Attached to the Third Regiment were fourteen small detachments commanded by Isaac Parmenter.
On Monday, the 18th, the company of Capt. David Smith, Madison County, First Regiment, Third Brigade, was detached to occupy the post at Fort Johnston. On the same day an express arrived from the Henderson River which reported the murder on Bureau Creek of Elijah Phillips, one of a party of six who had been passing the night in the cabin of John L. Ament. As this murder created a great scare at the time, it may be well to relate the circumstances:
On the 17th Phillips, Ament, J. Hodges, Sylvester Brigham, Aaron Gunn, James G. Forristall and a lad of sixteen, named Ziba Dimmick, left Hennepin to look after cattle which had been left to run at large on Bureau Creek. On arriving at Ament’s cabin, a mile and a half north of the present site of Dover, they ate their lunch and were preparing to return to Hennepin, when a heavy rain set in and the party retired to the cabin for the night, after first securely barricading the door.
To the west of the cabin lay the sugar camp of the Indians, which had for years been their headquarters. The presence of Ament in the country had greatly angered the Indians, and it required no great effort by Black Hawk’s emissaries to persuade them to rid themselves of the presence of the hated settlers. The presence of the whites was at once discovered by them and during the night a cordon was formed around the house to ambush them the moment any of the number appeared. Mr. Phillips arose and left the cabin alone to look after the horses. Proceeding but a few feet, he walked square upon the Indians in the hazel bushes, who, with deafening yells, rose and shot him. Wishing the full fruition of their victory, they rushed upon his body to secure the scalp, but the other whites within, thrusting their muskets through the chinks, frightened the Indians away. Young Dimmick volunteered to return to Hennepin for reinforcements, a dangerous trip, but, calling a horse to him, he mounted, and, reaching Hennepin, was able to secure, after much persuasion, some reinforcements from two companies of the rangers who had been discharged and were returning home. The body of Phillips was secured and taken to Hennepin for burial.
On Tuesday, the 19th, Posey was ordered to draw ten days’ rations and start for Dixon’s Ferry that night or the following morning. Major Dement’s battalion, however, was ordered first to scour the woods around the Bureau settlements to see if it could not run down the murderers of Phillips, and then go on to Dixon’s to receive further orders from Colonel Taylor, who had remained at that point all the time since the discharge of the first levy on May 27th and 28th, with his force of regulars, which included Jefferson Davis, his aid, and some 200 volunteers. Just previous, Taylor had sent forward with Captain Snyder’s company two companies of the regulars under Major Bennet Riley, to be stationed at Kellogg’s Grove, as has been noticed before.
Governor Reynolds had on the 12th ordered a battalion to be organized to guard the frontiers between the Mississippi and Peoria on the north of the Illinois River, and selected Samuel Bogart Major to command the same, the name of no other officer being known. The companies, so far as can be ascertained, were those of Captains Peter Butler of Warren County, John W. Kenney of Rock Island, James White, Hancock County, John Sain, Fulton County, William McMurtry, Knox County, and Asel F. Ball of Fulton County, all of which were mustered out September 4th and 5th at Macomb.
GEN. MILTON K. ALEXANDER.
