“J.M. Wilson, Aid-de-Camp.”
On the 5th of August General Williams had returned to Detroit, but not before he had paid his respects to the miscarriages of his command.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Prison Life–Eastern Trip–Return–Council at Fort Armstrong–Black Hawk’s Apology–Black Hawk Released.
In every way possible for those early days, Keokuk endeavored to make the confinement of Black Hawk tolerable. Early in the spring he took with him the wife and daughter of Black Hawk, together with Colonel Davenport, Antoine LeClaire and many prominent Sacs and Foxes, to pay the old prisoner a visit and cheer him up. Further than that, he endeavored to secure his release, pledging himself to General Atkinson to be responsible for the good behavior of Black Hawk and his fellow prisoners. Black Hawk was delighted to see his wife and daughter and hoped to be released under Keokuk’s promise, but the orders from the War Department were to take the prisoners to Washington under the escort of an officer of the army. Accordingly they were sent there, arriving the latter part of April, 1833. Black Hawk was first presented to the President, then the Prophet, who remarked:
“We expected to return immediately to our people. The war in which we have been involved was occasioned by our attempting to raise provisions on our own lands, or where we thought we had a right so to do. We have lost many of our people, as well as the whites. Our tribes and families are now exposed to the attacks of our enemies, the Sioux, and the Menominees. We hope, therefore, to be permitted to return home to take care of them.”
Black Hawk, taking up the conversation, continued:
“I am a man and you are another. * * * We did not expect to conquer the whites. They had too many houses and too many men. I took up the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking, my people would have said, ‘Black Hawk is a woman; he is too old to be a chief; he is no Sac.’ These reflections caused me to raise the war whoop. I say no more of it; it is known to you. Keokuk once was here; you took him by the hand, and when he wished to return to his home, you were willing. Black Hawk expects that, like Keokuk, we shall be permitted to return too.”
He says he took up the hatchet. He attempted to create the impression, in his formal announcement, when he crossed the Mississippi, that he was simply taking up the hoe, to go among the Winnebagoes to make corn.