111 (page [page 343]).—See [Note 73].
112 (page [page 343]).—Major Henry Dodge, afterward first territorial governor of Wisconsin, was, during the Black Hawk War, in charge of the Michigan militia west of Lake Michigan. Generals James D. Henry and M. K. Alexander were in charge of brigades of Illinois volunteers. The combined army of regulars and volunteers had followed Black Hawk to Lake Koshkonong. While encamped there, Henry, Alexander, and Dodge had been despatched (July 10) to Fort Winnebago for much needed provisions, it being the nearest supply point. While they were absent, the fugitive Sacs fled westward to the Wisconsin River. The troops followed on a hot trail, and July 21 there ensued the battle of Wisconsin Heights, near Prairie du Sac. Black Hawk, with sadly diminished forces, continued his flight to the Mississippi; where, near the mouth of the Bad Ax, occurred (August 1 and 2) the final battle of the war.
113 (page [page 345]).—Site of the modern city of Appleton, Wis.
114 (page [page 349]).—During the battle of Wisconsin Heights, a large party of non-combatants in Black Hawk’s party, composed mainly of women, children, and old men, were sent down the Wisconsin River on a large raft and in canoes borrowed from the Winnebagoes. A detachment of regulars, sent out from Fort Crawford, fired into this party and killed and captured many. The few who could escape to the woods were afterward massacred by the band of Menomonee Indians of whom Mrs. Kinzie speaks; the contingent had been organized in the neighborhood of Green Bay, by Colonel Samuel C. Stambaugh, former Indian agent. This was the only exploit in which Stambaugh’s expedition participated, for the war was practically ended before it arrived on the scene of action.
115 (page [page 353]).—This refers to the so-called “battle of the Bad Ax” (see last clause of [Note 112]). Black Hawk endeavored to surrender, but the party of regulars on the steamer “Warrior” disregarded his white flag, and he was caught between the land forces under Atkinson and the fire of the steamer. The Indians were shot down like rats in a trap; and those who finally managed to swim across the Mississippi, under cover of the islands, were set upon by the Sioux, who had been inspired to this slaughter by the authorities at Fort Crawford. The Black Hawk War, from beginning to end, is a serious blot on the history of our Indian relations.
116 (page [page 353]).—General Hugh Brady, then colonel of the Second Infantry. He had been brevetted brigadier-general in 1822, for ten years' faithful service in one grade; and was brevetted major-general in 1848 for meritorious conduct. Brady led the 450 regulars, upon the trail of Black Hawk, from Wisconsin Heights to the Bad Ax.
117 (page [page 354]).—May 14, 1832, Black Hawk and fifty or sixty of his head men were encamped near the mouth of Sycamore Creek, a tributary of the Rock River. Toward sunset of that day, there appeared, three miles down the Rock, two battalions of Illinois volunteer troops, a total of 341 men, under Majors Isaiah Stillman and David Bailey. The whites had unlimbered for a night in camp, when three Indians appeared with a white flag, messengers from Black Hawk, who tells us in his autobiography that he wished at the time to offer to meet General Atkinson in council, with a view to peaceful withdrawal to the west of the Mississippi. The troopers, many of whom were in liquor, slew two of the messengers, the third running back to warn Black Hawk. That astute warrior drew up twenty-five securely mounted braves behind a fringe of bushes, and when the whites appeared in disorderly array fired one volley at them, and rushed forward with the war-whoop. The troopers turned and fled in consternation, galloping madly toward their homes, carrying the news that Black Hawk and two thousand blood-thirsty warriors were raiding northern Illinois. Sycamore Creek was thereafter known as Stillman’s Run.
118 (page [page 354]).—August 27, 1832, two Winnebago braves, Chætar and One-Eyed Decorah, delivered up Black Hawk and his Prophet to the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, Joseph M. Street (see [Note 49]). The fugitives had been found at the dalles of the Wisconsin River, above Kilbourn City.
119 (page [page 355]).—Edgar M. Lacey, a native of New York, was at this time second lieutenant in the Second Infantry; he was commissioned first lieutenant in 1835, and captain in 1838. From 1831-38 he served at Forts Winnebago (Portage) and Crawford (Prairie du Chien). He died at the latter post, April 2, 1839, aged thirty-two years.
120 (page [page 357]).—Red Bird, a Winnebago village chief, was the leader of what in Wisconsin history is indifferently called “The Winnebago War,” or “Red Bird’s uprising,” in 1827. The United States troops, having quelled the disturbance, proposed to wreak summary vengeance on the entire tribe unless it gave up the two principal offenders. Red Bird and a brave named Wekau, who had escaped to the wilderness. The two men voluntarily surrendered themselves to Major William Whistler, at the Fox-Wisconsin portage, in July of that year. Red Bird’s conduct on this occasion was particularly brave and picturesque, and he won the admiration of the troops. He was confined at Prairie du Chien, and given ample opportunity to escape, for the military authorities did not know what to do with him; but he proudly refused to break his parole. After a few months he died from an epidemic then prevalent in the village, and thus greatly relieved his unwilling jailers.