WAR AND THE PLAGUE
Almost a dozen years had passed since the coming of Captain Bradley's
troops to Chicago to plant again the banner of civilization on the spot
where savagery had triumphed in 1812, and nearly half as many since
the garrison had been withdrawn from Fort Dearborn in 1823, when the
humdrum quiet of the little settlement was broken by new rumors of war.
Two Indian wars and a visitation of war's twin scourge of humanity, the
plague, coming in quick succession, served to relieve the monotony of
life at Chicago during the next few years.
The first of the Indian outbreaks, the Winnebago War, occasioned little
actual fighting, but it filled the frontier settlements with alarm,
caused the movement of several hundred soldiers, many of them for
hundreds of miles, and was concluded by a formal treaty between the
United States and the disaffected tribes. That it was not attended by
more bloodshed was due to the prompt display by the government of an
overwhelming military force which awed the red man into submission.
Driven to desperation by the encroachments and aggressions of the
whites, and encouraged, possibly, by the removal of the garrisons
from Chicago and Prairie du Chien, the Winnebagoes in the summer of
1827 were in a mood for war. The first outbreak occurred on the upper
Mississippi toward the end of June. A keelboat, returning from a trip
to Fort Snelling with provisions for the garrison at Fort Crawford,
was attacked by the Winnebagoes near the mouth of the Bad Axe River.
On the same day a murderous assault was made upon the family of a
Canadian half-breed named Gagnier, living a short distance from Prairie
du Chien.[780] The nature of the immediate provocation for the attack
upon the keelboat is a matter of dispute. The assault upon the family
of Gagnier, however, was deliberately planned by a band of Winnebagoes,
which had suffered great indignities at the hands of the whites.[781]
The leaders of the band deliberated over their wrongs and resolved
to enforce the native law of retaliation. The choice of the agent to
commit the act fell upon Red Bird, a chief who was beloved by the
Indians and respected and admired by the whites. Noted for his friendly
disposition toward the whites, Red Bird undertook the commission of his
band with the intention of pretending to fulfil it and reporting to his
tribe that he had been unable to find a victim.
[Footnote 780: On these events see _Wisconsin Historical Collections_,
_passim_.]
[Footnote 781: _Ibid._, V, 201 ff.]
This plan, unfortunately, miscarried. Being upbraided for his conduct
and taunted as a coward, Red Bird resolved to redeem his reputation and
set out for Prairie du Chien, accompanied by WeKau and a third Indian,
determined to execute his commission in grim earnest. The chance
presence of an old trader at the house of Mr. Lockwood, which the
party first visited, caused them to refrain from committing there the
intended violence.[782] Crossing the prairie they came to the house of
Gagnier, about three miles from the town. Here they found the husband,
his wife, a babe of eleven months, and a discharged soldier named
Lipcap. The presence of the visitors at first excited no particular
comment. They asked for food and Mrs. Gagnier had turned to provide it
when the bloody work began. Gagnier was shot by Red Bird and Lipcap by
the third Indian, while Mrs. Gagnier engaged in a struggle with WeKau
in which she succeeded in wresting from him his gun. He turned and ran
and she pursued him, but overcome by excitement or fear, and finding
herself powerless to fire the gun, she made her way to the village and
gave the alarm. Meanwhile WeKau again entered the cabin and scalped the
babe, apparently executing the horrible task with deliberation in order
to secure as much hair with the scalp as possible. When a posse arrived
from Prairie du Chien the murderers had departed; the babe was still
alive and, strangely enough, recovered from its ghastly wounds and grew
to womanhood.
[Footnote 782: _Ibid._, II, 161; V, 199.]
In the same month of June, 1827, Governor Cass and Colonel Thomas
L. McKenney were sent to negotiate on behalf of the United States a
treaty with the Winnebagoes and other tribes of Wisconsin respecting
the boundaries which had been provided for in the Treaty of Prairie
du Chien of 1825.[783] On reaching Butte des Morts on Fox River, the
place designated for the council, the commissioners found but a single
band of Winnebagoes represented, and learned at the same time of the
hostile disposition of the tribe and of the outrages committed on the
Mississippi.
[Footnote 783: Smith, _Life and Times of Lewis Cass_, 185; Young, _Life
of General Cass_, 93; Schoolcraft, _Personal Memoirs_, 265-67.]
In this emergency Cass decided on a bold and energetic course. Leaving
the camp at Butte des Morts in charge of Colonel McKenney, he himself
set out in a large canoe manned by a dozen boatmen for the seat of
trouble.[784] The route to Prairie du Chien led through the midst of
the disaffected tribe. In his descent of the Wisconsin River Cass came
upon the Winnebago encampment. Undaunted by the manifest signs of
hostility which were displayed on his approach he landed and harangued
the savages and persuaded them to smoke the calumet. As he turned to
leave, a young brave sought to assassinate him, but the attempt was
frustrated by an older man striking his gun aside.
[Footnote 784: Cass's trip see Schoolcraft, _Personal Memoirs_, 266;
Smith, _Cass_, 185-90; Young, _Cass_, 93-96; Hubbard, _Life_, 150-51;
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, II, 166, 330; V, 156-57.]
On reaching Prairie du Chien on the morning of July 4 Cass did what
he could to encourage the terrified settlers, who were gathered in
the abandoned Fort Crawford in momentary expectation of an attack,
and took into the service of the United States the impromptu military
company which had been organized.[785] He then passed quickly down to
Galena, the center of the lead-mining district. The news from Prairie
du Chien of the Indian hostilities had spread terror and dismay among
the miners, who with one accord fled in wildest panic to Galena.[786]
The roads were lined with men, women, and children in momentary fear
of the dread tomahawk or scalping-knife, and the encampment of the
fugitives on Apple River on the first night of the alarm was said to
have extended four miles and numbered three thousand persons. Such was
the state of confusion and panic when Cass arrived at Galena on July
6. Quickly enrolling a company of riflemen, it was dispatched on a
keelboat for Prairie du Chien, while Cass's canoemen sped onward in the
opposite direction to carry the news to St. Louis and set the regulars
under General Atkinson's command at Jefferson Barracks in motion. The
destination was reached in record time,[787] and soon Atkinson at the
head of seven hundred troops was proceeding up the Mississippi River by
steamer to the scene of hostilities.
[Footnote 785: For the occurrences at Prairie du Chien see James H.
Lockwood's narrative, _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, II, 157 ff.]
[Footnote 786: _Ibid._, II, 329.]
[Footnote 787: On the rapidity of Cass's descent of the Mississippi see
Young, _Cass_, 96; Smith, _Cass_, 189-90: Schoolcraft says (_Personal
Memoirs_, 267) that the entire circuit from Butte des Morts to Saint
Louis, and back again by way of the Illinois River and Chicago, was
made "in an incredible short space of time."]
Instead of returning with the regulars, Cass and his party ascended the
Illinois River to Chicago. Fortunately for them heavy rains had raised
the Des Plaines to such a height that it was possible to pass up it
and across the portage to Chicago without disembarking from the canoe.
