CHAPTER XXV.
Captain Snyder’s Battle–Murders in the Lead Mines Country–Battle of the Pecatonica–Captain Stephenson’s Battle.
Kellogg’s Grove, by reason of the many fights with the Indians at and around the place, was the most conspicuous locality during the campaign, with the possible exception of Dixon’s Ferry, which was headquarters of the army during the different campaigns. To Mr. J.B. Timms, present owner of the grove, and Mrs. E.B. Baker, daughter of O.W. Kellogg, who built there the first building in 1827, I am indebted for a description of the same as it appeared in 1832.
O.W. Kellogg (brother-in-law to John Dixon), after running “Kellogg’s Trail” from Peoria to Galena in 1827, selected that large and beautiful grove of burr oak timber for his home, erected substantial buildings, and brought much live stock to it, with his family. There he lived until the spring of 1831, when, in order to be near the Dixons, he removed south to Buffalo Grove, another fine grove about one mile due west of the present site of the city of Polo, twelve miles north of Dixon. There again he built and removed his family, where he was living at the breaking out of hostilities in 1832.
In that year Kellogg’s Grove was known as “Kellogg’s Old Place,” and generally designated as such in the public and private journals of that day. Previously to 1827, however, by reason of the character of the timber, it had been designated “The Burr Oak Grove,” and thus it is we find the battle fought there by Capt. A.W. Snyder sometimes denominated “The Battle of Burr Oak Grove,” naturally confusing one as to its exact location. As a matter of fact, it was fought about two and a half miles from Kellogg’s buildings, but still Kellogg’s Grove, as it covered a vast area, including the battlefield. The Timms family bought it and moved thence in 1835, since which time the present owner has continually resided there, conferring upon it the name of “Timms’ Grove,” which it still enjoys.
In 1832 the buildings comprised log cabins, a barn, large for those days, and outbuildings to the number of seven, strung along a distance of 120 feet, each approximating seven feet in height, sixteen in length, and all covered with basswood bark.
The site of the monument erected on the site of that grove is in Kent township, Stephenson county, about thirty-five miles to the southeast of Galena, thirty-seven miles north of Dixon and seven or eight miles from Lena.
After Stillman’s battle its strategic advantages quickly impressed the mind of General Atkinson, and as marauding Indians from Black Hawk’s band began their incursions into that territory, his first thought in disposing his new twenty-day troops was to send a company of strong men and there establish a base for operations between Dixon’s Ferry and Galena. The company of Capt. Adam W. Snyder of sixty-nine men was selected for that perilous duty, and almost concurrently with Captain Iles’ company marched from the mouth of Fox River for Dixon’s Ferry. In Captain Snyder’s company, as privates, were the late Joseph Gillespie, Pierre Menard, Richard Roman, James Semple, Gen. Samuel Whiteside and John Thomas, just elected Major, whose headquarters were properly opposite the mouth of Fox River with the other regimental officers; but preferring the dangers and privations of the field, he resumed his position of private under Captain Snyder and marched in the ranks.
At Dixon’s Ferry Captain Iles’ company had been detached for separate duty, but Brevet-Major Bennet Riley, with two companies of regulars, accompanied the Snyder expedition to Kellogg’s Grove, and without event on the road thither, other than the death of private Loren Cleveland on June 12th, it quickly reached its destination. Remaining there for a brief rest, Captain Snyder, leaving Riley and the regulars behind, pushed on to Galena to familiarize himself with the country, arriving there June 13th about noon. The following day he returned to Kellogg’s Grove.[[159]]
On the night of June 15th the troops were snugly ensconced in the various buildings, after sentinels had been picketed about eighty yards out, at different points of the compass around the camp. The night was cloudy and dark, though intermittently illuminated with flashes of lightning, rendering possible a sight of the surroundings during those periods. Near midnight the presence of the enemy was detected by a sentinel, who in the instantaneous period allowed him, attempted to run the Indian he discovered through with his bayonet, so close had he crawled; but the flash of light was so brief that the sentinel missed his mark and only rubbed the Indian’s arm. Dropping his gun, the sentinel clinched with his adversary and by reason of superior strength was rapidly mastering him and would soon have had him a prisoner, but for another flash which discovered two other Indians within twenty feet, making for the rescue as rapidly as the inpenetrable darkness would permit. Quickly releasing his antagonist, the sentinel ran to camp, shouting: “Indians, Indians,” while the Indians pursued him as far as they dared. With a shot into the darkness they turned and fled, leaving the men in camp to lie upon their arms after that until morning.
