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.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CAPT. W.F. ELKIN.] [Illustration: COL. WILLIAM THOMAS.] [Illustration: COL. J.J. HARDIN.] [Illustration: COL. JACOB FRY.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CAPT. ERASTUS WHEELER.] [Illustration: CAPT. SOLOMON PREUITT.] [Illustration: MAJ. JOHN BLISS.] [Illustration: MAJ. NATHANIEL BUCKMASTER.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. ----- 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. ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------