In the course of this passage nightfall overtook the party in Mud
Lake. Fearful of staving a hole in their birch-bark canoe, the boatmen
anchored it by thrusting their paddles into the mud on either side. In
this dreary spot, tormented by mosquitoes and with the rain descending
in torrents to the accompaniment of intense thunder and lightning, the
future senator, cabinet officer, and presidential candidate passed the
hot July night.
The arrival of Cass at Chicago the following morning has been
described by Gurdon S. Hubbard, who chanced to be in Chicago at this
time, at the home of his friend, John Kinzie.[788] The inmates of the
household were at breakfast when the sound of the Canadian boat song
was heard, faintly at first, but gradually growing louder. Kinzie
recognized the leading voice as that of his nephew, Robert Forsyth,
private secretary to Governor Cass, and made his way to the front
porch, followed by the rest of the company. Looking up the river
they beheld Cass's canoe bearing rapidly down upon them, the boatmen
keeping time with their paddles to the music of the song. It was soon
at hand and during the brief stay which Cass made the Chicagoans
learned for the first time of the outbreak of war and the outrages on
the Mississippi. They learned, also, the reason of the unusual conduct
of Big Foot's band of Indians at Chicago a few days before.[789] The
buildings of the abandoned Fort Dearborn were at this time under the
custody of the Indian agent, Doctor Alexander Wolcott. With his family
he was living in one of them, while the others were occupied by several
French and American families. The annual payment to the Pottawatomies
had drawn to Chicago a large number of Indians. Upon receiving their
annuity all had departed except a portion of Big Foot's band, who lived
at the modern Lake Geneva. In the night following the payment, during a
violent storm of wind and rain, the soldiers' barracks were struck by
lightning and destroyed, together with the storehouse and a portion of
the guardhouse.
[Footnote 788: Hubbard, _Life_, 150-51; _Caldwell and Shabonee_, in
"Fergus Historical Series," No. 10, 41-46; _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, VII, 341-43.]
[Footnote 789: _American Historical Collections_, _loc. cit._]
The alarm of fire soon roused the little settlement, and men and women
to the number of about forty turned out. The barracks and storehouse
were seen to be doomed and so the attention was devoted to saving the
remaining structures. Robert Kinzie, wrapped in a wet blanket, mounted
to the roof of the guardhouse, which was already on fire, while the
others formed a line to the river along which water was passed to
him in buckets and other available utensils. Despite his burns and
the danger he ran, Kinzie maintained his position until, about dawn,
the fire was subdued. During all this time Big Foot's followers idly
viewed the struggle, ignoring the appeals made to them for assistance.
The next day they started for their homes, but the subject of their
strange behavior furnished food for discussion at Chicago, until the
information brought by Cass a few days later explained it and their
disaffection.
With the departure of Cass the inhabitants of Chicago assembled for
consultation.[790] It was determined to send the chiefs, Shabbona and
Billy Caldwell, to Big Foot's village to gather information concerning
the plans of the Winnebagoes and the intentions of Big Foot's band. The
friendly chiefs at once departed upon their mission. On reaching Lake
Geneva they separated; Caldwell secreted himself near the town, while
Shabbona entered it, and was promptly imprisoned on the charge of being
a spy and a friend of the Americans. This he denied, pretending that
having heard of the threatened hostilities with the whites he had come
to take counsel with Big Foot's followers concerning the course of his
own people. By dint of argument and dissimulation he finally obtained
permission to return, accompanied by a number of Big Foot's band, to
his village. Both Caldwell and Shabbona separately made their way back
to Chicago and reported the result of their mission.
[Footnote 790: _Ibid._]
Their report plunged the settlement into a state of panic akin to
that which had earlier seized upon the inhabitants of Prairie du Chien
and Galena. A consultation was held, in the course of which Hubbard
suggested that a messenger be sent to the settlements on the Wabash for
assistance. Volunteers for this service were called for, but no one
except Hubbard himself appeared desirous of undertaking it; against his
going the objection was raised that in his absence no one else could
control the voyageurs, most of whom were in his employ. Notwithstanding
this, it was finally decided that Hubbard should go. He left Chicago
in the afternoon and reached Danville, one hundred and twenty miles
away, on the following day, having changed mounts about midnight at
his trading house on the Iroquois River. The news of his mission was
spread abroad, and a force of fifty men or more was quickly raised to
march to the relief of Chicago.[791] Before starting five days' rations
were cooked. Many of the volunteers were without horses of their own.
Most of these were supplied with mounts by neighbors who were to stay
at home, but the number of horses available was insufficient to supply
all the men and five set forth on foot. In other respects the company's
equipment was even more inadequate. The food supply was insufficient
and the arms were most heterogeneous in character. Squirrel rifles,
flintlocks, old muskets, "or anything like a gun" that could be found
had been seized, and some of the men had no guns at all. The latter, as
well as those whose arms were insufficient, were supplied by Hubbard,
who also issued flour and salt pork, from his trading house on the
Iroquois River.
[Footnote 791: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, narrative of
Hezekiah Cunningham, in "Fergus Historical Series," No. 10, 47 ff.
Cunningham, who was a member of the Danville company which marched to
Chicago, says it numbered fifty men, while Hubbard gives the number as
one hundred.]
The march to Chicago was completed, after numerous vicissitudes, near
the close of the fourth day. The Vermilion River was up, running bank
full and with a strong current. The men and saddles were taken across
in a canoe and an effort was made to compel the horses to swim. When
the force of the current struck them, however, they would circle
about and return to the bank. Provoked at the delay Hubbard mounted
"old Charley," a large, steadygoing horse, and plunged in, the other
horses being driven in after him. In the swift current "Charley" became
unmanageable, when Hubbard dismounted on the upper side, and seizing
him by the mane with one hand and swimming with the other guided him
toward the opposite shore. During the march rain fell most of the time.
The condition of the streams and the intervening country compelled
some of the footmen to turn back, and two of the men with horses also
abandoned the expedition.
The company reached Chicago in the midst of a tremendous thunder
storm. The welcome extended by the settlers, who had been in momentary
expectation of an attack, was naturally most hearty. If the narrator's
reminiscences may be trusted, a touch of genuine burlesque was now
added to the warlike scenes of the last few days. During Hubbard's
absence the settlers had organized a military company composed of a
few Americans interspersed among a considerable number of Canadian
half-breeds. The former, perceiving that the Danville company was
a better-looking crowd than their own, proposed to abandon their
associates and join it. This feeling stirred up a quarrel, but the
officers quelled the disturbance and the discontented men remained with
their own command. The Danville company remained at Chicago a number of
days, keeping guard day and night, until news arrived from Green Bay
that a treaty of peace had been made with the Winnebagoes. In their joy
over the good news the citizens brought forth barrels of whisky and
other liquors and a general drinking bout ensued.
