CHAPTER XVI.
Council–Atkinson’s Call for Troops–Reynolds’ Proclamation–Black Hawk Defiant–Gratiot’s Journey.
What the intentions of General Atkinson might have been, above his actual instructions, when leaving St. Louis, are entirely conjectural. The same may be said with reference to the 10th, but when he arrived at Fort Armstrong, during the night of the 12th, they are plainly evident.
On the 13th, at 10 A.M., he called a council, at which Keokuk and his head men, some seventy in number, including Wapello, attended, and there he demanded the surrender of ten of the principal men concerned in the murders. Keokuk replied that he was unable to deliver them up because some had joined the Prophet’s band at his village, toward which Black Hawk was then rapidly marching along the left bank of Rock River, and the others were with Black Hawk.
When first the demand was made the Indians retired to the plain close by to consult. On determining on the foregoing statements among other things, Keokuk returned and finished his talk as follows: “You wish us to keep at peace and have nothing to do with the Rock River Indians. We will do so. In token of our intentions, you see we have laid our spears there together. While you are gone to Prairie du Chien we will endeavor to speak to Black Hawk’s band and try to persuade them to go back. If we do not succeed, I can do no more; then we will go home and try to keep our village at peace. The one who has raised all this trouble is a Winnebago called the Prophet.” Wapello spoke to the same effect.
As it was evident that Keokuk, by reason of his continued acts of friendship, might lose much of his influence if too much were exacted of him, all demands, including hostages, which were first asked, were waived and the council adjourned to the 19th of April.
General Atkinson immediately started up the river for Fort Crawford, where he secured all the reinforcements which could be spared from that garrison; at the same time he sent messengers to Fort Winnebago and the lead mines district to admonish the settlers to place themselves in a state of defense.
GEN. HENRY ATKINSON.
CAPT. HENRY SMITH, U.S.A.
GEORGE DAVENPORT, ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER.
LIEUT. N.J. EATON, U.S.A.
LIEUT. M.L. CLARK, U.S.A.
Lieut.-Col. Zachary Taylor, with two companies of the First Infantry, returned with Atkinson to Fort Armstrong, which was reached on the 19th. Immediately after the conclusion of the council on the 13th, General Atkinson dispatched a letter to Governor Reynolds, who had not been idle, asking the latter for the assistance again of his militia, to drive Black Hawk and his band from the State once more. Promptly on the 16th, the Governor responded with a call for an indefinite number of men, accompanied by this appeal:
“To the MILITIA OF THE NORTHWESTERN SECTION OF THE STATE.
“FELLOW CITIZENS:
“Your country requires your services. The Indians have assumed a hostile attitude and have invaded the State in violation of the treaty of last summer.
“The British band of Sacs and other hostile Indians, headed by Black Hawk, are in possession of the Rock River country, to the great terror of the frontier inhabitants. I consider the settlers on the frontiers to be in imminent danger.
“I am in possession of the above information from gentlemen of respectable standing, and also from General Atkinson, whose character stands high with all classes.
“In possession of the above facts and information, I have hesitated not as to the course I should pursue. No citizen ought to remain inactive when his country is invaded and the helpless part of the community are in danger. I have called out a strong detachment of militia to rendezvous at Beardstown on the 22d inst.
“Provisions for the men and food for the horses will be furnished in abundance.
“I hope my countrymen will realize my expectations and offer their services as heretofore, with promptitude and cheerfulness in defense of their country.”
Meantime, to protect the frontier, he on the same day called for a battalion of 200 militia under Major Isaiah Stillman of Fulton County, to patrol the country to the north and westward. On the 20th Judge Richard M. Young, Col. James M. Strode and Benjamin Mills wrote from Dixon’s Ferry to the Governor, urging haste in protecting the settlements along that part of Kellogg’s trail between Peoria and Dixon’s Ferry, and at once another battalion of 200 men, under Major David Bailey of Tazewell County, was called out for the purpose, and both battalions quickly responded.
On the 19th, General Atkinson met the friendly Sacs and Foxes, who in the meantime had brought in three young men engaged in the Menominee murders. Wapello, who delivered them up, said: “There are the young men who have taken pity on the women and children. There are three of them. These are my chiefs. These are the men who went into the braves’ lodge to give themselves up. Father, I have received these young men. I now deliver them to you.”
