CHAPTER XX.
Call for Additional Troops–Burial of the Dead–Arrival of Atkinson–Lead Mines Militia–Erection of Forts–Dodge’s March to the Four Lakes Country.
The straggling arrival of the panic-stricken troops into camp at Dixon’s Ferry, from three o’clock to daylight of the morning of May 15th, threw Whiteside’s camp into confusion. The force of Dodge’s warning had now a depressing, yea, disastrous effect on the army, and the conduct of the men was most humiliating to Governor Reynolds. With one accord the officers flocked to his tent to hear the exaggerations of the runaways and plan a possible maneuver to counteract the fleeting fortune of their volunteer arms.
The catastrophe, instead of inspiring the troops with resolution to revenge their fallen comrades, spread disaffection, and demands arose from all sides to be discharged from a campaign which promised nothing but trouble and a long absence from home. The Governor, foreseeing the plight likely to visit him, at once, by the light of a solitary candle, wrote out the following call for 2,000 more volunteers to rendezvous at Hennepin on the 10th of June:
“Dixon’s Ferry, on Rock River, May 15, 1832.
“It becomes my duty to again call on you for your services in defense of your country. The state is not only invaded by the hostile Indians, but many of our citizens have been slain in battle. A detachment of mounted volunteers, about 275 in number, commanded by Maj. Stillman, were overpowered by hostile Indians on Sycamore Creek, distant from this place about thirty miles, and a considerable number killed. This is an act of hostility which cannot be misconstrued. I am of the opinion that the Pottawatomies and Winnebagoes have joined the Sacs, and all may be considered as waging war against the United States. To subdue these Indians and drive them out of the state, it will require a force of at least 2,000 mounted volunteers, in addition to troops already in the field. I have made the necessary requisition of proper officers for the above number, and have no doubt that the citizen soldiers of the state will obey the call of their country. They will meet at Hennepin, on the Illinois River, in companies of 50 men each, on the 10th of June next, to be organized into brigades.
“John Reynolds, Commander in Chief.”
John Ewing of Franklin County and John A. Wakefield and Robert Blackwell of Fayette County were the trusted messengers selected to carry this call over the state. At the same time, Col. James M. Strode, colonel and commander of the Jo Daviess County militia, was empowered and requested to organize his county for immediate action.
Governor Reynolds also sent word of the defeat to Colonel Dodge at the camp of the latter on the north side of the river some distance above, with the request that he forthwith take measures to protect the frontier of Michigan Territory (now Wisconsin).
Major Horn[[126]] of Reynolds’ staff was dispatched to St. Louis with a message to Colonel March, who was at that place, to forward the supplies for the new levy to Hennepin. With his conspicuous vigor the order was executed, but not by leaving the provisions at Hennepin. Fort Deposit, or later Fort Wilbourn, so-called from Captain John S. Wilbourn of the militia from Morgan County, was a point on the south bank of the Illinois River about midway between the present cities of Peru and LaSalle. It was nearer the seat of action at Dixon’s Ferry and was accordingly chosen by Major Horn, and there he deposited the provisions. Thither, too, the troops marched, and, as Albert Sidney Johnston wrote in his journal on June 12, 1832: “General and staff arrived at this place this evening. The Illinois volunteers having arrived here in great numbers, the General decided upon organizing them at this point, supplies for the troops having been placed in depot at this place, and the route to Dixon’s quite as good and as near as the mouth of Fox River.”
That explains the erection of this base, and in the same connection it may be said that the old army trail subsequently became known as the “Peru road,” was the one traveled by Abraham Lincoln on his return home via Peoria, and was the route traversed by Colonel John Dement, Receiver of the Dixon Land Office, when subsequently he carried the public moneys from Dixon to Peru to be shipped by boat to St. Louis, the industrial and financial center of the times.
Another message was sent to General Atkinson, not yet arrived from Fort Armstrong, and finally Major Adams[[127]] was dispatched to Quincy to 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.
CAPT. S.H. SCALES
SURGEON HORATIO NEWHALL.
JESSE W. SHULL.
THE LEAD MINES DISTRICT.
COL. HENRY DODGE.
COL. HENRY DODGE AS A U.S. RANGER.
CAPT. JAMES CRAIG.
CAPT. J.R.B. GRATIOT.
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.
A.L. CHETLAIN.
LOUIS CHETLAIN.
LIEUT. CHARLES GRATIOT.
NATHANIEL T. PARKINSON.
MAJ. THOMAS JAMES.
CAPT. J.H. ROUNDTREE.
EDWARD D. BOUCHARD.
CAPT. HIRAM ROUNDTREE.
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]]
THE TOWNSEND FAMILY: ALL THE ABOVE BROTHERS SERVED IN THE WAR.