Thus hilariously ended Chicago's part in the Winnebago War. Its speedy
and bloodless conclusion was due primarily to the energetic measures
of Governor Cass. From Chicago he had passed up the western shore of
Lake Michigan to Green Bay, and entering the Fox River had come again
to the place of council at Butte des Morts, after a circuit of eighteen
hundred miles. The prompt movement of troops from every direction
upon the country of the Winnebagoes quickly convinced them of the
hopelessness of resistance. From Jefferson Barracks, Fort Snelling, and
Fort Howard, detachments of regulars converged upon the disaffected
tribesmen, while a force of volunteers from Galena under General Dodge
marched overland toward the Wisconsin Portage. On August 11 Cass
concluded with the tribes concerned the treaty of Butte des Morts,
which settled, for the time being, the boundary questions which had
grown out of the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1825.[792] Although the
Winnebagoes were parties to the treaty, the liberty was reserved by the
United States of punishing the perpetrators of the recent outrages and
exacting from them guaranties of good conduct in the future.
[Footnote 792: _Treaties between the United States of America and the
Several Indian Tribes, from 1778 to 1837_, 412-15.]
The treaty concluded, Cass returned to Detroit, while the military
continued its task of running down the culprits wanted. On September 1
the troops from Fort Howard under command of Major Whistler encamped
at the Fox-Wisconsin Portage.[793] The following day three separate
messages arrived from the hostile Winnebago encampment announcing that
the murderers, WeKau and Red Bird, would be surrendered the day after,
and begging the military not to strike. The murders at Prairie du Chien
had been committed deliberately in accordance with the Indian law of
retaliation. From their standpoint the murderers had perpetrated no
crime, but had performed a meritorious and public-spirited act. Yet now
that the white man's armies were at hand, they voluntarily surrendered
themselves to save their countrymen from further punishment.
[Footnote 793: Thomas L. McKenney's narrative, _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, V, 178 ff.]
About noon of the following day a body of Indians was descried
approaching Whistler's camp. As they drew nearer the voice of Red Bird
singing his death song could be heard. The military was drawn out in
line to receive the delegation and a dramatic ceremony ensued. On the
right and slightly advanced was the band of musicians. In front of
the center, at a distance of a few paces, stood the murderers. Red
Bird and WeKau; on their right and left, forming a semicircular group,
were the Winnebagoes, who had accompanied them. All eyes were fixed
on the magnificent figure of Red Bird: six feet in height, erect, and
perfectly proportioned, his very fingers "models of beauty"; on his
face the most noble and winning expression; his every movement imbued
with grace and stateliness; his dress of barbaric splendor, consisting
of a suit of white deer skin appropriately fringed and decorated, and
over the breast and back a fold of scarlet cloth; no wonder he seemed
to the spectators, even of the hostile race, "a prince born to command
and worthy to be obeyed."
The effect of Red Bird's presence was heightened by the contrast,
in all outward respects, presented by the miserable WeKau.
"Meagre--cold--dirty in his person and dress--crooked in form--like the
starved wolf, gaunt, hungry, and bloodthirsty," his entire appearance
accorded with the conception of a fiend who could scalp a babe in the
cradle.
Red Bird stood erect without moving a muscle or altering the expression
on his face. The music having ceased and all being seated except the
speakers, the latter began their address. Its substance was that two
of the murderers had voluntarily surrendered themselves in response to
the white man's demand; as their friends they had come in with them,
and hoped their white brothers would agree to accept the horses they
had brought in satisfaction of the offense. They asked kind treatment
for their friends, and urged that they should not be put in irons. The
spokesman for the whites replied with much advice, which was doubtless
excellent from the white man's point of view. They were told that the
prisoners should be tried by the same laws as the white man, and the
promise was given that for the present they should not be put in irons.
At the conclusion of the harangue Red Bird stood up facing Major
Whistler. In physique and bearing the latter--the same magnificent
athlete who had bested the champion of the natives in the Fort Dearborn
foot race a score of years before--was a worthy representative of his
race. After a moment's pause the words, "I am ready," came from the
lips of Red Bird. Advancing a step or two he paused, saying, "I do not
wish to be put in irons. Let me be free. I have given away my life--it
is gone"--stooping and taking some dust between his fingers and thumb,
and blowing it away--"like that. I would not take it back. _It is
gone._" Throwing his hands behind him to indicate that he was leaving
all things behind, he marched briskly up to Major Whistler, breast
to breast. A platoon wheeled backward from the center of the line of
soldiery. Whistler stepped aside. Red Bird and WeKau marched through
the line and were conducted by a file of men to a tent prepared for
them in the rear, and the ceremony was concluded.
The fate of Red Bird may quickly be told. Together with seven others
of his tribe who had surrendered themselves to the whites he was
taken to Prairie du Chien and imprisoned to await trial on the charge
of murder.[794] Their imprisonment was regarded by the Indians as a
punishment worse than death itself. Red Bird bore his confinement
hardly and at length sickened and died. WeKau and another of his
associates were finally brought to trial, in September, 1828. They
were found guilty and sentenced to be hung on December 26, but before
the time set for the execution arrived both were pardoned by President
Adams. The other prisoners were discharged for lack of evidence to
convict them.
[Footnote 794: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XI, 366-68; VIII,
264-65; Smith, _History of Wisconsin_, 1, 250-51.]
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]
[Footnote 795: Speech of Nayocantay at Drummond's Island, June 30,
1828, _Michigan Pioneer Collections_, XXIII, 146.]
[Footnote 796: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XI, 366-68.]
[Footnote 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]
[Footnote 798: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIV, 70-71.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 800: _Drennan Papers_, Fort Dearborn post returns, October,
1828.]
[Footnote 801: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XIV, 70; Wentworth,
Early Chicago, 27.]
[Footnote 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.]
For two and one-half years companies A and I of the Fifth Infantry
continued to garrison Fort Dearborn. Major Fowle remained in command
until December, 1830, when he was granted six months' leave of absence
and Lieutenant Hunter succeeded to the command. He later became
prominent in his profession and during the Civil War rose to the rank
of major-general. At this time he was a West Point graduate of eight
years' standing, who since his arrival at Fort Dearborn in the autumn
of 1829 had wooed and married Maria Indiana, the daughter of John
Kinzie. Captain Martin Scott, another member of the little group of
officers in this period, was noted for his eccentricities.[803] He was
famous for his skill as a marksman and passionately fond of hunting.
Probably because of this trait, he maintained a numerous array of dogs.
Both Scott and Hunter had been stationed at Fort Snelling, where each
acquired a reputation for firmness, not to say obstinacy, in adhering
to views which had once been formed. Upon one occasion they determined
to find out by actual experiment which could abstain the longer from
eating. At the end of two days Scott surrendered unconditionally; it
was the general opinion of the garrison that Hunter would have perished
rather than yield.
[Footnote 803: For an intimate characterization of Captain Scott see
Van Cleve, _Three Score Years and Ten_, chap. iii.]
