CHAPTER XIII.
COUNCIL–MILITIA ORGANIZED–MARCH TO BLACK HAWK’S VILLAGE–FLIGHT–VILLAGE
BURNED–TREATY OF 1831.
Once awakened, General Gaines lost no time in bringing about a
convention with the Indians, to avoid, if possible the trouble of a
demonstration, but Black Hawk was fired with hatred and unprepared to
accept any terms whatsoever. A council or talk was had in the council
chamber at Fort Armstrong, which Black Hawk and his British sympathizers
attended in numbers, and all fully armed. General Gaines opened the
council by stating that the great father at Washington desired only what
was right, and closed by insisting that the Indians should remove
peaceably. Black Hawk replied that the Sacs had never sold their lands
and were determined not to give up their village. General Gaines then
asked: “Who is Black Hawk? Is he a chief? By what right does he appear
in council?” To these questions Black Hawk that day made no reply, but
on the following morning he was again in his seat. When the council
opened he arose and, addressing General Gaines, said: “My father, you
inquired yesterday, ‘Who is Black Hawk? Why does he sit among the
chiefs?’ I will tell you who I am. I am a Sac; I am a warrior, and so
was my father. Ask those young men who have followed me to battle, and
they will tell you who Black Hawk is; provoke our people to war and you
will learn who Black Hawk is.”[74] It is further recorded of this
meeting that in the heat of passion Black Hawk called General Gaines a
liar and made demonstrations to kill him, which were only averted by the
coolness of Gaines in parrying his threats by words of calmness. In this
delicate affair Antoine LeClaire, the interpreter, was a powerful factor
in smothering the threatened disturbance. The situation has been briefly
set out in fortieth of Niles Register, page 310, as follows:
“Encampment, Rock Island, June 8th.
“We yesterday had a talk with the Indians, and from their
determination not to leave the white settlements, and from their
numbers, we shall have pretty serious work; that is, we shall have no
play. They came into the council house yesterday with their spears,
hatchets and bows strung. I have no doubt, from the extreme agitation
of the interpreter, that there was more danger than most were aware
of, as our troops were near a quarter of a mile off and they were
about ten for one of us.”
[Illustration: GEN. EDMUND P. GAINES.]
[Illustration: GOV. JOHN REYNOLDS.]
[Illustration: MR. FRANCIS ARENZ.]
[Illustration: COL. SAMUEL C. CHRISTY.]
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If any proof of hostility had been theretofore wanting, that
demonstration supplied it and determined General Gaines to act heartily
in conjunction with Governor Reynolds, and hastily as well.
Men left their plows, and, with little or no preparation, hastened to
Beardstown, where twice the number of volunteers asked assembled. In
bringing this expedition about, with as little hardship as possible,
Governor Reynolds summoned none south of St. Clair or east of Sangamon
counties.
None brought provisions and many failed to bring firearms, as requested
in the call, but through the unusual resourcefulness of Colonels Enoch
C. March and Samuel C. Christy, who were appointed quartermasters,
supplies were quickly and abundantly provided, and by the good fortune
of finding with Mr. Francis Arenz, a merchant of Beardstown, a
consignment of brass guns, designed for the South American trade, but
not so used, arms for all were provided. Governor Reynolds seemed
determined not to conform to the punctilio of bureau fighting.
To organize the army, Governor Reynolds appointed as his aids James D.
Henry and Milton K. Alexander. The task was difficult, but it was done
satisfactorily. It must be remembered that the men were unaccustomed to
subordination; many aspiring politicians whose appeals could not be
ignored clamored for recognition; many more troops than were needed
appeared, and to turn any number back might have jeopardized the success
of the expedition, yet all conditions were met and harmoniously
adjusted.
Joseph Duncan of the state militia, afterward Governor, was appointed
Brigadier General, to assume immediate command of the brigade,[75] and
William Thomas was appointed Brigade Quartermaster; William G. Brown,
Paymaster General, and A. Atkins, Isom M. Gillham and Enoch B. Wethers,
aids to General Duncan. E.D. Taylor was his Adjutant and J.J. Hardin
Inspector General on his staff.