Keokuk spoke in the same strain, and received assurances that the young men should receive generous treatment.[[96]]
Until the 24th, General Atkinson had sent embassies to Black Hawk to dissuade him from his enterprise, but hearing nothing from them, he dispatched two young Sacs with a mild talk. On the 26th they returned, bringing Black Hawk’s answer that “his heart was bad and that he was determined not to turn back.”
During these negotiations occurred one of the most daring and heroic incidents of the campaign. Col. Henry Gratiot, father-in-law to the late Hon. E.B. Washburne, had early established smelting works at Gratiot’s Grove, just over the line into the present county of LaFayette, Wisconsin. By his humane and honorable treatment of the Winnebagoes he had secured their unbounded confidence, and the Government had made him agent for the Winnebagoes, under the celebrated John Kinzie, then at Fort Winnebago. Upon him General Atkinson relied as the one man above all others who could gain the ear of the Winnebago “Prophet,” who was in his agency, and Black Hawk’s evil genius, and turn the deluded British band back to its Iowa reservation. From Fort Crawford General Atkinson had dispatched a[[97]] request to undertake this perilous mission. Colonel Gratiot received the same April 16 and started, taking one white man. On the 19th he arrived at the Turtle village of the Winnebagoes, where, in order to secure a hearing, he was delayed until the 22d. There twenty-four Winnebago chiefs and head men were added to his embassy, including Broken Shoulder, Whirling Thunder, White Crow, Little Medicine Man and Little Priest among the number.[[98]] He hurriedly rode to Dixon’s Ferry, where canoes were taken and the journey completed to the Prophet’s village on the 25th. There, despite his flag of truce, Colonel Gratiot was surrounded by hostile Sacs, who, with every demonstration of violence,[[99]] made him prisoner, Black Hawk himself, who had hoisted the British flag in camp, supervising the incident, and evil times had certainly fallen upon the head of Colonel Gratiot had not the Prophet, seeing the danger of his agent, rushed to his rescue, crying, “Good man, good man, my friend. I take him to my wigwam. I feed him. He be good friend of my Indians.”
COL. HENRY GRATIOT.
WA-BO-KI-E-SHIEK, THE PROPHET.
HENRY EDDY.
GEN. SAMUEL WHITESIDE.
When the Prophet had him securely in the wigwam, Colonel Gratiot explained the peaceful object of his mission and the perfidy of the Indians if they refused to deal honorably with him. He further sought, with all the eloquence and logic he could master, to dissuade the Prophet and Black Hawk from their unrighteous expedition. The Prophet listened attentively, but if any impression had been made upon him it was not noticeable in word or action, and neither could he be persuaded to try to influence Black Hawk to give up his mad enterprise. However, as a friend, the Prophet was determined to save Colonel Gratiot’s life, if such a thing were possible. He kept him in the wigwam for two or three days, watching an opportunity to free them. The ferocious Sacs clamored louder each hour for scalps, and no doubt would have succeeded in taking them had not the Prophet seduced them away temporarily by promises until the desired opportunity should arrive. Returning hastily on the 27th, he said to Colonel Gratiot: “Chouteau,[[100]] you have always been my friend and the friend of my people, and you and your party must not be harmed, but there is great trouble. My young men will never consent to give you up and so you must leave without their knowledge. Your canoes are on the shore; go to them at a moment when I shall indicate and leave instantly, and go with all speed–like wild fire–for the young men will give you chase. All will depend on the strength of your arms.”
The signal was given, and scarcely had the canoes been launched when an alarm in the village brought the Sacs and young Winnebagoes to the river, where a wild war-whoop was sounded and an exciting chase down Rock River was begun to capture and kill Colonel Gratiot. Gratiot’s men pulled for their lives, first losing and then gaining. The maddened Sacs whooped and shrieked with anger at the possible miscarriage of their plans as they lent renewed vigor to their strokes, but a sense of their overwhelming danger put courage and strength into the oars of the pursued and they finally distanced their pursuers, arriving safely at Fort Armstrong on April 27th, unnerved and exhausted, to report that nothing could be done by moral suasion to prevent the advance of Black Hawk and that nothing but force would avail.
While captive in the Prophet’s tent Black Hawk came to see him, and in response to the appeal of Gratiot to return, replied that his heart was bad; that he was going sixty miles up the river, and if molested would fight.[[101]]