Jefferson Davis, later president of the Southern Confederacy, likewise participated in the Battle of Wisconsin Heights. After he had fought with distinction in the Mexican war, and had served as secretary of war in President Pierce's cabinet, and after holding the position of commander-in-chief of the southern armies for four years during the Civil War, he supported Black Hawk's claim to the military skill he had displayed in this battle. Davis speaks of the tactics employed by the chief as the most brilliant he had ever witnessed, saying: "Had it been performed by white men, it would have been immortalized as one of the most splendid achievements in military history."
Indians Pursued
A few days after the battle, troops crossed the Wisconsin at Arena, marched up the bank of the river until the trail was found, and pursued the retreating Indians. The savages killed horses along the way in order to sustain themselves with food; some perished from their wounds, and still others died from fatigue. At the mouth of the Bad Axe River, the troops from the rear, the fire from the Warrior on the Mississippi, and the Indians in Minnesota, almost annihilated the band of the deluded, deceived, and defeated Black Hawk. A few of his braves and families who descended the Wisconsin river in boats, met a similar fate near the mouth of the stream, bringing to an end the cons'n.
A. L. Taylor resides on a farm a short distance east of the battlefield. When a youth he accompanied a soldier who fought in the battle, also his father, over the ground. Mr. Taylor has a clear recollection of the description of the fight given by the participant in the battle. Years ago Mr. Taylor's father found on the field a gun and saddle, afterwards destroyed in a farmhouse fire.
A short distance south of where John Short is buried there is a fine group of Indian mounds.
Grave of a Napoleon Soldier
From the Mazomanie road near the battlefield, one may drive east about a mile to the Roxbury Cemetery, on Trunk Line 12. Near the center of this Catholic burying ground lies a soldier who served one year against Napoleon and three years under him, a not uncommon circumstance when the whole of Europe was torn by the great Corsican. The inscription above the grave reads:
| * | * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * | * |
| * | Peter Pauli | * |
| * | Geb. 10, June, 1792 | * |
| * | Gest. 7, Sept., 1884 | * |
| * | R. I. P. | * |
| * | Schlafe Wohl, O Vater Schlafe | * |
| * | Deiner Walfahrt Leiden aus | * |
| * | Sanft Sei Dir Der Letzte Schlummer | * |
| * | Dein Erwachen Ohne Kummer | * |
| * | * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * | * |
About 1848 Pauli came with his family to America and after a stay in Milwaukee settled in Roxbury, where he died. It is said there are two other Napoleon soldiers buried in this cemetery but their graves have not been identified.
Within site of the cemetery is the Roxbury church, one of the richest rural churches in this section of the state and one which dates to territorial times.