From the fact that one horse was stolen during the night, color was given to the theory that plunder was the sole aim of the enemy’s presence, but events of the following day exploded it.
Early in the morning Captain Snyder took a detachment of his men and pursued the enemy’s trail in a southwesterly direction, hoping to overtake and punish him before escape was possible. For twenty miles it was followed in vain, but Captain Snyder would not permit it to be abandoned, and wise indeed was his decision, for after a few rods more of travel the detachment came upon four of the Indians preparing a meal in a deep ravine just ahead. Flight by them in a circuitous, back-track manner was instantly taken, which nearly baffled the troops, but after another weary but exciting chase the Indians were again discovered half a mile ahead climbing a high hill within three miles of camp at Kellogg’s Grove. The troops were delayed in their pursuit by a deep and muddy creek, but on finally crossing it discovered the Indians firmly intrenched in a deep gulch, where, in a sharp hand to hand encounter, all four were killed, with loss to the whites of one man, private William B. Mecomson (or Mekemson), who received two balls in the abdomen, inflicting a mortal wound. While the engagement lasted it was as fierce and wicked a frontier fight as has ever been recorded, and in the many shots exchanged by the Indians the marvel is that the loss to the whites was no greater; but poor Mecomson received the only effective ones.
A litter was constructed of poles and blankets, upon which the wounded man was placed and, carried by his comrades, he was conveyed toward camp. In ministering to his needs his bearers were compelled to deliver their guns and horses to the keeping of others, the exchange and relief causing some delay and a little temporary confusion; men were necessarily scattered along with no regard for order; the troops were flushed with the first victory of the campaign, and while danger was to be at all times apprehended, having disposed of one enemy, the presence of other Indians was not a very strong probability. Thus the men marched along for three-quarters of a mile, when the dying man asked for a brief rest and a cup of water. As no fresh water was carried, two squads were detailed by Captain Snyder to search for some. General Whiteside, First Sergeant Nathan Johnston and Third Sergeant James Taylor went to one side, while Dr. Richard Roman, Benjamin Scott, Second Corporal Benjamin McDaniel, Dr. Francis Jarrott and Dr. I.M. McTy Cornelius searched the other side for water with which to quench the wounded man’s thirst. While the last named squad was moving slowly down a ridge to a point having a bushy ravine on each side it was fired on by a large party of Indians, instantly killing Benjamin Scott and Benjamin McDaniel and slightly wounding Dr. Cornelius. The three survivors retreated while the Indians, estimated from fifty to ninety in number, hideously yelling, rushed upon poor Mecomson and chopped off his head with a tomahawk; then wheeling, they directed their fire upon the main body of the whites, who were somewhat scattered, as stated. Closing in as well as possible, the detachment fell back in good order, formed again and returned a brisk fire, which checked the enemy’s advance. Quickly following up the advantage gained, Captain Snyder moved rapidly forward, bringing his men at close range with the enemy and making the engagement general. Trees were many times used for protection. During the thickest of the fight the apparent leader of the Indians, mounted on a white horse, rode backward and forward, urging his men on with shouts and gestures; but the intrepid volunteers were pouring lead into the ranks of the Indians with such deadly effect that they were gradually forced back. After a little the white horse was seen leaving the field without a rider; at the same time the Indians temporarily wavered and the whites pushed their lines closer. The Indians, having evidently lost their leader, sullenly retired out of range and Captain Snyder held his advanced position.
CAPT. ADAM W. SNYDER.
MAJ. JOHN DEMENT.
CAPT. JAMES W. STEPHENSON.
PAYMASTER ZADOCK CASEY.
Major Thomas had in the meantime volunteered to go alone to Kellogg’s Grove, less than three miles distant, for reinforcements from Major Riley, and though the trip was perilous in the extreme he made it safely, returning in an incredibly short time with the reinforcements. When they arrived Captain Snyder had driven the Indians to the timber and was anxious to press his advantage, but the lateness of the hour prevented. He then insisted on camping on the spot for the night, that he might pursue his advantage early in the morning, but Major Riley persuaded him to return to camp at Kellogg’s, which he reluctantly did, after gathering up the dead for burial the following day.
