Although the Winnebago War was thus easily ended, it was not without important consequences. The Indians had been cowed, but not conciliated. The original cause for their dissatisfaction had not been removed; the aggressions of the lead miners continued, and the specter of white domination still menaced them as before the uprising. The confinement and death of Red Bird, whom they believed to have been poisoned by the Americans,[795] did not tend to alleviate their dissatisfaction, while the withdrawal of the troops after the brief summer campaign of 1827 emboldened them again. At the close of the year 1827 Joseph Street, the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, reported to Governor Edwards of Illinois that the Winnebagoes were greatly dissatisfied, and would, in his opinion, resist the execution of Red Bird if they could induce any other tribe to join them.[796] The following spring news was carried to the British post at Drummond's Island, to which place many of the American Indians resorted annually for presents, that several of the northwestern tribes were planning an uprising against the Americans.[797]
[795] Speech of Nayocantay at Drummond's Island, June 30, 1828, Michigan Pioneer Collections, XXIII, 146.
[796] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI, 366-68.
[797] Michigan Pioneer Collections, XXIII, 144-51.
To restrain the dissatisfied tribes between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi by the presence of an adequate military force, it was determined permanently to regarrison Fort Crawford and Fort Dearborn, and in addition to establish a new post at the Wisconsin Portage.[798] To the latter was given the name of Fort Winnebago, and its garrison muster-rolls during the next few years contain the names of many men who later won national fame and reputation.[799] Our primary interest, however, is centered in Chicago. On October 3, 1828, after an interval of five years, Fort Dearborn was reoccupied by a regular garrison of about sixty men, comprising companies A and I of the Fifth Infantry, under command of Major John Fowle.[800] The Fifth Regiment had been stationed at Jefferson Barracks prior to the Winnebago outbreak. In connection with the general shifting of troops and the re-establishment of garrisons occasioned by that trouble, to which allusion has already been made, the garrisons at Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac, and Fort Howard, consisting of detachments of the Second Infantry, were moved down the lakes to Fort Gratiot and Fort Niagara, while the Fifth Regiment relieved the Second in garrisoning the places named and in addition sent two companies to reoccupy Fort Dearborn.[801] The latter probably came up the Illinois River route. The remaining eight companies moved up from St. Louis by way of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, with the expectation that the march of so large a body of soldiery through the heart of their territory would produce a quieting effect upon the minds of the Winnebago and other tribes.[802]
[798] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIV, 70-71.
[799] Among others may be mentioned Jefferson Davis, David E. Twiggs, William J. Worth, E. V. Summer, and E. Kirby Smith. See on this the "History of Fort Winnebago" in Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIV, 75 ff.
[800] Drennan Papers, Fort Dearborn post returns, October, 1828.
[801] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIV, 70; Wentworth, Early Chicago, 27.
[802] On the movement of the troops see Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIV, 70; Wentworth, Early Chicago, 27; statement of General Hunter in Hurlbut, Chicago Antiquities, 490.