ROYALLY WELCOMED.
Following close behind the soldiers that went out with Col. Gratiot
to meet the Indians with the girls, were the ladies of the Fort,
including the wives of the commanding officers, and although the
Indians had delivered the girls into the custody of Col. Gratiot, the
ladies immediately took charge of them, and after kissing and hugging
them affectionately, conducted them to the Fort, where the girls were
furnished with new clothes and the best meal that the place could
produce. After dining the girls became sleepy and retired to rest,
feeling perfectly secure.
“Sleep! to the homeless thou are home;
The friendless find in thee a friend;
And well is, wheresoe’er he roam,
Who meets thee at his journey’s end.”
A messenger who had been dispatched for Col. Dodge, met him on his
way to the Mounds in company with Capt. Bion Gratiot, a brother of
Col. Henry Gratiot. On his arrival Col. Dodge immediately assumed
general command of the place. He invited the Indian chiefs, White
Crow, Whirling Thunder and Spotted Arm, into the Fort, and fed them
sumptuously. Ebenezer Brigham who lived at the east end of the Mounds
contributed a big fat steer for the feast. After the feast, lodgings
for the Indians were prepared, beds for the chiefs having been provided
in one of the cottages. Having everything comfortably arranged, the
Colonel retired and was soon fast asleep.
About an hour after Col. Dodge had gone to bed, Capt. Gratiot came
rushing to his cabin in an excited manner, calling to him to rouse up
and prepare for action immediately. He informed the Colonel that the
Indian chiefs whom the Colonel had placed in the cottage, had gone
out to some brush near by and apparently were inciting the Indians to
make an attack upon the Fort. White Crow had come to the Captain and
after telling him that the whites were a soft-shelled breed and no good
to fight (referring to Stillman’s defeat), he closed by advising the
Captain to tell his brother, Col. Gratiot, the Indians’ friend, to go
home and not stay at the fort. Also, Capt. Gratiot had observed the men
whetting their knives, tomahawks and spears, and it was learned that
two of the warriors had been sent to the Winnebago camp early in the
evening, probably to obtain more Indians to attack the Fort.
Col. Dodge, after listening attentively to the story of Capt. Gratiot,
replied: “Do not be alarmed, sir; I will see that no harm befalls you.”
Col. Dodge then called the officer of the guard and an interpreter
and with six other men went out to where the Indians were and took
into custody White Crow and five of the other principal chiefs, and
marched them into a cabin inside the palisade to secure obedience
to his command. Then after directing the proper officer to place a
strong guard around the cabin and double the guard around the whole
encampment, the Colonel lay down with the Indians. To carry out the
Colonel’s orders took all the men at the Fort, so that virtually the
whole force was under arms during the night.[32] Once more the girls’
lives were in jeopardy.
[32] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 186.
The night passed without another incident and when the sun arose over
the great plains to the east, the girls were up and relished a good
breakfast with their friends that awaited them. Col. Dodge was out
before the girls and he told the Indians that they must all go to
Morrison’s Grove, a place where the road to Galena branches off the
Military Road to Prairie du Chien, about fifteen miles west of Blue
Mounds. The Indians--White Crow particularly--protested against going,
stating that their feet were sore from their long march in bringing
the Hall girls to the Mounds, and that they had shown such great
magnanimity in risking their lives to ransom the prisoners that they
should receive their reward and be allowed to return home. Col. Dodge
frankly told them that he believed that they were in sympathy with
Black Hawk and that he should be obliged to treat them as suspects. In
vain did White Crow use his eloquence in protesting his friendship for
the whites, and after all was in readiness the Indians and soldiers
accompanied by the Hall girls started on their march to Morrison’s
Grove, where they arrived before noon. Here George Medary kept a hotel
in a large house built by the Morrison brothers of hewn logs, adjoining
a cultivated field, one of the first in the state.[33]
[33] XIII. Wis. Hist. Col., 341; “Waubun,” 111.
The ladies looked after the comfort of the girls, whom they welcomed
with much exhibition of joy and affection, and Col. Dodge, after having
the Indians well fed, ordered the chiefs to line them up until he could
talk to them.
First Col. Dodge explained the alarming situation surrounding the white
settlers, and the information that he had that the Winnebagoes were
hesitating to join Black Hawk, and warned them of their destruction if
they should take part in the war against the whites. Next Col. Gratiot
spoke to the Indians in their own tongue, in a kindly manner, and after
he had finished White Crow made the following speech: “Fathers, when
you sent a request to me to go and to ransom those two white women, we
called on all of our people who were around us and they gave all of
their wampum, trinkets and corn, and we the chiefs gave ten horses.