The brigade was divided into two regiments, a minor odd battalion and a
spy battalion. The First Regiment was composed of seven companies,
commanded by Captains Adam Smith, William F. Elkin, Achilles Morris,
Thomas Carlin,[76] John Lorton, Samuel C. Pierce or Pearce and Samuel
Smith, the staff officers being James D. Henry,[77] Colonel; Jacob Fry,
Lieutenant-Colonel; John T. Stuart, Major; Thomas Collins, Adjutant;
Edward Jones, Quartermaster; Thomas M. Neale, Paymaster.
The Second Regiment was composed of seven companies, commanded by
Captains H. Mathews, John Haines, George Bristow, William Gillham, Hiram
Kincaid, Alexander Wells and William Weatherford; the staff officers, so
far as known, being: Daniel Lieb, Colonel; Nathaniel Butler, Major, and
W. Jordan, Quartermaster.
The odd battalion was composed of three companies, commanded by Captains
William Moore, John Loraine and Solomon Miller, with the staff made up
of Nathaniel Buckmaster, Major; James Semple, Adjutant; David Wright,
Quartermaster; Joseph Gillespie, Paymaster; Charles Higbee, Surgeon, and
John Krupp, Armorer. Richard Roman was Surgeon’s Mate; John H.
Blackwell, Quartermaster Sergeant.
The spy battalion, first mentioned, was composed of four companies,
commanded by Captains Erastus Wheeler, William B. Whiteside, William
Miller and Solomon Preuitt, with the staff officers as follows: Samuel
Whiteside, Major; Samuel F. Kendle, Adjutant; John S. Greathouse,
Quartermaster, and P.H. Winchester, Paymaster;[78] John F. Gillham,
Armorer.[79]
Thus organized, the little army left camp near Rushville for Fort
Armstrong, June 15,[80] 1831, about 1,600 strong, reaching a point on
the Mississippi about eight miles south of Black Hawk’s village, called
Rockport, after a pleasant and prosperous march of four days. E.C.
Berry, Adjutant-General of the State, accompanied the army, which was
met at Rockport by General Gaines, who had brought on a steamboat loaded
with provisions, secured by the General Quartermasters March and
Christy, and here Major John Bliss, First U.S. Infantry, mustered it
into the United States service.
At that point the army encamped for one night, where a plan of operation
was concerted. The following morning the army moved forward with an old
regular soldier for a guide, the steamboat at the same time starting,
with General Gaines, up the river[81] for Vandruff’s Island, where it
was expected the Indians would concentrate, opposite their village, to
pick off the soldiers as they approached. It was planned that the
volunteers should cross the slough to this island, rout the enemy and
ford the main river to the village, where the regular troops were to
meet them from Fort Armstrong. The island was covered with bushes and
vines, so thick as to render them impenetrable to the sight at a
distance of twenty feet. General Gaines ran his steamboat up to the
south point of the island and fired several rounds of grape and canister
into the bushes to test the presence of the enemy. The spy battalion
formed in line of battle and swept the island until it was ascertained
that the ground rose so high and so suddenly that General Gaines’ shot
could have taken no effect one hundred yards from shore. The main body
of volunteers, in three columns, came following, but before they could
reach the northern border of the island the troops became so
indiscriminately mixed, officers and men together, that no man was able
to distinguish his own company or regiment. Gaines had ordered the
artillery of the regulars to be stationed on a high bluff which looked
down on the contemplated battlefield half a mile distant, from which,
had the expected battle ensued, more friends than foes had been killed,
many times over.
[Illustration: BRIG. GEN. JOSEPH DUNCAN.]
[Illustration: GOV. THOMAS FORD.]
[Illustration: GOV. THOMAS CARLIN.]
[Illustration: MAJ. JOHN T. STUART.]
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[Illustration: CAPT. W.F. ELKIN.]
[Illustration: COL. WILLIAM THOMAS.]
[Illustration: COL. J.J. HARDIN.]
[Illustration: COL. JACOB FRY.]