Early the following morning Captain Snyder, with his full company, returned to the scene of the previous day’s engagements in search of the enemy, but he was nowhere to be found, and, burying the dead, the company at once returned to camp, where it remained a few days longer, by which time the new levies having been rapidly massed at Dixon’s Ferry for the final struggle, Captain Snyder marched to that point, and his company was mustered out by Colonel Taylor on June 21.[[160]]
That same band of Sac Indians had been lurking about that locality for some time, and was, in fact, engaged in all the fights with the whites until Black Hawk’s forces withdrew to the swamps of the Rock River country, more than a month later.
On June 3d the Hall girls were brought to the fort at Blue Mounds from the camp of the Sacs where the Winnebagoes had found them. Here they were delivered to Col. Henry Gratiot, who was momentarily stopping on his return trip from his “talk” with the Winnebagoes, at the head of the Four Lakes.
Colonel Dodge had barely returned to his headquarters when he received word that an attack on Mound Fort was threatened and that reinforcements were promptly needed. Without delay Dodge summoned the companies of Capt. J.R.B. Gratiot and Captain Clark, which had been formed during his absence, and detachments of two other companies, and started for the fort. When within three miles of it an express met him with information of the return at that fort of the Hall girls. Arrived there, he found the report of the contemplated attack had been exaggerated, though some of the Winnebago party were that night suspected and taken into custody. Arrangements were promptly made for the payment of the $2,000 promised by Atkinson, which the Indians agreed to accept in money, ponies and other useful and valuable chattels.
That night[[161]] signs of hostilities were made to Capt. J.R.B. Gratiot, which he quickly communicated to Dodge. Awakening him, the two walked over to the brush, to which the particular Indians had retired, and took White Crow and five others into custody, marched them to a cabin and ordered them to lie down and remain there until morning. Dodge himself laid down beside them, having first placed a strong guard around the cabin and a double guard around the whole encampment. The next day the whole band, despite the complaint that their feet were sore, were taken with the Hall girls to Morrison’s Grove, fifteen miles to the west, where Dodge held a talk with them June 5th. Candidly speaking his fears, he demanded that Whirling Thunder, Spotted Arm and Little Priest be held as hostages until the end of the month, to which the Indians assented, and thus doubtless was prevented the formation of a cabal which might have brought disaster to the whites.
By way of Fort Defiance the girls were, on June 8th, taken to Gratiot’s Grove, where a junction was formed with the command of Capt. J.W. Stephenson, then departing to find the bodies of the St. Vrain party, and there the girls were left with Col. Henry Gratiot. There, too, the murder of Aubrey was reported.
On the 6th of June[[162]] one William Aubrey, first captain[[163]] of Mound Fort, was killed by the Sacs while after water at a spring near the dwelling of Ebenezer Brigham, a mile and a half distant to the north of the fort, to which place the Sacs had been led by Winnebago renegades.
Being then south bound, Dodge sent an express with instructions to Fort Defiance and Mineral Point to proceed with men to the scene and bury the murdered man, which was done.
By noon of the 8th the troops reached Kirker’s farm, where they halted to consider the numerous murders constantly committed in their midst. Here Dodge delivered a short address to the troops, which fired them with an enthusiasm that none but Dodge could inspire. In fact, it may be said for the troops from the mining districts that they fought and dragooned their country night and day, with never a thought of flinching or flagging. In the afternoon the men marched south and found and buried the bodies of St. Vrain, Hale and Fowler, after which Stephenson returned to Galena, while Dodge moved on to Hickory Point to camp for the night. The next morning he marched to Dixon’s Ferry and camped that night with General Brady. There it was learned that Atkinson had gone over to the mouth of Fox River, below which the new levies were massing. With twenty-five men Dodge escorted Brady thence,[[164]] and on the 11th the two had a conference with Atkinson, at which plans for the future campaign were fully mapped out. By midnight Dodge had returned to Dixon’s. His faculty for quick marches has seldom been equaled. In fact, to keep track of him, Colonel Hamilton and Captain Stephenson during their rides over the frontier was impossible to any save members of their commands. Night and day they rode tirelessly. From Ottawa and Fort Wilbourn to the south to Mineral Point and the Four Lakes to the north, they were incessantly moving and charging bands of thieves and murderers, and to their work this pen cannot do justice.
