“Osh-kosh, Souligny, I-om-e-tah, Grizzly Bear, Old Po-e-go-nah, Wau-nau-ko, Pe-wau-te-not, Osh-ka-he-nah-niew, or the Young Man, La Mott, Carron, and, indeed, all the principal men of the Menominees, were of the party. Alexander Irwin was Commissary and Quartermaster. The Indians were arranged into two companies. I commanded one, having my son, Charles A. Grignon, and my nephew, Robert Grignon, for lieutenants. George Johnson of Green Bay was chosen to the command of the other company, with William Powell and James Boyd, a son of Col. Boyd, for lieutenants. George Grignon served as a volunteer.
“With a few pack horses and each man a supply of provisions, we started from the Bay and proceeded to the Great Butte des Morts, and there crossed over to the present place of Robert Grignon. Went to Portage, and the next day renewed our march, and the first night camped on Sugar Creek, some half a dozen miles short of the Blue Mounds, and the second night at Fort Dodge, then to English Prairie, thence with one other camping we reached Prairie du Chien;[[243]] before reaching which, Grizzly Bear, his son and two or three others, descending the Wisconsin in a canoe, discovered a Sauk girl on an island alone. The Grizzly Bear’s son went and took her and found her half starved. She was about 10 years old, and on the return of the party, Colonel Stambaugh took her to Green Bay and placed her in the Indian mission school, and the next year, when Black Hawk reached Green Bay on his way home, he took her with him.
“From Col. William S. Hamilton we learned at Prairie du Chien that a trail of Sauks had been discovered down the river. Fully one-half of our party, with George Grignon and William Powell, remained at Prairie du Chien while Osh-kosh, I-om-e-tah, Souligny, Carron, Pe-wan-te-not, with their warriors, proceeded by land, accompanied by Colonel Hamilton.
“We stopped at Barrett’s Ferry on the Wisconsin and started early the next morning, and about noon struck the Sauk trail and pursued it till the sun was about an hour and a half high, when we discovered the smoke of Indians encamped in a low spot beside a small stream in the prairie. There were only two men and a youth about twelve years old; three or four women and as many children. We at once surrounded them and rushed upon them, with orders to take them prisoners; but the Menominees were fierce for a fight and killed the two men and took the others prisoners. They fired a volley at the two Sauks, and when they fell they were riddled with bullets by those coming up, who wished to share in the honor of having participated in the fight. In the melee one of the children was wounded and died the next day.
“Lieutenant Robert Grignon was badly wounded in the side with a buckshot, and, coursing round his back, lodged. He thought he was shot by the Indian lad, but I think it was quite as likely to have been done by some of our own party, firing as they were in every direction.
“This little affair occurred not far back from the Mississippi and some ten or fifteen miles north of Cassville. Colonel Hamilton participated in it.
“We camped on the battleground that night, end next day went to Cassville, carrying Robert Grignon on a litter, and thence to Prairie du Chien; he was conveyed in a canoe, while we returned by land. We delivered the prisoners at Prairie du Chien; we had to leave Robert Grignon there; the shot could not be extracted, and he was not able to return till in the autumn.
“We commenced our return home in three days, and nothing happened on our march worthy of particular notice.”
While Stambaugh’s expedition accomplished little, it was an integral part of the general scheme and has been given the consideration it demanded.