Notwithstanding the scare which had caused the regarrisoning of Fort
Dearborn, the months passed into years without any occasion for the
actual services of the soldiers arising. In the spring of 1831 the fort
was again abandoned, the garrison being ordered to Green Bay.[804] Less
than a year later, however, Major Whistler, who had seen the first Fort
Dearborn built in 1803, was ordered from Fort Niagara to Chicago with
two companies of the Second Infantry.[805] He arrived on June 17, 1832,
and for the third time since its rebuilding, less than a score of years
before, Fort Dearborn housed a garrison. The order for its reoccupation
was issued in February, but before Whistler's force arrived the Black
Hawk War had begun and Chicago and Fort Dearborn were crowded with
panic-stricken settlers. The disaffected Sac leader. Black Hawk, on
April 6, at the head of five hundred warriors and their squaws and
children, had crossed the Mississippi River and begun the invasion of
the state of Illinois. Therewith began for Illinois her last Indian
war, and for Chicago and Fort Dearborn a period of excitement and
activity on a greater scale than the place had ever known.
[Footnote 804: Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 30. An account of the
breaking-up of the garrison is given by Mrs. Kinzie in _Wau Bun_,
chaps, xxiii and xxiv.]
[Footnote 805: Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 30.]
The Black Hawk War constitutes one of the saddest chapters in all
the long story of the spoliation of the red race at the hands of
the white. Notable for the number of men of national prominence in
American history who participated in it, it is no less notable for the
blundering and unworthy course pursued by the whites, first in bringing
it on and second in waging it to a conclusion. The names of two
Presidents of the United States, Abraham Lincoln and Zachary Taylor;
of the only President of the Southern Confederacy, Jefferson Davis; of
a presidential candidate, and for a full generation the most notable
soldier in America, Winfield Scott; of senators and governors and
generals in profusion--A. C. Dodge, Henry Dodge, John Reynolds, George
W. Jones, Sidney Breese, Henry Atkinson, Albert Sydney Johnston, Joseph
E. Johnston, David E, Twiggs, S. P. Heintzelman, John A. McClernand, E.
D. Baker, William S. Harney, and Robert Anderson, among others--furnish
ample evidence that no other Indian war in American history was
participated in by so many notable men.[806]
[Footnote 806: This list of participants is drawn from the Drennan
Papers, Fort Dearborn post returns, and Stevens, _Black Hawk War_,
_passim_.]
The history of the war may be found in many places, and the design
of the present narrative is limited to a recital of it from the point
of view of its bearing upon Chicago and the results for Chicago's
development which proceeded from it.[807] Black Hawk had planned
his return to Illinois under the belief that the Winnebagoes,
Pottawatomies, and other tribes and even the British would ally with
him against the Americans.[808] Before the actual crossing he was
partly disabused of this idea, but only in part. His immediate purpose
was to raise a crop of corn on Rock River, with the Winnebagoes of
that locality, and prepare for active warfare in the fall. This design
was frustrated by the action of the whites. Governor Reynolds promptly
called out the Illinois militia, and early in May four regiments,
numbering sixteen hundred men, accompanied by Governor Reynolds
himself, were at Fort Armstrong, ready to co-operate with the small
force of regulars under Atkinson in the pursuit and overthrow of Black
Hawk's band.[809]
[Footnote 807: Many contemporary' narratives are printed in the volumes
of the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_; for the most part they
should be used with discrimination. For a sane and useful brief account
of the war see Thwaites, "Story of the Black Hawk War." in _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XII, 217-65. Stevens, _Black Hawk War_, is a
detailed and valuable narrative. In using it due allowance must be made
for the author's too evident anti-Indian bias.]
[Footnote 808: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XII, 227, 231.]
[Footnote 809: _Ibid._, XII, 232-34.]
Meanwhile Black Hawk had learned in a council with the Pottawatomies
that while Big Foot and some others were hot for war, the bands of
Shabbona and Wabansia were determined to remain at peace with the
whites. The news of Black Hawk's incursion spread rapidly among the
scattered settlements, carrying in its train confusion and panic.
Many of the settlers abandoned their homes and fled for protection to
the larger settlements; some left the country never to return; others
gathered for mutual protection within rude stockade forts, which were
hastily improvised. On May 14 an advance division of the pursuing army
under Major Stillman encountered Black Hawk and a small number of
his warriors, and in the engagement that ensued the whites sustained
a disgraceful defeat.[810] The raw Illinois militiamen, filled with
zeal for the killing of Indians, rushed headlong into the contest,
regardless of the efforts of their officers to restrain them. Although
they outnumbered the Indians in the proportion of eight or ten to
one,[811] their flight, upon receiving the first fire of the latter,
was no less precipitate. For all but a handful, who fell fighting
bravely to cover the retreat, the flight continued to Dixon's Ferry,
twenty-five miles away, and many did not pause even here, but pressed
madly on to their homes.
[Footnote 810: On the battle of Stillman's Run see _ibid._, XII,
236-30; Stevens, _op. cit._, chap, xix.]
[Footnote 811: Stillman's force numbered three hundred and forty-one
men; Black Hawk stated that he had forty followers, and Reynolds
credited him with not to exceed fifty or sixty (_Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, XII, 235, 237).]
In comparison with the panic which ensued upon the news of Stillman's
overthrow, the earlier panic of the settlers, from which they had
already recovered in a measure, seemed trivial.[812] The terror excited
by the exaggerated stories of the militia spread consternation, not
only throughout the frontier immediately affected, but eastward into
Indiana and southern Michigan.[813] Rumor multiplied many fold the
number of Black Hawk's followers. From Dixon's Ferry, on the day after
the defeat of Stillman, Governor Reynolds "by the light of a solitary
candle" penned a call for two thousand more volunteers.[814] Shabbona
and his friends, at the risk of their own lives, set forth to warn
the settlers of their danger.[815] Most of them fled to cover. At
Chicago, where the citizens had organized a militia company early in
May, the whole surrounding population gathered within Fort Dearborn,
with two hundred armed men on guard. Yet in the terror of the first
panic an appeal was dispatched to the acting governor of Michigan for
assistance.[816]
[Footnote 812: _Ibid._, XII, 238-40; Beggs, _Early History of the West
and Northwest_, 97 ff.]
[Footnote 813: For a semi-humorous account of the panic in southwestern
Michigan see Henry Little, "A History of the Black Hawk War in 1832,"
in _Michigan Pioneer Collections_, V, 152 ff. On the scare in Indiana
see, _e.g._, [Banta] _History of Johnson County, Indiana_, 126 ff.]
[Footnote 814: Stevens, _op. cit._, 139.]
[Footnote 815: _Ibid._, 148; _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XII,
39; Matson. Memories of Shaubena, 114 ff.]
[Footnote 816: The muster-roll of the Chicago company is printed
in Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 64-65. For the appeal to the acting
governor of Michigan for assistance see letter of Thomas Owen, Indian
agent at Chicago, May 21, 1832, printed in the _New York Mercury_, June
6, 1832.]