With little or no rest, Dodge started back for the mining country, reaching Gratiot’s Grove June 13th. There, worn and exhausted, he dispersed his command to their respective forts to recuperate the strength of the horses and await further orders.
No sooner had the men reached Fort Defiance at sundown of the 14th, than one David, as an express, arrived with news of the murder that day of Spafford, Searles, Spencer, McIlwaine and an Englishman nicknamed John Bull, at Spafford’s farm on the Pecatonica, six miles southeast of Fort Hamilton. Captain Hoard at once dispatched an express to Dodge at Dodgeville, and ordered Lieut. Charles Bracken with a detachment to Fort Hamilton, which was reached late that night. The following morning, under guidance of Bennett Million, a survivor of the party which had been attacked, Bracken took a detachment over to Spafford’s farm and buried the dead men, who as usual had been shockingly mutilated.
Early in the morning of the 16th Dodge sighted the fort about one mile away, where he met a German named Henry Appel going to his cabin for blankets. In a few minutes shots were heard, and just as Dodge was entering the fort, Appel’s horse, bedabbled with the blood of its owner, came galloping back to the fort.
A detachment of twenty-nine men immediately started in pursuit of the murderers, with another small detail to bury poor Appel, whose mutilated body was expected to be found as a matter of course. High creeks, muddy roads and other difficulties gave the Indians many advantages in their escape[[165]] to the Pecatonica, which they reached and crossed a considerable time before the whites reached it.
“After crossing the Pecatonica, in the open ground, I dismounted my command, linked my horses, left four men in charge of them, and sent four men in different directions to watch the movements of the Indians if they should attempt to swim the Pecatonica; the men were placed on high points that would give a view of the enemy should they attempt to retreat. I formed my men on foot at open order and at trailed arms, and we proceeded through the swamps to some timber and undergrowth, where I expected to find the enemy. When I found their trail, I knew they were close at hand. They had got close to the edge of a lake, where the bank was about six feet high, which was a complete breastwork for them. They commenced the fire, when three of my men fell, two dangerously wounded, one severely, but not dangerously. I instantly ordered a charge on them made by eighteen men, which was promptly obeyed. The Indians being under the bank, our guns were brought within ten or fifteen feet of them before we could fire on them. Their party consisted of thirteen men. Eleven were killed on the spot, and the remaining two were killed in crossing the lake, so that they were left without one to carry the news to their friends.”[[166]]
As a matter of fact, there were seventeen in the party of Indians; eleven were found dead, two were killed in crossing the river or swampy widening of it and were scalped by the Winnebagoes, Colonel Hamilton, when he came up, found the body of another, and late the succeeding winter a French trapper found three more in the swamp close by, beneath brushwood, under which they had crawled when wounded.[[167]]
Thus with the loss of the three whites in the first fire, but eighteen whites remained to charge the seventeen Indians behind formidable breastworks.
Dodge marched to that battlefield to settle many a bloody murder or leave his own bones to bleach upon the banks of the Pecatonica. That battle meant death to the Indians or death to the family of every man in the mining regions, and in this connection it may be well to recall the words of Mrs. Dodge when urged to retire to Galena for safety: “My husband and sons are between me and the Indians. I am safe so long as they live.” Those heroic words must have echoed in the husband’s heart while grappling those brawny murderers, and hand to hand, body to body, and inch by inch, in the death struggle, with gun, bayonet and knife, over the breastworks, into the enemy’s intrenchment, into the jaws of death, the little band charged and fought until every last Indian was dead and the many murders were avenged.
BATTLE OF HORSE SHOE BEND. JUNE 16, 1832
COL. WILLIAM S. HAMILTON.
SITE OF THE BATTLE OF THE PECATONICA.