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When the army finally reached the main body of the stream it was found
bold and deep, fordable at no place nearer than half a mile and with no
means of transportation convenient to carry the troops across. There,
within sight of the enemy’s village, they were compelled to waste much
time in idleness until scows could be brought to ferry them over.
After unusual effort the volunteers reached the village, only to find it
abandoned, the Indians having quietly withdrawn to the west side of the
Mississippi that morning. A most abortive and humiliating campaign!
Whilst in camp down the river the previous evening a canoe filled with
friendly Indians, bearing a white flag, called upon General Gaines to
inform him of their neutrality, and ascertain a place of safety to which
they might remove from the dangers of the anticipated battle of the
morrow. Had Gaines desired to pursue a tactful course and punish the
Indians, he might have learned definitely the position of the enemy and
planned a successful campaign, but he gruffly told them to be gone, and
that night they returned to the village, where preparations were
immediately made to abandon it, as they did the following morning.
Governor Ford, who was a private of Whiteside’s battalion in this
expedition, has been especially severe with Gaines in his narration of
the lack of preparation and the frightful confusion which ensued,
together with the peril in which the troops found themselves by Gaines’
disposition of the cannon on the heights above. It always is easy to
plan an enterprise after it has been concluded and all its details
fathomed by experience; much easier than before, with its uncertainties
and possible failure. The Indians left; no blood was shed; no accidents
happened to man or beast, and so long as the wish became a fact, though
somewhat ingloriously done, there should be no cause for such
acrimonious comments as Ford saw fit to record.
The enemy having escaped, the volunteers were determined to leave behind
them a record of their displeasure. The rain descended in torrents, and
though shelter might have been found for many in the frail houses, the
Indian village was put to the torch and soon consumed with flames.
The volunteers then marched for Fort Armstrong the following morning and
encamped several days on the left bank of the Mississippi, where the
city of Rock Island now stands. The island, Rock Island, was then a most
romantic bit of nature. To this landscape Governor Ford in his narrative
did ample justice: “It was then in a complete state of nature–a romantic
wilderness. Fort Armstrong was built upon a rocky cliff on the lower
part of an Island near the center of the river. * * The shores on each
side, formed of gentle slopes of prairie, extending back to bluffs of
considerable height, made it one of the most picturesque scenes in the
western country. The river here is a beautiful sheet of clear,
swift-running water, about three-quarters of a mile wide; its banks on
both sides were uninhabited, except by the Indians, from the lower
rapids to the fort, and the voyagers upstream, after several days’
solitary progress through a wilderness country on its borders, came
suddenly in sight of the white-washed walls and towers of the fort,
perched upon a rock, surrounded by the grandeur and beauty of nature,
which, at a distance, gave it the appearance of one of those enchanted
castles in an uninhabited desert, so well described in the Arabian
Nights Entertainment.”[82] Reynolds, in his “My Own Times,” page 338,
mentions a supposition that Gaines purposely retained the troops in camp
at Rockport over night to allow the Indians to escape, and that he and
Duncan knew of their flight when the brigade moved upon the village. If
he did, then his arrangement of the contemplated battle was justified.
But whether he knew of the departure or not, his measures for pursuit
were prompt, vigorous and effective, and Black Hawk realized the fact.
When demanded to return for a “peace talk,” some of the Indians appeared
at the fort without Black Hawk. Immediately Gaines sent word down to the
camp, twelve miles below, that unless the remaining warriors came in at
once and sued for peace he would chastise them. Very soon these
recalcitrants, five or six hundred in number, appeared upon the river,
picturesquely dotting it with their canoes for the whole distance.
[Illustration: Z.H. VERNOR.]
[Illustration: JAMES SEMPLE.]
[Illustration: JOSEPH GILLESPIE.]
[Illustration: SURGEON RICHARD ROMAN.]
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[Illustration: CAPT. ERASTUS WHEELER.]
[Illustration: CAPT. SOLOMON PREUITT.]
[Illustration: MAJ. JOHN BLISS.]
[Illustration: MAJ. NATHANIEL BUCKMASTER.]