Of the scenes of wild confusion and fear which attended the flight
of the settlers to Chicago and other points, and the hardships
endured at Chicago, a graphic description has been left by one of the
participants. Rev. Stephen R. Beggs.[817] He had recently settled at
Plainfield, Illinois, when "the inhabitants came flying from Fox River,
through great fear of their much dreaded enemy. They came with their
cattle and horses, some bareheaded and others barefooted, crying, 'The
Indians! The Indians!'" Those of the adjoining settlements who were
able fled with all speed for Danville, only a few of the men remaining
behind to look after their property as best they might. Some friendly
Indians shortly came to allay their fears, but believing them to be
hostile, without allowing them an opportunity to explain, the settlers
mounted horses and fled after those who had gone before. The Indians
pursued, seeking vainly to correct the mistake, but this served only to
increase the terror of the whites.
[Footnote 817: Beggs, _op. cit._, 97 ff.]
The residents of Plainfield at first determined to defend themselves.
The house of Beggs was turned into a fort, the outbuildings being torn
down to furnish logs for the construction of a breastwork. Here one
hundred and twenty-five people, old and young, assembled. Ammunition
was scarce, however, and they had but four guns among them. As the
next best means of defense a supply of axes, hoes, forks, and clubs
was requisitioned. A few days later the Chicago militia to the number
of twenty-five, hearing of their plight, came, accompanied by an equal
number of friendly Indians, to the rescue. The next day militia and
Indians in separate companies set forth to reconnoiter along the Fox.
At nightfall one of the whites and a few of the Indians returned,
bringing "fearful stories" of having been captured by the Indians, and
the warning that Fort Beggs would be attacked that night or the next at
the latest.
This information precipitated a fresh panic. "The stoutest hearts
failed them, and strong men turned pale, while women and children wept
and fainted, till it hardly seemed possible to restore them to life,
and almost cruel for them to return from their quiet unconsciousness
to a sense of their danger." Immediate flight, either to Ottawa
or Chicago, was debated, but after discussion was dismissed as
impracticable, and the resolution was reached to remain in the fort
and sell their lives as dearly as possible. Two days passed with
occasional alarms, when every man was ordered to his post to prepare
to meet an attack. Instead of the enemy, however, the Chicago militia
appeared. The joy of the inmates of Fort Beggs was tempered by the
news they brought of the terrible Indian Creek massacre a dozen miles
north of Ottawa.[818] The Chicagoans advised the immediate abandonment
of Fort Beggs and retirement either to Ottawa or Chicago. The latter
destination was decided upon, and the ensuing night was spent in busy
preparation for the march. Early the next morning the company set
out, escorted by the Chicago militia, and by sunset had completed the
forty-mile journey to Chicago and safety.
[Footnote 818: This occurred on Tuesday, May 20, 1832. Beggs states
(_op. cit._, 101) that the Chicagoans brought the news of it to
Plainfield on Wednesday evening. For an account of the massacre and the
narrative of the captivity of the Hall girls, the only prisoners taken,
see Stevens, _op. cit._, 146 ff.]
Although Chicago afforded the fugitives a safe refuge, there was for
them no cessation of hardship. The place was crowded to overflowing.
Beggs and his wife were compelled to take up their abode in a room
fifteen feet square, already occupied by several other families. The
plight of the inmates under such conditions may easily be imagined. One
afternoon in the midst of a violent thunderstorm a stroke of lightning
broke open the end of their room and passed down the wall to the
room beneath, leaving a charred seam within a few inches of a keg of
gunpowder. The next morning Mrs. Beggs gave birth to a child. If the
chronicler's statistics are accurate, fifteen infants were born during
their stay at the fort.
Whatever apprehensions of danger the refugees at Chicago were still
under must have been materially relieved by the arrival on June 12 of
a force of Michigan militia under General J. R. Williams. Assembled at
Detroit and other points in the latter part of May, they had finally
pushed forward, after numerous vicissitudes arising from incompetent
leadership, to Chicago, where they assumed for a short time the
responsibility of the defense of Fort Dearborn.[819] This service
was terminated by the arrival successively, on June 17, of the two
companies of regulars under Major Whistler from Fort Niagara, and
five days later of a regiment of three hundred mounted militia from
embark on board the "Napoleon" for transportation across the lake to
St. Joseph, whence they were to be marched to Niles and mustered out
of the service. Many of the settlers who had taken refuge at Fort
Dearborn shortly began to depart, some of them under armed escort, for
their homes.[820] Meanwhile from the seat of government at Washington
the military had been set in motion for the scene of war, and Chicago
became the appointed rendezvous for a larger body of soldiery than had
ever yet been gathered here. From Fortress Monroe. Fort McHenry, Fort
Columbus, Fort Niagara, Fort Gratiot, Fort Brady, and other places
infantry and artillery to the number of one thousand men were started
for Chicago, and General Winfield Scott was ordered from the seaboard
to take charge of the operations against Black Hawk.[821] Three weeks
after the arrival of Major Whistler's detachment General Scott arrived.
With him, too, came a peril before which the menace of the hostile
Indians paled into insignificance. Instead of peace and tranquillity,
the settlers were plunged anew into panic by the appearance in their
midst of the dreaded Asiatic cholera.
[Footnote 819: On the movements of the Michigan militia see Stevens,
_op. cit._, chap, xxxvii.]
[Footnote 820: Beggs, _op. cit._, 104.]
[Footnote 821: _Drennan Papers_, copies of orders to the various
detachments, and post returns of the troops sent to Chicago; _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XII, 241.]
From Europe where it had prevailed for many weeks the cholera crossed
the ocean, making its first appearance in America at Quebec in the
early part of June.[822] From here it quickly passed up the St.
Lawrence to Montreal and then southward to Albany. The legislature
of New York met in special session, June 21, to devise measures for
preventing the spread of the disease, but less than two weeks later it
reached New York City, and by July 4 eleven deaths from it had occurred
there. The next day was observed as a day of fasting and prayer by
many of the churches of the city but the plague rapidly increased in
virulence and in the two weeks ending July 28 over fourteen hundred
deaths occurred. By the end of August the disease had practically
spent its force in New York, but meanwhile the pestilential wave was
passing southward and westward over the country. By late autumn it
was estimated that one thousand deaths from cholera had occurred at
Philadelphia and an equal number at Baltimore, and at New Orleans
over a hundred persons a day were dying from cholera and yellow fever
combined, a rate which, if continued, would depopulate the city in a
year's time.[823]
[Footnote 822: _New York Mercury_, June 20, 1832, November 21, 1832,
_et passim_.]
[Footnote 823: _Ibid._, November 21, 1832.]