The names of Dodge’s men, so far as can be learned, were Lieut. Charles Bracken, Lieut. Bequette, Lieut. D.M. Parkinson,[[168]] Peter Parkinson, Jr., – – Porter, R.H. Kirkpatrick, Dr. Allen Hill, Thomas Jenkins, W.W. Woodbridge, John Messersmith, Jr., Asa Duncan, Benjamin Lawhead, Samuel Patrick, William Carnes, John Hood, Levin Leech, Alexander Higginbotham, who was of the St. Vrain party, Samuel Black, Dominick McGraw, Samuel Bunts, Van Waggoner, Wells, Morris, Rankin, Thomas H. Price, H.S. Townsend, – – Devies, M.G. Fitch and J.H. Gentry, but the horse of the last-named became mired and his gun became useless, both of which accidents prevented his participation in the fight. Samuel Black was almost instantly killed and Samuel Wells and F.M. Morris, wounded, were left at Fort Hamilton, where both died soon after. Thomas Jenkins was wounded, but not severely, and Levin Leech, while wresting a spear from a brave, got his hand badly lacerated. The troops at once dispersed for their respective forts to prepare for further developments. On the 18th a fifth company was organized with D.M. Parkinson captain.
On the 20th Lieut. George Force and Emerson Green were murdered and mutilated near the fort at Blue Mounds; one of the bodies, that of Force, was recovered by the daring of Edward D. Bouchard, and on the 24th Dodge, with a detachment of men from the companies of Captains D.M. Parkinson and J.H. Gentry, recovered and buried the body of Green. Here Dodge, piloted by Bouchard, pursued the trail of the Indians as far as the headwaters of Sugar River, and finding that they had scattered there for various points, he returned to Mound Fort.
Horsestealing became a recognized feature of Black Hawk’s campaign very soon after Stillman’s defeat, which he pushed with unusual vigor. He would snatch a band of horses, and if the luckless owner attempted a pursuit for their recovery he was invariably ambushed. On the night of June 8th[[169]] the Indians stole fourteen horses just outside the stockade of Apple River fort (now Elizabeth, Illinois), and on the afternoon and night of the 17th ten more were stolen.[[170]] The number was so large and the loss so great that unusual measures were adopted to attempt their recovery. As nothing but a military escort was considered equal to the search, Capt. J.W. Stephenson, with twelve of his men from Galena and nine from the Apple River fort, started on the trail early on the morning of the 18th, and overtook the thieves about twelve miles east of Kellogg’s Grove, on Yellow River, southeast of Waddam’s Grove, in Stephenson County. A hot pursuit followed for several miles. The Indians, seven in number, finally reaching a dense thicket, plunged into it for protection. The thicket, a short distance northeast of Waddam’s Grove, was so dense that it was impossible to discover their location from the open country surrounding it, and thus secreted the Indians remained, awaiting the attack of the whites. Stephenson was impatient to dislodge them by assault. Dismounting his men, he at first attempted to sweep the thicket and draw the enemy’s fire, but the wily Indians refused to shoot or otherwise indicate their position. Discarding strategy as an evidence of cowardice, Captain Stephenson detailed a guard for the horses, and with his remaining men made an impetuous charge upon the hidden reds, drawing their fire and returning it, but with the loss of one to the whites as they were retiring to the prairie to reload. Rather than accept the loss and carefully continue the assault by safer and surer methods, Captain Stephenson twice more charged the fatal thicket, losing one man with each effort, while the Indians lost but one man, who was stabbed in the neck by Thomas Sublet. Both sides had exhausted their loads in the charge and the fight became general and at close range; so close, indeed, that one could scarcely distinguish friend from foe, and rather than continue against odds entirely conjectural, the whites withdrew again to the prairie to consult–a precaution they should have exercised in the first instance.
Captain Stephenson himself was wounded so seriously that he was no longer able to continue in command. Of the whites, Stephen P. Howard, Charles Eames[[171]] and Michael Lovell had been killed, while the Indians had lost but the one man, and he had not been killed by the guns. Further assaults were considered useless, and, if continued, would have been wilful; therefore, leaving the dead where they fell, the men returned to Galena for assistance to return and bury the three dead soldiers and the Indian, reaching that point on the 19th.
The charges were brave and dashing, and naturally evoked the cheers of those at Galena, but, as with too many of the same character, they were not only ineffectual, but resulted in the loss of valuable lives. Governor Ford, in his history of Illinois, has justly said, “It equaled anything in modern warfare in daring and desperate courage.”
On the 20th Colonel Strode, with the companies of Capt. James Craig and Captain Stephenson, marched to the scene and buried the dead.[[172]]