunteered to act as guides, and
succeeded in electing themselves to be military advisers to the commanding
General. The members of the hostile party were unknown; and a few
Winnebagoes who followed the camp, and whose fidelity was of a very doubtful
character, were from necessity much listened to, but the intelligence
received from them was always delusive. Short marches, frequent stoppages,
and explorations always unsatisfactory, were the result, giving the enemy
time to elude the pursuing forces, and every opportunity of ascertaining
their probable movements and intentions.
The evening the army
arrived at the Burnt Village, Captain Early, with his company of spies,
returned from a scout and reported the main trail of the Indians, not two
hours old, to be three miles beyond. It was determined to pursue rapidly
next morning. At an early hour next day, before the troops were ready to
march, two regular soldiers, fishing in the river one hundred and fifty
yards from camp, were fired upon by two Indians from the opposite shore, and
one of them dangerously wounded. A part of the volunteers were immediately
marched up the river in the direction indicated by Captain Early, and
Colonel Fry's regiment, with the regulars, were left behind to construct
bridges and cross to the point from which the Indians had shot the regular
soldier. A march of fifteen miles up and across the river (fordable above),
proved Captain Early's report to be incorrect. No trail was discoverable. On
crossing the liver, the troops entered upon the trembling lands, which are
immense flats of turf, extending for miles in every direction, from six
inches to a foot in thickness, resting upon water and beds of quicksand. A
troop, or even a single horseman passing over, produced an undulating and
quivering motion of the land, from which it gets its name. Although the
surface is quite dry, yet there is no difficulty in procuring plenty of
water by cutting an opening through the stratum of turf. The horses would
sometimes, on the thinner portions, force a foot through, and fall to the
shoulder or ham; yet so great is the tenacity of the upper surface, that in
no instance was there any trouble in getting them out. In some places the
weight of the earth forces a stream of water upward, which carrying with it
and depositing large quantities of sand, forms a mound. The mound,
increasing in weight as it enlarges, increases the pressure upon the water
below, presenting the novel sight of a fountain in the prairie pouring its
stream down the side of a mound, then to be absorbed by the sand and
returned to the waters beneath.
Discovering no sign of an enemy in
this direction, the detachment fell back to the Burnt Village, and the
bridges not being yet completed, it was determined to throw over a small
force on rafts the next day. The Winnebagoes had assured the General that
the shore beyond was a large island, and that the whole of Black Hawk's
forces were fortified on it. In consequence of this information, Captain
Early's company were crossed on rafts, followed and supported by two
companies of regulars, under Captain Noel of the army, which last were
formed in order across the island, while Captain Early proceeded to scour
it, reporting afterward at headquarters that he had found the trail of a
large body of Indians; but Col. William S. Hamilton, having crossed the main
river three miles below with a party of Menominies, reported the trail of
the whole tribe on the main west shore, about ten days old, proceeding
northward; and it was afterward ascertained that no sign had been seen upon
the island but that of the two Indians who had fired upon the regular
soldiers.
Eight weeks had now been wasted in fruitless search for
the enemy, 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 a thousand men, Henry took the field
with twelve hundred and sixty-two, and the regular force under Colonel
Taylor, now Major General, amounted to four hundred and fifty more. By this
time the volunteer force was reduced nearly one-half. Many had entered the
service for mere pastime, and a desire to participate in the excellent fun
of an Indian campaign, looked upon as a frolic; and certainly but few
volunteered with well-defined notions of the fatigues, delays and hardships
of an Indian war in an unsettled and unknown country. The tedious marches,
exposure to the weather, loss of horses, sickness, forced submission to
command, and disgust at the unexpected hardships and privations of a
soldier's life, produced rapid reductions in the numbers of every regiment.
The great distance from the base of operations; the difficulties of
transportation, either by water or land, making it impossible at any time to
have more than twelve days' provisions beforehand, still further curtailed
the power of the commanding General. Such was the wastefulness of the
volunteers, that they were frequently one or two days short of provisions
before new supplies could be furnished.
At this time there were not
more than four days' rations in the hands of the commissary; the enemy might
be weeks in advance; the volunteers were fast melting away, but the regular
infantry had not lost a man. To counteract these difficulties, General
Atkinson found it necessary to disperse his command, for the purpose of
procuring supplies.
Extracted 30 Aug 2018 by Norma Hass from Records of the Olden Time, 1880, by Spencer Ellsworth, pages 137-142.
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