During the latter part of June the various detachments of regulars from
the Atlantic Coast were proceeding toward Chicago.[824] At Buffalo
the troops embarked on board the steamers, "Henry Clay," "Superior,"
"William Penn," and "Sheldon Thompson."[825] While passing up the
lakes the cholera made its appearance among the soldiers. More potent
than the hostile red man, it disrupted the expedition.[826] Two of the
vessels got no farther than Fort Gratiot, where the virulence of the
pestilence compelled the soldiers to land.[827] The others continued,
after a period of delay, to Chicago, where the troops were compelled to
halt until the pestilence had spent its force and the survivors were
again fit for the field.
[Footnote 824: _Drennan Papers_, Fort Dearborn post returns. Six
companies of artillery from Fortress Monroe left New York June 26, and
on June 30 were at Clyde in that state. Company E, Fourth Artillery,
started from Fort McHenry, June 18. The route followed by the seaboard
companies was by way of New York City to Buffalo and thence by vessel
around the lakes.]
[Footnote 825: Letter of Captain A. Walker, October 30, 1860, in
_Chicago Weekly Democrat_, March 23, 1861.]
[Footnote 826: For an account of Scott's expedition and the cholera
outbreak see Stevens, _op. cit._, chap, xxxvi; Scott's own narrative
is given in his Memoirs, I, chap, xviii; additional material occurs
in Wentworth, Early Chicago, passim; Niles' Register, Vols. XLII and
XLIII, _passim_; the _New York Mercury_ for 1832, _passim_.]
[Footnote 827: Letter of Captain A. Walker in Chicago Weekly Democrat,
March 23, 1861; letter from an officer on the _Henry Clay_, in _New
York Mercury_, July 18, 1832.]
The ravages among the men of the detachment of Colonel Twiggs which
was landed at Fort Gratiot were so awful as to banish discipline to the
winds.[828] Those of the command who were not stricken dispersed in
every direction. Many, stricken later, died in the woods or along the
roadway, the terrified inhabitants refusing them shelter or assistance.
According to a letter from an officer of the Second Infantry, dated
July 11, of Twiggs' three hundred and seventy men, twenty or thirty had
died and about two hundred had deserted.[829] From another contemporary
newspaper report it appears that the detachment consisted of both
infantry and artillery, and that the great majority of desertions
occurred in the former branch of the service.[830] Of two hundred and
eight recruits, thirty had died and one hundred and fifty-five had
deserted; while of one hundred and fifty-two artillerymen, twenty-six
had died and but twenty had deserted.
[Footnote 828: Letters of John Nowell in Niles' Register, July 28,
1832; of Captain A. Walker in _Chicago Weekly Democrat_, March 23,
1861; letters from Detroit (unsigned) in _New York Mercury_, July 18,
1832.]
[Footnote 829: _New York Mercury_, July 18, 1832.]
[Footnote 830: _Niles' Register_, August 11, 1832.]
No fatalities occurred on the "Sheldon Thompson," the steamer on
which General Scott had embarked, until Mackinac had been passed and
Lake Michigan entered. Before setting out for the Northwest Scott,
anticipating an outbreak of the plague, had taken lessons from Surgeon
Mower, stationed in New York, upon its character and treatment.[831]
On Scott's particular steamer the disease broke out suddenly and with
fatal violence. The only surgeon on board became panic-stricken, drank
a bottle of wine, and went to bed sick, and, to quote the commander's
grim comment, "ought to have died." In this crisis Scott himself
turned doctor, applying as best he could the medicine and treatment
suggested by Surgeon Mower. He himself states that his principal
success consisted in preventing a general panic. From beginning to
end of the cholera visitation he set the example to his subordinates
of exhibiting no sign of fear concerning it, visiting and personally
attending to the wants of the afflicted. In comparison with this
exhibition of fearlessness, the courage required on the field of
battle seems trivial.[832] Some time after the Mexican War, Scott
told John Wentworth that he had often been in the midst of danger and
suffering, but "he had never felt his entire helplessness and need of
Divine Providence as he did upon the lakes in the midst of the Asiatic
Cholera. Sentinels were of no use in warning of the enemy's approach.
He could not storm his works, fortify against him, nor cut his own way
out, nor make terms of capitulation. There was no respect for a flag
of truce, and his men were falling upon all sides from an enemy in his
very midst."[833]
[Footnote 831: Scott, _Memoirs_, I, 218 ff.]
[Footnote 832: The terror of the troops and of the citizens in the
vicinity of Detroit has already been noticed. A concrete instance of
the dread which the cholera inspired is given by Mrs. Kinzie, who was
at Green Bay when the news of the approach of the plague reached that
place. She relates (_Wau Bun_, 340) that the news was brought to her
by a relative, "an officer who had exhibited the most distinguished
courage in the battlefield, and also in some private enterprises
demanding unequalled courage and daring." When he had broken the news
he "laid his head against the window-sill and wept like a child." This
effect was produced, not by the actual presence of the pestilence, but
by the news of its ravages at Detroit and the fear of its advent at
Green Bay.]
[Footnote 833: Wentworth, _Early Chicago_, 37.]
The "Sheldon Thompson" reached Chicago on the afternoon of July
10.[834] Since there was no harbor, and the bar at the mouth made it
impossible for the vessel to enter the river, the troops must be landed
in small boats, which was done the next day. The troops under Major
Whistler, who had been occupying Fort Dearborn since June 17, were
promptly moved out and on July 11 the fort was converted into a general
hospital for the use of Scott's men.[835] During the night which
elapsed between the arrival at Chicago and the landing of the troops
the following morning three more of the company died and their bodies
were consigned to the bottom of the lake. Years afterward the captain
of the steamer recalled that their forms could plainly be seen through
the clear water from the deck, exciting such disagreeable sensations in
the minds of the beholders that it was deemed prudent to weigh anchor
and shift the vessel a sufficient distance from the spot to shut out
the gruesome sight.[836]
[Footnote 834: Scott to Governor Reynolds, July 15, 1832, in _Niles'
Register_, August 11, 1832.]
[Footnote 835: _Drennan Papers_, Fort Dearborn post returns, October,
1832.]
[Footnote 836: Letter of Captain A. Walker, in _Chicago Weekly
Democrat_, March 23, 1861.]
For several days the pestilence raged at Fort Dearborn with violence
similar to that previously manifested at Fort Gratiot. The official
medical report shows that two hundred cases were admitted to the
hospital in the course of six or seven days, fifty-eight of which
terminated fatally.[837] The terror which the cholera inspired was due
as much, apparently, to the rapid progress of the disease as to the
high percentage of mortality which prevailed among its victims. The
first soldier who perished on the "Henry Clay" was stricken in the
evening of July 5 and died seven hours later.[838] On Scott's vessel,
the "Sheldon Thompson," men died in six hours after being in perfect
health. Sergeant Heyl "was well at nine o'clock in the morning--he was
at the bottom of Lake Michigan at seven o'clock in the afternoon."[839]
The author of the statement which has just been quoted gives a graphic
description of his own illness, from which at the time of writing he
was in process of recovering. He was serving as officer of the day
when the "Sheldon Thompson" arrived at Chicago, and superintended the
landing of the sick on board the vessel. "I had scarcely got through
my task," he wrote two days later, "when I was thrown down on the deck
almost as suddenly as if shot. As I was walking on the lower deck I
felt my legs growing stiff from my knees downward. I went on the upper
deck and walked violently to keep up the circulation of the blood. I
felt suddenly a rush of blood from my feet upwards, and as it rose my
veins grew cold and my blood curdled.... My legs and hands were cramped
with violent pain."[840]
[Footnote 837: Hyde, _Early Medical Chicago_, 18-19. I have not had
access to the original report on which this statement is based.