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On the 30th of June, 1831, in full council, Black Hawk and twenty-seven
chiefs and warriors signed a treaty with Governor Reynolds and General
Gaines, which was faithfully interpreted, word by word, by Antoine
LeClaire, and is as follows:
“ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT AND CAPITULATION made and concluded this
thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one,
between E.P. Gaines, Major-General of the United States Army, on the
part of the United States; John Reynolds, Governor of Illinois, on the
part of the State of Illinois; and the chiefs and braves of the band
of Sac Indians, usually called the ‘British Band of Rock River,’ with
their old allies of the Pottawatomie, Winnebago and Kickapoo nations:
“WITNESSETH: That, Whereas, the said British Band of Sac Indians have,
in violation of the several treaties entered into between the United
States and the Sac and Fox nations in the years 1804, 1816 and 1825,
continued to remain upon and to cultivate the lands on Rock River,
ceded to the United States by the said treaties, after the said lands
had been sold by the United States to individual citizens of Illinois,
and other states. And, Whereas, the said British Band of Sac Indians,
in order to sustain their pretensions to continue upon the said Rock
River lands, have assumed the attitude of actual hostility towards the
United States, and have had the audacity to drive citizens of the
State of Illinois from their homes, to destroy their corn, and to
invite many of their old friends of the Pottawatomies, Winnebagoes and
Kickapoos to unite with them (the said British Band of Sacs) in war,
to prevent their removal from said lands: And, Whereas, many of the
most disorderly of these several tribes of Indians did actually join
the said British Band of Sac Indians, prepared for war against the
United States, and more particularly against the State of Illinois,
from which purpose they confess that nothing could have restrained
them but the appearance of force far exceeding the combined strength
of the said British Band of Sac Indians, with such of their aforesaid
allies as had actually joined them; but being now convinced that such
a war would tend speedily to annihilate them, they have voluntarily
abandoned their hostile attitude and sued for peace.
“First–Peace is therefore given to them upon the following conditions,
to which the said British Band of Sac Indians, with their aforesaid
allies, do agree; and for the faithful execution of which the
undersigned chiefs and braves of the said band, and their allies,
mutually bind themselves, their heirs and assigns forever.
“Second–The British Band of Sac Indians are required peaceably to
submit to the authority of the friendly chiefs and braves of the
United Sac and Fox nations, and at all times hereafter to reside and
hunt with them upon their own lands west of the Mississippi River, and
to be obedient to their laws and treaties; and no one or more of the
said band shall ever be permitted to recross this river to the place
of their usual residence, nor to any part of their old hunting grounds
east of the Mississippi, without the express permission of the
President of the United States or the Governor of the State of
Illinois.
“Third–The United States will guarantee to the united Sac and Fox
nations, including the said British Band of Sac Indians, the integrity
of all the lands claimed by them westward of the Mississippi River
pursuant to the treaties of the years 1825 and 1830.
“Fourth–The United States require the united Sac and Fox nation,
including the aforesaid British Band, to abandon all communication,
and cease to hold any intercourse with any British post, garrison, or
town; and never again to admit among them any agent or trader who
shall not have derived his authority to hold commercial or other
intercourse with them by license, from the President of the United
States or his authorized agent.
“Fifth–The United States demand an acknowledgment of their right to
establish military posts and roads within the limits of the said
country guaranteed by the third article of this agreement and
capitulation, for the protection of the frontier inhabitants.
“Sixth–It is further agreed by the United States, that the principal
friendly chiefs and head-men of the Sacs and Foxes bind themselves to
enforce, as far as may be in their power, the strict observance of
each and every article of this agreement and capitulation; and at any
time they may find themselves unable to restrain their allies, the
Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, or Winnebagoes, to give immediate
information thereof to the nearest military post.
“Seventh–And it is finally agreed by the contracting parties, that
henceforth permanent peace and friendship be established between the
United States and the aforesaid band of Indians.
“In Witness Whereof, we have set our hands, the date above mentioned.
“EDMUND P. GAINES,
“Major-General by Brevet, Commanding.