The Little Priest, I, and two others, went to the Sauks to buy the
prisoners. We soon succeeded in buying one, but for a time could not
succeed in buying the other. After we had bought one, we demanded the
other. They said, ‘No, we will not give her up. We have lost too much
blood. We will keep her.’
“We told them: ‘If you don’t give her up, we will raise the tomahawk
and take her.’ I had a horse which you, father (Gratiot), gave me. It
was the last horse that I had. I told them that I would give them that
horse to obtain the prisoner. At sundown they gave me the girls and
I gave them the horse. The Little Priest took one of the girls and I
took the other and put them on horses. A Sauk came, as we were about
to start, and attempted to cut off the hair of one of the girls. I
caught his hand and prevented him, but allowed him afterwards to cut a
small lock. These white sisters were very much affected and my young
daughter cried to see these white sisters so distressed. Our women
bought clothes from the Sauks and gave them. These sisters will tell
you that we made them sleep together, and the daughter of the Little
Priest slept on one side of them and my daughter on the other side. We
were mortified that we could not use them better. Our blankets are worn
out and we could do no better. I tried to please and comfort them, but
they were not accustomed to our mode of living and could not eat.
“Here are our two sisters, we bring them here to take their hands and
give them into your hands. We have saved their lives, for the Sauks
intended to kill them.
“And now, fathers, all that we have to ask of you is that you will not
put us or our children in the same situation that these white sisters
were. We have brought them to you to prove to you that we are the
friends of the Americans.”[34]
[34] Report of Col. Gratiot in U. S. files.
After listening to White Crow, Col. Dodge informed him that he would
hold as hostages for the good conduct of the Winnebago Indians, their
chiefs Spotted Arm, Whirling Thunder and Little Priest, to which the
wiley chief made little objection, as he was trying to obtain as much
goods as possible in final settlement of the reward, which was paid
mostly in trinkets, blankets and horses.
Having been well fed and supplied with shawls and blankets of brilliant
colors, childlike, the Indians were now anxious to go home.
White Crow, with a showing of much regret, bade good-bye to Sylvia
and Rachel Hall. He went over the incidents of their rescue, and, to
prove his friendship for the girls, offered to give each of them a Sac
squaw as a servant for life. The girls thanked him, but said that they
did not want any human being to be taken away from her people as they
had been from theirs. The girls then bade adieu to all the Indians,
towards whom their hearts had changed, and for whom they now felt
considerable friendship. The eloquence of White Crow made an impression
on the young women, as he spoke in a sympathetic tone unexpected kind
words that touched their hearts.
After resting at Morrison’s during the afternoon and night, early the
next morning the soldiers with their Indian hostages and the girls,
proceeded along the Galena road to Fort Defiance, which was located
five miles southeast of Mineral Point. Here again the girls were well
cared for by the wives of the officers, and the most sumptuous meal
that could be prepared was set before them, and their short stay made
as pleasant as possible.[35]
[35] X. Wis. Hist., Col., 340.
After dinner, with the convoy of soldiers and the Indian hostages,
the girls again moved on to Gratiot’s Grove, about a mile south of
Shullsburg, and fourteen miles northeast of Galena. At this place there
was a village of twenty families, with a hotel and a garrison of United
States soldiers.[36] The leading lady of the place was Capt. Gratiot’s
wife, a French woman of excellent education, whose mother had been
lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette. Mrs. Gratiot, who was noted
for her hospitality, took charge of the girls and entertained them
lavishly at her home.[37]
[36] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 256.
[37] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 186, 246.
Gratiot’s Grove, which became renowned as the most beautiful spot in
the northwest, is described by Mrs. Gratiot as follows: “Never in my
wanderings had I beheld a prettier place; the beautiful rolling hills
extending to Blue Mounds, a distance of thirty miles, the magnificent
grove, as yet untouched by the falling axe, formed the graceful frame
for the lovely landscape.”[38] Theodore Rudolph, a Swiss traveler who
was at Gratiot’s Grove in the spring of 1832, describing the place
says: “The vast prairie, as far as the eye could reach, was clothed
with a carpet of richest green, interspersed with gorgeous wild
flowers, of brilliant hues of red, blue, and yellow, in fact every
color of the rainbow--reminding one of the garden of Eden, as our
youthful fancies never failed to paint it for us.”[39]
[38] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 286.
[39] XV. Wis. Hist. Col., 345.