Hyde says these two hundred cases occurred among "the Entire force
of one thousand." This statement, which does not include Whistler's
two companies, is evidently erroneous. The entire force ordered to
Chicago numbered only a thousand men, and several hundred of these had
already been dissipated through death and desertion, or by delaying
at Fort Gratiot and elsewhere. I have not learned the number of men
at Fort Dearborn at this time, but evidently it was much less than
one thousand; the rate of sickness and mortality was, of course,
correspondingly greater.]
[Footnote 838: _New York Mercury_, July 18, 1832.]
[Footnote 839: Letter from an officer of Scott's command, dated Fort
Dearborn, July 12, _Niles' Register_, August 11, 1832.]
[Footnote 840: _Ibid._]
Some interest attaches to the methods employed by physicians in
treating the disease, especially in view of what transpired at Chicago.
In general it may be said that on both sides of the ocean the medical
profession was helpless to stay its course. In London over one-half
of the twenty-three hundred and eighty-two cases which occurred prior
to April 12 terminated fatally.[841] At the same time the deaths in
Paris from cholera numbered several hundred daily. It was everywhere
noted that persons addicted to intemperance were especially prone to
fall before the disease. The first six victims among the soldiers
on the "Henry Clay" were all intemperate men.[842] The surgeon who
attended Scott's men at Fort Dearborn treated all cases with calomel
and blood-letting. This proved so efficacious, according to his report,
that he regarded the disease as "robbed of its terrors."[843] In view
of the nature of the remedies employed, and the fact that fifty-eight
of the two hundred cases admitted to the hospital terminated fatally,
in addition to the deaths which occurred on board the steamer, the
grounds for his satisfaction are not entirely clear. But few fatalities
occurred among the men of Major Whistler's two companies, who had
been removed some distance from the fort and were attended by another
physician, Doctor Harmon.[844] Strangely enough he attributed his
success to the fact that he did not employ calomel in the treatment of
the disease. That some of the soldiers who came with Scott to Chicago
were subjected to other treatment than the blood-letting and calomel
described in the surgeon's report seems evident from the statements
of the officer whose sudden seizure on board the "Sheldon Thompson"
has been described. The doctor administered eight grains of opium to
him and made him rub his legs as fast as he could; he was also made to
drink a tumbler and a half of raw brandy. At the time of writing the
patient described himself as "out of danger," but whether because of
this treatment would be hazardous to affirm.
[Footnote 841: _New York Mercury_, May 23, 1832.]
[Footnote 842: Letter from Fort Gratiot dated July 7, 1832; _ibid._,
July 18, 1832.]
[Footnote 843: Hyde, _Early Medical Chicago_, 19.]
[Footnote 844: _Ibid._, 14.]
The spread of the contagion at Chicago was checked before the end of
July, and on the twenty-ninth of the month Scott set out, accompanied
by a few officers, along the Chicago-Galena trail for the seat of
war, leaving orders for Lieutenant-colonel Eustis to follow him with
all of the troops who should be able to move by the third of August.
Scott reached Prairie du Chien and assumed command of the army on
August 7, only to find that the war had been brought to a close.
The Illinois militia under Henry and Dodge and the regulars under
Atkinson had roused Black Hawk's band from the wilderness fastness
to which it had retired in the neighborhood of Lake Koshkonong, and
hotly pursued it across southern Wisconsin, through the beautiful
Four-Lakes country where the capital of the state has since been
located, to the Mississippi River about forty miles above the mouth
of the Wisconsin. Here on August 2 in the battle of the Bad Axe,
which shortly degenerated into a massacre, Black Hawk's band was
practically destroyed, and the war concluded. The red leader himself,
seeing the end at hand, had deserted his party the night before the
battle, and with a few followers had fled eastward to the Dalles of the
Wisconsin.[845] About three hundred of his deserted band succeeded in
escaping across the Mississippi, either before or during the affair at
the Bad Axe, but half of these were shortly slaughtered by a party of
one hundred Sioux, whom General Atkinson had sent after them. Of the
band of nearly one thousand persons who had crossed the Mississippi
in April not more than one hundred and fifty lived to tell the tragic
story of the Black Hawk War, "a tale fraught with dishonor to the
American name."[846]
[Footnote 845: Thwaites, "Story of the Black Hawk War," in _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XII, 258.]
[Footnote 846: _Ibid._, XII, 261.]
General Scott's first act after assuming command of the army was to
order the discharge of the volunteers.[847] On August 10 he started
down the Mississippi by steamer to Fort Armstrong, intending there
to bring the war to a formal close by the negotiation of a treaty of
peace. The troops from Chicago, who were making their way, meanwhile,
across Illinois to the seat of war in obedience to Scott's orders,
were met at Dixon's Ferry by news of the termination of the war, and
orders to change their destination to Fort Armstrong. Here, while
awaiting the bringing-in of the prisoners, and examining those brought
in to determine their share of responsibility for the war, Scott was
once more confronted by the enemy that had wrought such havoc among
the troops in the journey around the Lakes and at Chicago. About
August 26 the cholera again broke out among his troops with all the
virulence of a first attack.[848] Four companies of United States
Rangers had been enlisted, one from Illinois, two from Indiana, and
one from Missouri.[849] The Illinois company, while proceeding to
the seat of war, had been, like Eustis' detachment of regulars from
Chicago, directed to make its way to Rock Island. On the way down Rock
River from Dixon's Ferry, the soldiers were attacked by cholera; some
were left behind, ill, on the march, and others died after reaching
camp near Rock Island. Whether or not it was brought by these troops,
the disease soon made its appearance in Rock Island, the first death
occurring August 27.[850]
[Footnote 847: Stevens, _op. cit._, 247-48.]
[Footnote 848: Scott, _Memoirs_, I, 221; _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, X, 231.]
[Footnote 849: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, X, 231.]
[Footnote 850: Scott's Order No. 16, August S, 1832, printed in
Stevens, _op. cit._, 248-40.]