“JOHN REYNOLDS,
“Governor of the State of Illinois.”
CHIEFS.
Pash-e-pa-ho Stabbing Chief his X mark
Washut Sturgeon Head his X mark
Cha-kee-pax-he-pa-ho Little Stabbing Chief his X mark
Chick-a-ka-la-ko Turtle Shell his X mark
Pem-e-see the one that flies his X mark
WARRIORS AND BRAVES.
Ma-ca-la-mich-i-ca-tak the Black Hawk his X mark
Men-a-con the Seed his X mark
Ka-ke-ka-mah all Fish his X mark
Nee-peek Water his X mark
A-sam-e-saw the one that flies too his X mark
fast
Pan-see-na-nee Paunceman his X mark
Wa-wap-o-la-sa White Walker his X mark
Wa-pa-qunt White Hare his X mark
Ke-o-sa-tah Walker his X mark
FOX CHIEFS.
Wa-pa-la the Prince his X mark
Kee-tee-see the Eagle his X mark
Pa-we-sheek one that sifts through his X mark
Na-mee one that has gone his X mark
FOX BRAVES AND WARRIORS.
Al-lo-tah Morgan his X mark
Ka-ka-kew the Crow his X mark
She-she-qua-nas Little Gourd his X mark
Koe-ko-skee his X mark
Ta-ko-na the Prisoner his X mark
Na-kis-ka-wa the one that meets his X mark
Pa-ma-ke-tah the one that stands about his X mark
To-po-kia the Night his X mark
Mo-lan-sat the one that has his hair his X mark
pulled out
Ka-ke-me-ka-peo sitting in the grease his X mark
WITNESSES.
Joseph M. Street, U.S. Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien.
W. Morgan, Colonel 1st Infantry.
J. Bliss, Brevet Major 1st Infantry.
Geo. A. M’Call, aid-de-camp to Maj.-Gen. Gaines.
Sam’l Whiteside.
Felix St. Vrain, Indian Agent.
John S. Greathouse.
M.K. Alexander.
A.S. West.
Antoine LeClaire, Interpreter.
Jos. Danforth.
Dan S. Witter.
Benj. F. Pike.[83]
During the progress of this treaty the women and children remained
encamped on the west bank of the river, reduced by the improvidence of
the men to the extremity of starvation. In many cases they had nothing
to cover their nakedness, presenting a spectacle so appealing to Gaines
and Reynolds that the former took from the general store of provisions
and delivered to Black Hawk and his band a quantity sufficient to tide
them over until another crop should have been gathered. Black Hawk
accepted them and went his way with many protestations of satisfaction.
Black Hawk in his book has stated that at this time he was perfectly
willing to remove to the west bank of the river for a cash consideration
of $10,000 to himself, and thus abandon his village and the graves of
his fathers. Rather a sordid ultimatum for a patriot!
The regular troops reached Jefferson Barracks on their return, July 6th,
and the volunteers, in riding to their various counties, required a
little more time. The latter, who had hoped to end the controversies
with Black Hawk in an open fight, were loud in their protests when they
discovered that instead of bullets the Indians were to receive
provisions, calling the expedition a corn war and other names of
ridicule, but the sober judge of all the circumstances will render his
opinion in favor of the justness of Gaines’ and Reynolds’ actions.
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Footnote 74:
Fulton’s “Red Men of Iowa,” p. 194; Davidson & Stuvé Hist. Ill., p.
377.
Footnote 75:
Reynolds’ “My Own Times,” p. 334.
Footnote 76:
Subsequently Governor of Illinois.
Footnote 77:
On the election of Henry to be colonel, John Dement was made aide to
Reynolds.
Footnote 78:
Wakefield.
Footnote 79:
The name of George F. Kennedy has at times been confused with that of
Samuel F. Kendle.
Footnote 80:
40 Niles, 341, says June 19.
Footnote 81:
Ford, 112.
Footnote 82:
Ford, 115.
Footnote 83:
Ex. Doc. B, 1st Sess. 22d Congress, p. 187.
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