During the 14th and 15th the camp was inactive and awaiting events. On the 16th dispatches from General Scott, who had been sent to supersede Atkinson,[[207]] were received, reporting the ravages in his army from Asiastic cholera. The thirty-six wagons of provisions arrived from Blue Mounds in the evening; also the pack horses sent to Fort Winnebago for provisions. On the following morning Alexander arrived with his men, thoroughly fatigued, many of them dismounted through the loss of their horses.
On the 19th the regulars and Alexander’s Brigade marched up the Whitewater, with the intention of reaching Black Hawk and ending, by forced marches, the campaign, which General Jackson felt had been already dragged out to twice its needed length. The troops proceeded ten miles, when the most furious storm of that very stormy season compelled them to halt and await its passing. It raged all night long, with increasing fury, and not till morning did it abate. Here the trembling lands were reached, making further progress, as the Indian guides declared, impossible. It was then discovered that the wrong side of the river was being followed to ever reach Black Hawk, therefore it was resolved to retrace their steps, cross the river below Lake Koshkonong and ascend the west bank of Rock River. (Narrative Capt. Henry Smith, 10 Wis., 150, etc.) At this time (20th) an express from Henry and Dodge arrived early, bringing information of the movements of the Indians toward the Mississippi.[[208]] General Alexander at once dispatched Major McHenry, with his spy battalion, to explore the country between the forks of the Whitewater and Rock River and ascertain if all the Indians had left the country or only Black Hawk’s immediate band. He found the country explored by him to be abandoned by them, and, with the other troops, fell back to Fort Koshkonong, where Capt. Gideon Lowe, with thirty or forty men, had been called from Fort Winnebago to do garrison duty.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Fort Winnebago Reached–Stampede–Henry’s Treatment of Disobedient Officers–Black Hawk’s Trail to Westward Discovered–Forced March–Battle of the Wisconsin–At Blue Mounds.
When Henry, Dodge and Alexander left, on the 10th, for Fort Winnebago, their horses were in none too good a condition for such a march, but it was begun early and continued diligently through the wilderness, until the fort was reached, at the end of the second day, a distance of sixty or seventy miles.
The horses, several hundred in number, were turned out to graze on the evening of the 12th,[[209]] and with no delay the men retired to their tents, pitched about three feet apart, and were very soon wrapped in sound slumber, during which occurred a calamity entailing greater disaster and more suffering than the loss of a battle. In the night (12th) it is supposed a party of thieving Indians, in attempting a wholesale theft, so thoroughly frightened the animals that a stampede followed. Running furiously in a northerly direction, directly over the camp, men and munitions were crushed under foot. A call to arms followed, but the loss of arms in the darkness and confusion, the loss of bearings, and almost of reason, prevented all possibility of order and concerted action. If it had been an attack of the enemy, as was first conjectured, the bruised and confused troops could easily have been annihilated.
The horses reached the Wisconsin River, where they were turned back by it, and, with the fury of the hurricane, rushed back and over the camp for the second time, bruising and crippling men and hopelessly wrecking tents and guns. The men had not recovered their senses when this second stampede drove them into the ground, and by the time the furious beasts had passed, the poor soldiers were in the saddest possible plight.
Two days were consumed in repairing the wreck, recovering the horses and drawing the twelve days’ rations. The stampede at this crisis was painfully unfortunate. For thirty miles the horses ran, over ground almost impassable, which added to those already consumed in reaching the fort, ruined many and crippled others to such an extent that they soon gave out. The search for them added many miles of weary travel, wearing those used in it, going and coming, until it was considered doubtful if the men could get back to General Atkinson.
At this place it was ascertained through the Winnebagoes that Black Hawk occupied a strong position at the rapids on Rock River.[[210]] Henry at once called a council of war, composed of every officer from the rank of captain up, at which he disclosed his information and proposed the question of disobeying Atkinson’s orders by pursuing the enemy. Dodge had so exhausted his men and disabled his horses in forcing a march to be in first at Fort Winnebago, that he reported he could not muster a force worth taking along.[[211]] Alexander reported the unwillingness of his men to disobey orders, leaving Henry alone to make the pursuit, if it were to be made at all. He quietly yet firmly resolved that it should be made. Thereupon he reorganized his brigade by disencumbering his command of the sick, injured and dismounted men, and appointed noon of the 15th for the hour to march. The disaffection of Alexander’s men had a demoralizing influence on Fry’s Regiment, belonging to Henry’s Brigade, which resulted in the signing of a remonstrance, headed by Lieut-Col. Jeremiah Smith, and the presentation of the same to Henry as that officer was ready to march. Fry did not sign this document and had no sympathy with it. On the contrary, he was bitterly opposed to such action. This action, emanating from so conspicuous a person and officer as Smith, would, under usual conditions, have frustrated Henry’s plans and demoralized his brigade, but he was the man for an emergency, with the will to meet it and the physique to enforce it against ordinary opposition. His genius rose to this occasion and his action ended the Black Hawk war, as it would have been ended long before could he have ordered the volunteer forces as he desired.