The outbreak of the plague halted, for the time being, the progress
of arrangements for the treaty. The Indians who had not yet assembled
were directed to remain away until a new summons should be sent them,
and those at hand were permitted to disperse. In this connection there
occurred a striking exhibition of the red man's devotion to his code
of honor. Among the prisoners whose cases were awaiting disposition
were three Sacs who were accused of having murdered some Menominees
in accordance with the Indian law of retaliation. Scott set them at
liberty to seek safety in the prairies from the pestilence, having
first exacted a promise that in response to a prearranged signal, to
be hung out from, a dead tree on the subsidence of the pest, they
would return to stand their trial. The cholera having passed away the
signal was displayed, and a day or two later the murderers presented
themselves.[851] It is pleasing to be able to add that an appeal which
Scott had already dispatched to Washington in their behalf met with a
favorable response and that it was not necessary to take the lives of
the men who esteemed their honor so highly.
[Footnote 851: Stevens, _loc. cit._, Scott, _Memoirs_, I, 221-23.]
Scott's measures for coping with the cholera at Rock Island were no
less energetic and courageous than those he had already taken in
dealing with the earlier outbreak of the plague. In a characteristic
order to his troops, issued the day after the first death occurred, he
recited the facts of the situation and commanded a strict observance
of the proper sanitary regulations.[852] He stated that having himself
seen much of the disease, he knew the generating cause of it to be
intemperance. Every soldier, therefore, who should be found intoxicated
after the issuance of this order would be compelled, as soon as his
strength should permit, to dig a grave large enough for his own
reception, as such grave could not fail soon to be wanted "for the
drunken man himself or some drunken companion." This order was given,
it was added, as well to serve for the punishment of drunkenness as
to spare good and temperate men the labor of digging graves for their
worthless companions.
[Footnote 852: Stevens, _op. cit._, 248-49.]
The troops were camped in tents in close order exposed for several
days to cold rains.[853] The groans and screams of the afflicted,
audible to everyone, added to the horror of the scene. In the face
of this situation the hearts of the stoutest quailed. Through it all
General Scott ministered personally to the wants of the afflicted,
officers and privates alike, freely exposing himself to disease and
death in the most terrible form, and by his example exciting confidence
and courage in all.[854] The ravages of the cholera were finally
checked by removing the troops from their camp on Rock Island to small
camps on the bluffs on the Iowa side of the Mississippi.[855]
[Footnote 853: Captain Henry Smith's narrative, in _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, X, 165. The author was himself an officer in
General Atkinson's brigade during the war.]
[Footnote 854: _Ibid._; Scott, _Memoirs_, I, 230-32.]
[Footnote 855: Flagler, _Rock Island Arsenal_, 22; _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, X, 166.]
On September 15 and 21, 1832, treaties were concluded by General Scott
and Governor Reynolds, acting on behalf of the United States, with the
Winnebago and the Sac and Fox Indians respectively, which formally
terminated the war.[856] The former were compelled to cede their lands
in southern Wisconsin to the United States, and accept in their stead
a new home west of the Mississippi in the modern state of Iowa; the
latter surrendered an important tract of their territory on the western
side of the Mississippi, extending northward from the northern boundary
of Missouri. Thus was punishment meted out by the victors--to the Sacs
and Foxes for their active participation in the war, to the Winnebagoes
for the sympathy and covert assistance extended by them to the former.
Black Hawk, the leader of the forlorn red hope in this disastrous
foray, was taken, after several months' imprisonment, upon a tour of
the East, with the design of imbuing him with a conviction of the
futility of further resistance to the whites. Upon his return, shorn of
all political power, he was permitted to live out the remainder of his
life in retirement, the quiet and peace of which contrasted strangely
with the tempestuousness of his active career. No better defense of
his action in going to war with the whites can be made than he himself
offered in the course of a Fourth of July speech shortly before his
death: "Rock River was a beautiful country. I loved my towns, my
cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought for it."[857]
[Footnote 856: _Treaties ... from 1778 to 1837_, 503 ff.]
[Footnote 857: Stevens, _op. cit._, 271.]
Upon the conclusion of peace the troops which had been gathered at
Rock Island were dispersed in various directions. The survivors of
the six companies of artillery which had left Fortress Monroe in June
for the seat of war returned to that place in November. Their return
route from Rock Island was down the Mississippi and up the Ohio and
the Kanawha to Charleston and thence across Virginia to the final
destination.[858] On September 23 six companies of infantry of the
Second and Fifth Regiments under Lieutenant-colonel Cummings left Rock
Island for Chicago.[859] Seven days later the detachment was in camp,
on the east branch of the "River du Pagan" near Chicago.[860] Evidently
the "Du Pagan" was the modern Du Page. The next day Major Whistler's
two companies of the Second Infantry, which were included in the
detachment, moved into Chicago and once more took up their quarters in
Fort Dearborn. Two days later, October 3, Lieutenant-colonel Cummings
left Chicago for Fort Niagara with the two companies of the Fifth
Infantry which had come from that place four months before to take
part in the war. The destination of the remaining companies of the
detachment which had marched from Rock Island to Chicago is not in
evidence.
[Footnote 858: _Niles' Register_, November 17, 1832.]
[Footnote 859: _Drennan Papers_, Fort Dearborn post returns for 1832.]
[Footnote 860: _Ibid._]
Thus the Black Hawk War passed into history. It remains to speak
of the momentous results for Chicago and the country west of Lake
Michigan which accrued from it. By the war the beautiful region of
northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin was first fairly made known to
the whites. "The troops acted as explorers of a large tract of which
nothing had hitherto been definitely known among white men."[861]
It has even been said that portions of the country which the armies
traversed had previously been as little known to the Indians themselves
"as the interior of Africa was to Stanley when he first groped his way
across the Dark Continent." One of the Illinois militiamen wrote of the
Four-Lakes country that if these lakes were anywhere else they would
be regarded as among the wonders of the world.[862] On the shores of
one of them stands today the capital of Wisconsin, and on the very spot
over which the troops of Dodge and Henry pressed in hot pursuit of the
fleeing red men has grown up one of America's greatest universities.
With the close of the war the East was flooded with books, pamphlets,
and newspaper articles describing the newly discovered paradise. The
result of this thorough advertising was a rush of immigrants to take
possession of it. No other point in all the West profited by this as
did Chicago. Her position at the foot of Lake Michigan, on the great
highway of trade and travel between the lakes and the Mississippi,
which it was expected the construction of the canal from the Chicago
River to the Illinois, long under agitation, would shortly open up,
secured to her commercial advantages which no other point in the
Northwest could rival. Chicago became, therefore, the great entrepôt
for the onrushing tide of immigrants. In turn the development of her
hinterland provided the substantial basis for a trade, growing ever
vaster, of which Chicago constituted the natural outlet and center. The
fulfilment of the prophecy made by Schoolcraft a dozen years before
that Chicago would become the dèpôt for the inland commerce between the
northern and southern sections of the Union, and "a great thoroughfare
for strangers, merchants, and travellers," was at hand. The lethargy of
a century and a half was about to be thrown off, in the birth of a new
Chicago whose name was to become the synonym for energy, enthusiasm,
and progress.
[Footnote 861: Thwaites, "Story of the Black Hawk War," in _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XII, 264.]
[Footnote 862: Wakefield, quoted in _ibid._, XII, 252.]