102 (page [page 322]).—David Hunter, a native of the District of Columbia, was then first lieutenant in the Fifth Infantry. He became captain of the First Dragoons in 1833, and was made major and paymaster in 1842. On the outbreak of the War of Secession he was at first appointed colonel of the Sixth Cavalry; but later, in 1861, was commissioned as major-general of volunteers. Because of gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Piedmont, and during the campaign in the Valley of Virginia, he was brevetted major-general. He retired from the service in July, 1866.
103 (page [page 323]).—Charles Gratiot, the father of Henry, was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1753, the child of refugee Huguenots from La Rochelle, France. Trained to mercantile life in London, he came to America when not yet of age, and opened a trading-post at Mackinac, visiting Green Bay and Prairie du Chien as early as 1770. He was a wide traveler by canoe through the heart of the continent. In 1774 he opened establishments at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and very materially aided General George Rogers Clark with influence and fortune, in the latter’s celebrated expeditions for the capture of the Northwest. One of his four sons was Henry, to whom our author refers. Henry became a leader in the development of the Wisconsin-Illinois lead mines, and was for many years Indian agent in that district, doing good service as such in the Red Bird (1827) and Black Hawk (1832) uprisings. He died in Baltimore, Md., April 27, 1836.
104 (page [page 328]).—The term “pipe” was of more general application than this, among voyageurs. It referred to the occasional stoppage of work, in rowing, when pipes would be refilled, and perhaps other refreshment taken. A canoe voyage along the lakes and rivers of the West was measured by “pipes,” which of course were more numerous going against the current than with it. In the same manner a portage trail was measured by the number of “pauses” necessary for resting; a rough path having more such than a smooth, level trail.
105 (page [page 330]).—Such huge flights of wild doves were still occasionally to be seen in Wisconsin until about 1878. The present writer has seen them, especially about 1868, in flocks of such size as to darken the sun, as at a total eclipse; large fields in which they would settle would seem to be solid masses of birds; and at night they would roost upon trees in such numbers as to break the branches. Farmers and pot-hunters easily killed great numbers with long sticks, either as they rested upon the trees, or rose from the ground in clouds, when disturbed.
106 (page [page 333]).—See [Note 31].
107 (page [page 337]).—See [Note 15].
108 (page [page 339]).—This was during the Black Hawk War (1832). The fleeing Sacs were retreating up Rock River, to the north-east, and made a stand on Lake Koshkonong. The people at Green Bay were without definite information regarding the fugitives, and their number and capacity to do harm were greatly exaggerated. It was supposed that they would continue going to the north-east, and seek an outlet to Lake Michigan at Green Bay. This threw the people of the lower valley of the Fox River into a panic, which was no less real because ludicrous in character. See the diary during this flurry, of Cutting Marsh, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. xv.
109 (page [page 340]).—General Winfield Scott had been ordered to the seat of the Black Hawk War by way of the Great Lakes, with reinforcements for Atkinson. Cholera among his troops had detained him first at Detroit, then at Chicago, and lastly at Rock Island. Nearly one-fourth of his force of a thousand regulars died with the pestilence.
110 (page [page 342]).—Nathan Clark entered the army in 1813, as a second lieutenant, and became a captain in the Fifth Infantry in 1824—the rank he held at the time alluded to by Mrs. Kinzie. He was brevetted major in 1834, for ten years' faithful service in one grade, and died February 18, 1836. His daughter, now Mrs. Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve, is the author of a book of reminiscences, which covers much of the ground traversed by Mrs. Kinzie, Three Score Years and Ten (Minneapolis, 1888).